Foursquare inventor Dennis Crowley tweeted this link a little after midnight on Christmas morning. It’s essentially a live feed of Twitter search results for anyone who’s checked into a church and become mayor.
If you’re not hip to the Foursquare groove — umm, shame on you — it’s a location-based web/phone application that allows you to compete for badges and the coveted “mayorship” of locations and establishments. The badges are basically a fun acknowledgment of your visits to places. For example, I just “unlocked” the 9 to 5 badge after consistently checking into work each morning.
If you so choose, you can have your Foursquare achievements broadcast to the world by opting to send check-in info to your Twitter followers. That’s how Crowley (@dens) managed to pass along this info. He searched Twitter for a few key terms (church, mayor, foursquare), and an auto-feed of church mayorship wins was born.
Thought it was interesting. I wonder if church check-ins and the promise of badges will coax more Christians off couches and onto pews for mass.
In somewhat related news, there’s an actual Foursquare Church. It has nothing to do with the geo-based phone app, as far as I can tell.