Digital Trail

I have come across a new App for my iPhone that I am a little excited about (Please do indulge my geeky moments). It has an element of gamification and it relies on the wisdom of the crowd, or at least the subjective ability to judge current weather conditions.

Weddar is a current state of play application that allows you to report to your network weather conditions, as it happens, where it happens. You can pinpoint your weather report using the geo-location and get a truly localised report to inform your crucial ‘Raincoat, Umbrella or Sun Cream’ decision making. You are also invited to provide a snapshot report on request from other users.

As location and gaming is gaining in popularity thanks largely to the empowerment of technology, the make or break of this App will be encouraging a repeat visit, to make it habitual. This needs to be guaranteed by ensuring there is an active and sizeable pool of users. Another tipping point for this app will be where judgement falls on connecting the service to your Twitter and Facebook updates. My feeling is that, at a local level, this kind of update offers more value than a tweeted Foursquare Check-In.

I often find that an exciting new App makes it on to the homepage of my iPhone and the test of time is whether it remains there or slides down the pecking order of pages or faces the ultimate humiliation of deletion and a 1 star rating.

If professionals can’t predict the weather with their fancy and expensive instruments then you may as well get snapshot reports that are updated in 10 minute intervals from those that are experiencing whatever nature has to offer.

According to their website:

“Instead of the usual machine-based weather reports telling you “New York, 96 Degrees, NE Wind, 80% humidity”, in Weddar you have real people letting you know that “It feels great.” While resting from a jogging session inside Central Park, or “It feels good but windy” near the river.”

Give it a go and let me know what you think of it. 

www.weddar.com