Edumacate Yo'Self: @BlockChalk

#TalkNerdyTomeLover's Jason Katzer

As soon as I heard about BlockChalk, I fell in love instantly.  But not for any of the reasons one might guess.  BlockChalk is essentially the twitter version of craigslist, but it uses neither service.  Its the high tech version of leaving chalk written notes behind in a neighborhood for future visitors.  OK James Cameron, eat your heart out.  So how do you see these high tech virtual chalk notes? 3D Glasses? Hallucinogenic Drugs? No, there's an app for that! (and a website for Android).

So wait, this just lets people leave behind a string of text for future visitors to find on their phone?
Doesn't Foursquare do that already?

That has nothing to do with why I love this app.  If you asked me how this was similar to Foursquare, the answer is simple.  They are both awesome examples of what two guys with an idea, an SDK, a weekend, and a couple 6 packs and pizza can get done.  There is so much potential on the web between countless APIs, SDKs, XML and JSON feeds, what is a hobbyist developer to do?  Get coding.

The other reason why this kind of app is awesome, is its just enough of a bump in the space time continuum to be considered a paradigm shift.  Most people consider Augmented Reality as something like Layar, or Yelp's hidden Monocle feature.  But there are two accepted definitions of Augmented Reality.  One implied the use of 3D, but the other considers it as a space located between a purely virtual environment (a game, or experience), and reality (you are sitting or standing someone reading this).  Despite just being geotagged text in a nifty package, this changes the reality of the world around you and uncovers a new layer of data that you would not get from simply using your physiological senses.  Your reality has been augmented. Get used to it.  It will make accepting SkyNet just that much easier.

<Get To Know Jason>
Jason Katzer is a freelance web developer and business consultant.  He loves new ideas and businesses that surface up to the internet, but has a funny way of showing it.  He hates the traditional coverage these ideas and businesses get where they either get labeled as game-changing, or a copy of something someone did ten years ago but didn't work.  Please slap him if he ever talks this way about a startup.  (He also has three of those).

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