PSFK Event Review: Crowd Likes Its Big Brother at NY Tech Meet-Up

Privacy is dead.

Well that is at least according to Jeff Jarvis, who made the bold proclamation at this month’s NY Tech Meet-up yesterday. Jarvis, author of “What Would Google Do,” was one of seven individuals/companies that offered their take on the theme “Mobile meets Social” in 5 minute max presentations in front of an audience of 400. For mobile users that have been seeking new ways to socialize and engage with their surroundings through their phones, here’s a summary of the apps to look forward to:

After a lively presentation from Peek —the elegant, email only device, mobile app company Xtify presented its opt-in service that links your mobiles GPS with your blog or website so that you can broadcast (via your SNS) where you are all the time. The next presenter was ViaPlace, who thinks of itself as a registry for physical space, much like a web address is registered in cyberspace.  On their webpage, businesses can register precise geographic locations and when mobile customers are within close proximity to that location, the business can ping webpages, music, coupons, etc.

Coovents presented something similar to ViaPlace but with a far more limited— though arguably nobler — ambition.  Its website and iPhone application allow you to search all happy hours based on location and/or time.  When you stumble upon a good happy hour, Coovents allows you to store your favorites, lest your memory fail you, and shows a clock with segments representing each happy hour time window.  So far, the network is limited to New York City, with Coovents staff doing the laborious research.  A representative said it makes routine “spot checks” to make sure information is up-to-date.

Mobile Commons then presented its elegant, open-source mobile campaign-building applications, using a case study concerning Mr. Burns’s plan to block out the sun.  The audience was able to SMS their objections to Burns’s plan and, if they so chose, make campaign donations.  Mobile Commons’ cofounder Ben Stein reported the technology was recently used in “one presidential candidate’s” campaign (successfully, reports an insider).

Flixwagon creates a Youtube-style website to do live broadcasting via your mobile, as well as allowing simultaneous chats about the broadcast.  Interestingly, their iPhone application creates a “jailbreak solution” for converting your iPhone’s camera into a video recorder, according to its representative.

Geared toward a slightly more mainstream audience, OMGICU is a website and mobile application for celebrity spotting.  Users can report celebrity citings on their mobile, which people can then rate based on how much they like the celeb (Roger Lodge, former host of “Blind Date” ranked very low) and the validity of the sighting.  For example, Michael Phelps, who ranked highest in level of user interest, posted a low level of validity in the report that he was spotted in “Washington Square Park making some sort of transaction.” Hmm.

Finally, Jarvis wrapped it all up with a more conceptual conversation about his new book and the new world order according to Google, where the archaic notion of privacy gives way to an unheralded level of personalization and optimal choices. And if last night’s meet up was any indication, we gotta say he might be onto something..

Next month’s NYC Tech Meetup is scheduled for March 2; find more info here.

- Contributed by David Friedlander