Most used social media is all about what you did or what you are doing. Facebook wants to know “what’s on your mind”, Twitter asks “what’s happening?”. Both mostly describing events that already occurred.
Then Foursquare launched. Ignoring the past, Foursquare is about the present: where are you now? Inviting your friends to drop by and say hi. Having covered the past and present, it was only waiting for the new wave of social apps covering the future.
What are you up to?
When you see your friends party pics on Facebook the day after, you might think: I would have joined that party. And how many times did you actually went to a bar because one of your Foursquare friends checked-in? Most people didn’t and for the few times it actually happened, a big chance it was awkward (running into a breakup, or accidentally joining a business meeting).
Ditto
Ditto is trying to fix this. Founded by Jyri Engeström, who before Ditto was co-founder of Jaiku (acquired by Google), Ditto is about what you’re up to. Using Facebook to register for Ditto you immediately start of with your current social network. You can see what your friends plans are or share what you are up to. For example see a movie. Add a location and a small text (did you already see the latest Harry Potter?) and share this plan with your friends via Facebook and Twitter to get them to join your future activity and make it happen.
Forecast
Another notable example in the future check-in space is Forecast. As for Ditto, Forecast is now only available on your iPhone and is using the Foursquare API to build the future layer on top of the already existing and successful check-in network. Via Forecast you can let your friends know where you are planning to go and immediately check yourself in on Foursquare once you are there.
How sustainable is this third layer?
Don’t we have more than enough ways to connect with friends to make plans for the weekend? And aren’t websites like Meetup and Plancast – though always linked to events and conferences – already kind off covering the future space? Let alone the Facebook Events feature or, as some of my Foursquare friends tend to do: check-in an hour before with a short message “let’s meet here at 21h”.
Forecast, as already based on the Foursquare API, is a logical feature to add to Foursquare. Ditto is trying to be more useful to friends making plans by also moving in the recommendation space, helping you to find the best pizza place and adding features to make the planning process easy (which movie is showing where?). Features that are already available in dedicated mobile apps, only now being combined into one tool.
Jyri Engeström is definitely right, we have more than enough apps that cover the past and the present. And the ‘future’ market is not yet defined and dominated, so changes are there is place for another player. However, with Foursquare drastically improving the Explore feature, is there room for a dedicated app in this future space? Maybe a nice buy for Groupon – combining future planning with coupons 
Tijdens Mobile Monday nummer 6 werd in het kort