On this day in 2007, the BBC ran a story about Reboot, which included word of Dopplr, the (now) late, great service that, for many, represented a high water mark of enlightened web services:
Another highlight was Dopplr, a new service “designed in a pub” according to its design director Matt Jones.
Announced as part of a talk on travel and serendipity, Dopplr gives frequent travellers a tool to “share where you are going to be with who you trust”.
It is currently in private beta and open to invitation only, although it appears to be used already by dozens of the Reboot attendees.
Apparently users of the service are fixing up meetings in pubs, bars and cafes that would not have happened otherwise.
Although the site works in a familiar way to any user of social software, using friends and invites, Jones wanted to stress that Dopplr “is a feature of a larger service, called the internet”.
He said: “We’re trying to be a beautiful part of the web.”
If you look carefully at the graphic accompanying the story you’ll find a (purposefully) terrified-looking picture of me.
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I am Peter Rukavina and this is my blog. I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.
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Comments
I miss Dopplr, at least I did
I miss Dopplr, at least I did when travel was still a thing in 2019. An easy way to know who's passing through the area, and allow serendipitous meet-ups whenever I am traveling off my usual paths. It happened just often enough to make the service worthwile to keep up with.
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