joegratz.net

Some graduate students at Berkeley are doing this very cool location-based social software project. When a user connects to the wireless network at a participating cafe, they are presented with a captive portal page which allows them to connect with others who are physically in the cafe with them.

While this seems like a pale imitation of spontaneous cafe conversations, it’s meant to enhance face-to-face interactions and fight the “zombie effect” — when there are a bunch of social people in an inherently social physical space, but nobody interacts because they’re all intent on their cell phones or laptops.