Foursquare is awesome. I love it. I use it virtually daily. For those unfamiliar, the platform describes itself thusly:

People use foursquare to “check-in”, which is a way of telling us your whereabouts. When you check-in someplace, we’ll tell your friends where they can find you and recommend places to go & things to do nearby.

I enjoy thinking about the connections between real-world items and their digital service/platform/network manifestations. What exactly am I referring to? A basic example might be a rolodex and the Contacts app on an iPhone. These real-world objects served as precursors to the programs that contrive our digital existence.

So anyway, I recently ran across analog Foursquare.  I was staying at a bed and breakfast in Virginia (yes, bed and breakfasts are cool and if I have anything to say about it they’ll be making a comeback among young people, but that’s for another post…).

Upon arrival to our private cottage, we found this kitschy guest book. It was littered with comments from previous visitors. Some relayed their thanks to the proprietors. Others left activity recommendations for the surrounding area.

In the foursquare world, you might say multiple people had ‘checked-in’ to this place, via the guest book. These people had left laundry list of tips and to-do’s.

That’s basically it. No earth shattering insights. Just something I found interesting.

Anyone else run into any real-world items that serve as the basis for favorite digital services?

On another note…
Analog4square is a name I thought up for my friend Ronan. Ronan lives in Bushwick, likes irony and was looking for a unique, cheeky way to participate with Foursquare (in a very indirect capacity) via his feature phone.

Apparently, Ronan frequents some less than classy establishments.

Note: This is simply Ronan employing a Foursquare-esque tweeting strategy.