What's Happening Near You? Citysense Lets BlackBerry Users Find Hot Spots

Citysense, a new downloadable application from Sense Networks for BlackBerry users, aims to answer the traditional Friday night question: What's going on? By downloading Citysense, BlackBerry users are instantly able to track what's going on and dish on the happenings through Google and Yelp. The application is being beta-tested in San Francisco, but there are plans to roll it out to other major metropolitan areas across the country.

Sense Networks' foray into location networking was dreamed up by computer scientists from MIT and Columbia University and relies on already existing infrastructure. At the heart of the product is Macrosense, billed as the world's first platform capable of collecting and analyzing massive amounts of anonymous data in realtime. Taking advantage of a government mandate that requires cell phones to be GPS-enabled for 911 calls, and using the information provided by GPS, Wi-Fi and cell towers emissions, Macrosense provides the information Citysense needs to track the movement of groups of people, called tribes, to determine where something is "happening."

The Citysense mobile application provides users a realtime map populated with hot spots being emitted by cell phones and other devices. Users can see the high-density spots and join"- or avoid-"the party. If you're curious to see what's happening before making the trip, BlackBerry users can use one-handed control to navigate to Yelp or Google and get the specifics.

A future version of Citysense will be capable of learning the habits of users--the events they attend, the places they go--and offer suggestions based on similar users. By being associated with a particular tribe, Citysense will analyze data and customize the application to determine where people with similar interests are, giving each user a hot spot map that looks a little different. Once the application is rolled out in cities other than San Francisco, the Citysense application will be able to travel with users. Open the application while on a business trip and Citysense will analyze the data, match you with a similar tribe and make suggestions based on current activity.

People considering the mobile application may balk at transmitting location information and entertainment preferences to a database that analyzes that information and shares it with complete strangers. But Citysense states on its Web site that the application and Sense Networks take privacy seriously. Sense Networks lists one of its co-founders as Chief Privacy Advocate Officer.

Citysense references a user's current location anonymously and never shares information. A password isn't required, and e-mail addresses and phone numbers aren't required to gain access. Any data generated is property of the user who created it. Any information uploaded into the Citysense database is owned by the person who generated it. A prominent delete button allows you to cleanse any information you've uploaded at anytime.

Citysense is currently supported on BlackBerry Perl 8100, 8120, 8130; Gamma Ray 8800, 8820, 8830; and, Curve 8300, 8310, 8320 and 8330. An iPhone version is not currently available but is in the works.