Every Pride network comes with game mechanics – a fancy way of saying “points and badges” – already set up in the app. Each time you post an update in the app you’ll earn points. Collect the most points and you’ll appear at the top of the leaderboard.
Badges are virtual rewards that are unlocked by completing certain actions in the app. Using the admin dashboard, you can easily set up custom badges to reward your team members for being active in the app.
For example: you might set up a Marketing Maven badge which is unlocked after you update the “Marketing” project 15 times.
Badges give you an opportunity to create a fun, personalized experience that will appeal to your team and drive engagement in the app.
DoubleDutch (as you all know) focuses on enterprise apps. Every week, we have a few local businesses or non-profits that inquire after our products and location-based technology. When we heard about Pastmapper, we were intrigued and it was evident from the very beginning that they are on to something cool.
Pastmapper, launched in December of 2011, is a platform for organizing data and maps to discover the past. They have compiled historical data about San Francisco from 1853 and 1914, and made it interactive in a mobile app. Pastmapper was created by Brad Thompson, who is actively seeking collaborators interested in developing standards for organizing and displaying historical information.
Today, we are happy to announce the release of DoubleDutch’s first probono app, Pastmapper, available now for iPhone and iPad.
Built using the DoubleDutch platform, this mobile app combines social check-in features with geotagged listings for over 2,000 businesses, covering every bar and restaurant in San Francisco from the year 1966 (with more cities and years coming soon).
Use the app to:
Look back in time to view nearby locations from the past
Post and view photos
Update your status by checking-in to historical locations
See other user’s updates in the activity feed
Customize your profile and interact with other users
Learn more about the history of your neighborhood
Interview with founder and creator of Pastmapper, Brad Thompson: DD: Hi there! Why don’t you introduce yourself to DoubleDutch blog readers.
BT: Hi! I’m Brad Thompson, founder of Pastmapper. I’m fascinated by history and how neighborhoods change over time. Since moving to San Francisco in 2005, I’ve been particularly interested in the past and present versions of San Francisco, a place that has changed dramatically several times since its founding. In December 2011, I launched Pastmapper.com, a platform for showing historical information using the visual language of online maps, starting with a zoomable online map of 1853 San Francisco. Think of Google Maps, but for a year in the past, complete with roads, business listings, railroads, etc.
DD: What’s Pastmapper all about?
BT: The idea behind Pastmapper is that we’d all be able to understand the past better if we could just interact with it the way we do with the present day. I learn about the present-day world by using the apps on my phone, and by reading comments from friends in my network, blog posts, etc. By taking massive amounts of information from the past and presenting it in a similar way, this new Pastmapper app allows you that same process of discovery, but back in time. It also allows conversations to start, and for people to share memories, ask questions, and learn from other people. It’s a great way to develop a sense of historical citizenship for your neighborhood or city, whether you’re a new arrival or have lived here all your life.
DD: Why a mobile app?
BT: By leveraging the location-based mobile platform DoubleDutch has developed, this app helps uncover the many stories lurking in a city like San Francisco. The past is really like a foreign country — it’s hard to feel a connection to a past version of a city when it was so different. For instance, your local dive bar might have been full of people in suits and cocktail dresses 40 years ago. I think that sort of thing is fascinating. So often, I find myself wishing I could just pull out my phone and find out the history of a place, instead of having to dig through internet archives or old city directories to uncover the story. It made sense to start with restaurants and bars; these are the public places where our social lives take place, and those are the most interesting to me personally. So initially, the Pastmapper app contains listings for every bar and restaurant in San Francisco from the year 1966. That’s over 2000 entries, and is growing every week as more years are added. The app was made possible by DoubleDutch’s pro-bono program for local non-profits.
DD: Why did you ask DoubleDutch specifically to help in this project?
BT: The app is a way to uncover content based on location and context, and publish content (by checking-in and posting updates around these places). So, it acts as both a learning tool and a social game. The DoubleDutch framework (although developed for enterprises) has a lot of cool features built-in that are perfect for playing with historical data. This app will allow people to explore neighborhoods of the past in the same way they do with the present using apps like Foursquare or Path.
DD: What do you like most about the app?
BT: When I discover an interesting historical fact, I like to share it. You can do that directly from the app, by linking your Twitter or Facebook account. So now when I discover for instance that my favorite tapas place used to be the Circus Tent Snack Bar, I can share it immediately. It’s a fun way to get my friends involved in the conversation.
DD: Last question… how can people find the app?
BT: Head to the iTunes store and download it for free on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.
Around the office, we’ve been addicted to the app — what was here, at 2601 Mission Street, before DoubleDutch was? Download the app and check it out. Seriously cool stuff.
Click this link from your iPhone or iPad for easy download: ddut.ch/pastmapper
You’ve added your Projects and Customers, and your Pride network is ready to go – now all you need is collaborators! There are a couple of easy ways to get your team members on board the app.
Remember: only people who share your business email domain can join your Pride network. Make sure you send your invites out to your team members’ business email addresses.
1. Send invites from the app. Launch the app and go to your Profile, then click on “Connections”. You’ll see a “+” sign in the top right. Tap this you’ll see a number of different ways to send invites to your team members.
2. Send invites from the admin dashboard. Log in at http://dashboard.doubledutch.me and look for the blue invite button in the page header. Type email addresses directly into the invite field to easily send individual invites.
3. Send an email with a link to download the app. You can also simply send an email to your team members including this link: http://ddut.ch/pride. Anyone who downloads the app and signs up using your business email domain will be automatically added to your pride network.
As your team members get on board, be sure to add the people you work with closely as “connections”. After you connect with someone in the app, you will receive a push notification each time they update Pride.
One of the best things about our mobile collaboration app, Pride, is how easy it is to set up. After your network has been activated, you can download the app and start posting team status updates right away.
However, if you are the admin for your company’s Pride network, we do recommend taking a few minutes to add some Projects and Customers before inviting your team to join. Seeding the app with familiar content will help your teammates to understand how and why to use it. When rolling out new tools or services at work, removing any barriers to adoption is always a good idea!
There are two super simple ways you can add to your Projects and Customers lists:
Option 1: Open the mobile app on your phone, tap on the Customers icon from the home screen. Scroll to the bottom of the list of customers to add a new one. Adding a project works exactly the same way.
Option 2: Log in to the admin dashboard (http://dashboard.doubledutch.me). Click “Manage” in the navigation bar, and select “Customers” or “Projects” from the dropdown menu. On the next plage, click “Add New” and fill out the Name and Description fields. Projects and Customers that are added (or deleted) in the dashboard will sync automatically in the app.
We recommend adding 10 customers and projects before you send out your team invites.
Got questions about Pride? We’ve got answers. Get in touch: pride@doubledutch.me
Imagine if your attendees could see the location of help staff on a map. Imagine if your attendees could walk down an aisle in your expo hall and get more information about each vendor they pass delivered to their phone. And imagine the heatmaps you could generate to calculate vendor ROI based on foot traffic in the expo hall.
Fairly precise location positioning is pretty easy to do if your attendees are strolling around outside. Unfortunately, most events happen within huge vault-like facilities with thick concrete walls (convention centers, etc). Cell coverage is more spotty and location is more ambiguous.
Because of these obstacles, indoor positioning is a tricky problem that no event app vendor has attempted to solve. Until now.
DoubleDutch has partnered with WiFiSLAM to deploy indoor positioning technology at events with up to 15K people. Currently, indoor positioning operates only on Android devices, but iPhone is in the works.
If you can find a way to accurately position your attendees while they are indoors (with their permission, of course), you will open up a whole new world of functionality. The technology is integrated with the DoubleDutch Flock event app and will work as long as attendees have the app downloaded on their mobile device.
Here’s a heatmap from the expo floor of real events (kept in small size for privacy protection). The areas attendees linger around and overall foot traffic patterns can be really interesting. Check it out:
This technology unlocks never-before-seen data for event organizers… and it’s just the beginning.
Have you seen indoor positioning put into use at events? Share your experience in the comments section below.
Questions? Contact us to learn more about indoor positioning technology and it’s application at events.
