Game Mechanics and LBS: Crossing the LBS Chasm

Location based services have unique scaling challenges – on the web it is relatively easy to find a million people interested in anything. Now try finding several thousand users in a specific location with a specific phone with a specific app – quite a different challenge. Getting initial critical mass is THE LBS challenge and companies such as Foursquare, GoWalla or Waze have been using innovative location based games and game mechanics to help drive usage in the early adopter community to get over the initial service hump. In this talk we will discuss the lessons learned in using game mechanics as a start point and explore the shift from a “fun” app to a “functional” everyday utility – the crossing of the LBS chasm.