Your friends are all at a house party, and they didn’t tell you they were going. A new smartphone application would betray their secrecy.
Sponto, which was recently launched exclusively for this university, uses a phone’s GPS signal to identify where users are clustered and sends notifications of gatherings.
“Since it’s in real time … it gives you options for what you want to do at that moment,” said Jamey Harvey, Sponto’s 41-year-old co-founder. “Any odd social behavior, it just picks up on it.”
Whenever three or more Sponto users are within 30 meters of one another for at least 5 minutes, the application detects the gathering and alerts other users that a “sponto” — or group — has formed. The GPS data is only as precise as the GPS on an individual’s phone, Harvey said, but it is generally accurate within 50 meters.
Harvey chose to launch Sponto at this university — users must use a umd.edu e-mail address to register — because it was a large community with common interests, he said, and social cohesion is key to getting new networks off the ground.
With about 90 members to date, Sponto is still in its early stages, but Harvey said it has been successful despite its small size.
“Right away, it was sort of thrumming with information,” Harvey said.
Harvey said he began thinking about how he could apply GPS data to social networks several years ago after he attended a conference in London to discuss using cell phone data to find people in emergency situations.
“I’m sort of a big kid,” Harvey said. “At the end of the day what excites me is how I can extend human potential.”
Sponto aims to do just that by providing users with “social omniscience,” Harvey said, an idea he described as “turning your phone into a crystal ball.”
As a pioneer in social media in the late 1990s, Harvey created one of the first social networks: Ikimbo, which he compared to an early version of Facebook. He now hopes to integrate Sponto with that former competitor and expand to other universities next year.
Although Sponto is designed to eventually be used on Androids, BlackBerrys and iPhones, Harvey said it is only available for download on the Android while he is working to get the other providers on board.
He also hopes to turn the service into a marketing tool: Businesses would offer group discounts when spontos form in their stores, and Harvey would get a portion of the profits from the crowds his application helped generate.
Justin Searles, a senior economics major, lent a hand to Harvey by helping him market the idea to college students.
“I had just been waiting for something like this to come along,” Searles said.
Few students said they were familiar with the new app, but a few raised concerns that it could be manipulated by a stalker or by police seeking to break up a party. Harvey acknowledged the risks but said requiring the university e-mail address should help mitigate the concerns.
Others had more favorable reactions.
Brisayon Watson, a freshman biochemistry major, said he would definitely use Sponto because it sounded like a great way to have options for what to do at any given time.
“That’s tight,” Watson said. “I would love something like that.”
meehan at umdbk dot com
