For some reason I don't understand I've been willing to share my location, at least sometimes, on Facebook. I haven't been willing to do so on Foursquare. I'm trying to understand the difference. ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)
Maybe it's like listening to a song on the radio, vs playing it for yourself. Or watching a recorded sporting event vs watching it live, even when you don't know the outcome. It's a shared thing. There are so many more people on Facebook, but more important, I have a feel for who they are. Foursquare is much more of an unknown to me. ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)
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By building up a database of places, we're creating a resource for all of us. But, that's not really what we're doing. We're creating intellectual property for Facebook's shareholders. ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)
And that sucks. I've been snookered into being part of a crowd-sourcing business model. I'd much rather be part of a Wikipedia-like business model for places. ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)
Maybe it's not too late to get into competition with Facebook on this, after all, they just started their places database in the last few weeks. ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)
Where is Twitter's places database? Will they not get into this area because Foursquare is already there, and Union Square/Spark are already invested in Foursquare? I wouldn't wait if I were them. Maybe the two companies should merge. ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)
The lead Facebook is building now will seem very large very soon, it seems to me. ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)
But the rest of us, we're not co-owners in either of these portfolios. ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)
Can we, should we be focusing our efforts on building a database outside these tech companies? (I don't know if we can but I do know that we should at least try.) ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)
I'm sure there are open source projects to do this. The key thing is to have a user interface as easy as Facebook's. Or even better, a commitment from Facebook to share and freely license the places database they are building. That would be a great way to nail this thing down, now. ![permalink](http://scripting.com/images/2001/09/20/sharpPermaLink3.gif)