That's What Friends R 4

“Why don't you come out tonight, baby? We haven't seen you for two days. We're gonna play hockey at Sue's house 'til 10:30, then we're either going to the Lava Lounge for Sinatra Night or the Derby or the Royal Crown. We might also check out Swing Night at the Viper. If we're not there, we'll be at the Three of Clubs. So come meet up with us.”
— Trent Walker (Vince Vaughn), from the movie “Swingers”

Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert are eliminating the elements of chance from an evening of barhopping. They're the co-founders of Dodgeball.com, a New York-based nightlife guide designed to coordinate the social lives of mobile users. A kind of Friendster for wireless devices, the service one-ups its desktop predecessor by connecting friends — as well as friends of friends — when they're all at their most social: out in the real world, not at home wearing sweatpants and sitting in front of their computers.

“Tell us where you are, and we'll tell you who and what's around you,” said Crowley, who recently earned his master's degree from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program. “Instead of waiting for GPS phones and instead of waiting for carriers to get their shit together, we just ask people to tell us where they are and broadcast their location. It's like an Evite on the go.”

Launched in New York in early April, Dodgeball soon spread to Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia, accruing about 5000 users at last count. Members subscribe to the free service through the Dodgeball Web site, building a list of contacts by signing on with current user networks as well as inviting new members to join. When subscribers notify Dodgeball of their whereabouts, the service sends an automated SMS with the user's name, location and headshot to all of their Dodgeball contacts as well as any friends of friends within a 10-block radius.

“This is the way my friends and I coordinate our evenings,” Crowley said. “Just go out and I'll send you a Dodgeball page. I may not know where I'm going to be, but wherever I am, I'll send a message to anyone who's around.”

While attending NYU, Crowley and Reinert studied under Clay Shirky, the noted Internet consultant and writer who also serves as an adjunct professor in the Interactive Telecommunications Program. Shirky recently told the New York Times that social networking technologies like Dodgeball that focus more on users' location than their affinities are poised to wield the same cultural cachet enjoyed by Friendster a year ago, adding that his former students will soon figure out Dodgeball uses and applications they never previously envisioned.

The first obvious step in that evolution is national expansion. Crowley said he anticipates launching Dodgeball in 10 more U.S. cities during the summer months, with international growth next.

“[Social networking] is more of a killer app than anything that's out there,” Crowley said. “Is it really that valuable that I know when a friend of a friend is a block away? Probably not. But it becomes interesting when you start applying filters to that. I don't care that a random friend is two blocks away, but I do care if the random friend is a cute girl between the ages of 25 and 30. You want to make it relevant to the user at all times.”