Digital graffiti

Adam Green describes "Graffiti for Gen W:"

Wiffiti (shown in this picture) is a cell phone graffiti board that can be placed in bars, airports, or any public place. You can also view Wiffiti boards over the web. Messages are posted by text messaging to a specific number for each board, and appear in random overlapping patterns reminiscent of a tag cloud. The method of posting and the visual presentation is the essence of cool, and captures the lifestyle of Gen W better than any product I've seen so far.

Wiffiti boards also have a live Web feed: here's one from the Someday Cafe, in Davis Square, Somerville. (A marriage proposal made and accepted on another board.) This is cool, but there's more to it than that, according to the Wiffiti blog:

The screenshots are updated every minute right now - we might change the timing as we expand the network.

This feature is key to Wiffiti. It enables people on line to see what people are messaging at locations. Add to that the vision of thousands of screens to get a snapshot of what is being communicated on the street at any time. Then imagine a timelapse version where you can surf Google maps, click on a Wiffiti screen, see what people are saying now, an hour ago, a day ago a week ago…

Our technology is essentiually a closed loop between the web, the location and the user's phone.

Wiffiti is not like those screens you see at rock concerts that are used for one night to post text messages or names and are just used to be cool. By having a closed loop between the web, the location and the user, we have the opportunity to create a unique on-line/off-line experience that we believe will dramatically impact the way people communicate in locations.

We'd imagined such things in scenarios at the Institute; another example of the future jumping the shark on us.

Technorati Tags: cyberspace, end of cyberspace, physical, signage, social software