Graffiti for Gen W

LocaModa's demonstration at Monday's Web Innovator's Group may have been one of the best sofware demonstration's I've ever seen. It followed the pattern I prefer, from product to application to technology, perfectly. More importantly, when I saw the Wiffiti application I knew I was looking at the future. 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. Jessica, my Gen W daughter who is still following her GPS across the country, told me a few years ago that she and her friends liked to play hide and seek at night near the high school with their cell phones. I had no idea what that meant, but I knew that she lived in a very different world from me.

Sure, us old farts will look at this and say "But won't people just post obscenities, especially late at night in bars?" Maybe they will. I don't know. They can do it now with spray paint also. It's funny that I hardly ever see obscene graffiti. It's almost entirely a territorial marker, and occassionally a means of political expression. Anyway, graffiti is a late Boomer or even Gen X phenomenon. Wiffiti is a different technology, and it will be used by a different generation for different purposes. For example, you can call into a Wiffiti board if you're running late and tell your peeps (posse? whatever) that you'll be there soon. The LocaModa people are proud to claim that the first marriage proposal was made and accepted on a Wifitti board on March 17th. I'm too cynical to completely buy the idea that this wasn't set up, but I'm also sure it will happen many times. Certainly flirting will be a big use of this technology.

One of the keys to Wiffiti is that while it is a local form of interaction, you can see the boards from the Web, and can send messages from anywhere in the world. The possibilities for linked Wiffiti boards in multiple locations, and even global patterns of linkages are pretty mind boggling. I guess some people will draw a connection between this idea and the pattern of displaying back channel IRC on a projection screen at conferences. The two have similar features, but the randomness and sense of sharing a virtual and physical space with total strangers gives this a different feel. I have no idea how this plays out, but it wil surely be a part of my kids' lives.