Akademik

(moh.SOH.soh)

n.

Mobile social software; a program that enables you to use your mobile phone to find and interact with people near you.

One of the newer shorthand labels making the rounds is MoSoSo, which stands for "mobile social software." The idea behind the label is that technology users are becoming more mobile, whether they are using laptops or PDAs with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth built in, or smart-phones that have those and other features. Since many of these users are likely to be young, single and social, mobile social software is a way of helping them find their friends, or make new friends. Some call these new services SoLoMo, for "social, location-based, mobile software."

Whatever you want to call it, both search giant Google and cellphone behemoth Nokia appear to be pretty interested in it. Google spent an undisclosed amount of money in mid-May to buy a startup MoSoSo company called Dodgeball, while Nokia recently launched a MoSoSo cellphone application called Sensor.

The idea behind Dodgeball is that you sign up and give the company a list of friends and up to five "crushes," or people you're interested in getting to know. When you get to a particular place - a bar or club, for example - you send Dodgeball a message and it tells your friends and/or crushes (within a 10-block radius) where you are. It can even expand your social circle by telling friends of your friends.

— Matthew Ingram, "A friend finder for the young, single and socially mobile," The Globe and Mail, May 26, 2005

MoSoSos are the mobile equivalents of online social networks like Friendster and LinkedIn. They help users find old friends, or potential new ones, on the go.

Typically, users set up a profile listing interests, hobbies and romantic availability. They also state what kind of people they'd like to meet. Because the service is tied to a mobile device, it knows when people with similar interests are near each other.

— Daniel Terdiman, "MoSoSos Not So So-So," Wired News, March 8, 2005

MoSoSo*

Will need a critical mass to work (what doesn't?) and who knows what that's at, but I hope it catches on. Looks like a royal laugh.

Dodgeball: http://www.dodgeball.com/social/index.php (NYC only atm).

* Mobile Social Software, dahlings. Do keep up.

— Alice Taylor, " MoSoSo*: http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2004/04/dodgeball.html," Wonderland, April 13, 2004