Cities, technologies and socialities
Interview with Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert of Dodgeball
“We never thought of dodgeball as something that would replace the process of making plans. Instead it’s more of a passive experience. I go out. I tell dodgeball where I am. Every now and then I get a message about where my friends are. More often than not, people get my messages and randomly show up.
People who’ve never tried dodgeball often say, ‘I don’t care where my friends are at all the time’ or ‘I’m not going to go across town to go meet up with someone’. The idea isn’t that you jump in a cab every time you get pinged with dodgeball message, bur rather it augments your social experience. During the weekdays, it’s more like glancing at a buddy list - who’s doing what on a random Tuesday night. On the weekends, it’s more like a radar letting you know who and what is happening around you.
What dodgeball is really good at is altering the paths your normally follow through the city. We hear this all the time from our users - the first time you get pinged with a dodgeball message telling you that a friend is at the bar across the street or a restaurant you passed 20 steps ago is something that changes the way you experience the city.”