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"In  late 2009, frustrated by a lack of Foursquare coverage in North  Carolina, iPhone developer Lawrence Ingraham set out to build his own  geosocial service for residents of the technologically savvy Research  Triangle Park community. \u00A0He then connected with social media consultant  Wayne Sutton, and they were off and running.\r\n\r\nThe  resulting app is called TriOut, and it just may be a model for local  media companies everywhere who choose not to roll over and cede the  social check-in to Foursquare.\r\n\r\nThis  post will take a look at the things that TriOut has done to carve out  space in the crowded geo landscape, and how these lessons might be  applied to local geographies everywhere.\r\n\r\nOn  this blog, we covered the launch of The Scoop, The New York Times check-in enabled city guide for New York City. \u00A0\u00A0The Scoop combines  venue reviews from The New York Times\u2019 world class writers with  geosocial functionality. \u00A0While we haven\u2019t seen usage numbers, the app  has been rated nearly 800 times. \u00A0Not bad for a local app.\r\n\r\nTriOut  takes a little different approach in their efforts to serve the local  North Carolina community. \u00A0Triout\u2019s main emphasis is on superior privacy  settings and close ties with local merchants and events to provide  rewards and incentives for checking in.\r\n\r\nWith  TriOut, your identity is never shared publicly unless you explicitly  change your settings - even merchants looking at the TriOut for Business  analytics won\u2019t see your identity.\r\n\r\nAnd on the rewards side, TriOut\u2019s location and branding as a local company give it an advantage in signing up local merchants.\r\n\r\nAll  of the venue data - 6500 locations to be precise - have been added by  the TriOut community. \u00A0The app also incorporates game mechanics in the  form of points based leaderboards where weekly winners get rewarded with  deals and free stuff from local merchants.\u00A0 This truly is a service built by and for locals.\r\n\r\nAlso  impressive for a small team is TriOut\u2019s device coverage. \u00A0TriOut is  available on iPhone, on Android via an HTML5 app, and on Blackberry via a  stripped down WAP version.\r\n\r\nThe  company also offers TriOut for Business - a self serve analytics and  advertising panel that allows local merchants to check out analytics,  post local offers, and communicate with Triout end users. \u00A0Specifically,  any business can check analytics, create a welcome \u201Cfirst check-in  message\u201D for end users that check into their location, and create local  deals for free. \u00A0Merchants that pay can communicate twice per month with  end users checking into their location.\r\n\r\nTriOut  plans to expand their service to work anywhere in the coming months,  and is also experimenting with white labeling their platform.\r\n\r\nHere are some stats since their February, 2010 launch:\r\n\r\n31,000 Check-ins\r\n6,500 venues added\r\n6,000 photos posted\r\n3,500 reviews written\r\n\r\nThese are impressive accomplishments for a small team in a relatively small (though savvy) market.\r\n\r\nBut I think the bigger question here is this:\r\n\r\nIs  there room (and time) for local media companies to carve out their own  local optimized geosocial networks before Foursquare becomes mainstream?  \u00A0Can locals design a better geosocial service for locals, than folks  from New York (Foursquare), Austin (Gowalla), Silicon Valley (Brightkite and Loopt), or Boston (Where.com) can?\r\n\r\nOr will network forces create a winner take all scenario?\r\n\r\nClearly  there is a business incentive for local media companies to take a shot.  \u00A0Those that control the check-in will have permanent real estate on the  consumer\u2019s smartphone, and access to real world analytics about their  behavior. \u00A0There is value there (see Foursquare\u2019s 95M pre money  valuation on, at the time, less than 2M users).\r\n\r\nBut there are also risks.\r\n\r\nA  glimpse at the history of social networks hints that it may be winner  take all. \u00A0Facebook has relentlessly expanded at the expense of local  networks not just to all college campuses, but to all US cities, and  most countries (with the notable exceptions of Hyves in the Netherlands  and Mixi in Japan).\r\n\r\nCraigslist and Yelp have also spread steadily from city to city, breaking out of their San Francisco roots.\r\n\r\nBut  before we get ahead of ourselves, there are a couple of compelling  arguments why local, geosocial services might be different - that there  may be room for the Triout\u2019s of the world.\r\n\r\nLocal  focused game design, access to local offers and merchants, access to  updated local venue data, and even a locals targeted app name (like  \u201CTriOut\u201D) are four reasons that a local player might stand a shot at  holding off Foursquare.\r\n\r\nCompanies like the New York Times and TriOut are putting stakes in the ground on their home turf. \u00A0Who else will follow?\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/location/2010/08/11/is-triout-a-geo-model-for-all-local-media-companies/>