Foursquare for Homework?

I just attended a talk by the co-founder/CEO of Foursquare - Dennis Crowley - who happens to look like Justin Bieber's older brother and is probably just as wealthy. For those not familiar, Foursquare is a location based social network that allows users to "check in" at various venues - bars, restaurants, the gym - and keep track of their friends' whereabouts. Users who check-in often can earn free drinks and other prizes and the person who checks in most frequently at any particular venue earns the title of Mayor.

The genesis of the idea, says Crowley, was to encourage people to get out of their social ruts and to explore their environments. It started as a leaderboard for him and his college friends to see who was having the most fun on a Saturday night. What Foursquare cleverly does, is to turn life into one big game board. People earn points and unlock badges by collecting experiences and, in the process, turn their friends on to new places and things to do.

For non-users, it can seem a little Big Brotherish but it's oddly addictive. And it encourages people to get off the internet and into the real world. Via Foursquare, I've learned where like-minded friends go to dinner in my neighborhood; have discovered new things out of my area, and have even been able to keep track of where my colleagues if I'm desperate to find them (ok that is a little Big Brotherish).

But, put to good use it can be helpful for users (like earning points for going to the gym often) and marketers who can track the demographics of users who check in with them most often, thanks to Foursquare's analytics.

Personally, I'd love to invent a Foursquare for homework. Imagine a world where a classroom of kids check in by subject when they finish their homework, and earn points for doing it. It might even encourage my digital native to become Mayor of Math.