I like the concept. I think you have hit upon the fact that this might be more relevant in the future. I cant really think of a single person in my network who would be able to work this out or coordinate themselves and others in this way. Is there an intermediate step perhaps that could be developed that introduces people to the basic concept and has room for future development?

Conceptually, i think it needs to revolve around a key person in the network. For example, if i set up an account, I can add my friends and colleagues without them really needing to do anything. When i organize an event, they are notified, or when one of my friends organizes an event, I can do the notifications for them. If people see this in practice, they might catch-on. Initially however, I would not be able to get my friends/colleagues to sign-up.

Good idea, but I think it's a little ahead of its time, I'm not sure if everything has come together enough to support this.

Me likey!

@PsychSplash - good call. you're right that with a service like this, you face the same adoption issues as fax machines- the first one is useless. The second one becomes more interesting and the network gets exponentially more valuable as more nodes come onboard.

I think you're probably right that this one is ahead of its time. Once location-based services have gone mainstream on cellphones, that will be the prime time for this type of app to gain popularity. If there's any friction at all involved in planning where you'll be, i don't see it being used. If it's something where i can set my phone to "broadcast" mode and expose my location to select friends, that's more realistic of gaining adoption.

Wayfaring.com comes close to the "roadtrip planning" aspect. They're missing the time element from their offering but if they added that feature, they'd have it.

I'm mostly interested in how this creates more chance encounters with friends when you're out on the town. There would be a ton of advertising opportunities around an app like that. Advertising when people are browsing online is one thing but when they're out and in the process of looking for restaurants/bars, the ads would seem to have more impact. B

Lastly, by building the platform you're not actually creating the consumer-facing application itself but rather the underling technology powering it. This platform would enable others to build these types of apps ontop of it. I see scheduling as being a core challenge that everyone grapples with. The person that comes up with the elegant solution that integrates online/offline aspects and simplifies your life is going to do very well.

sean