Maadhyam Foursquare Swarm Challenge.

Now, now! What’s the fuss?

Be teeming, be abuzz.

Aim: To unlock the Swarm Badge on Foursquare, the location-based social networking website.

Materials required: 4 laptops, Fancy handheld devices with internet accessibility, Mr. Shri, Sahil Khan, Mr. Mohan Sinha, Mrs. Shobha Dhanwatay and 50+ eager SIMC (UG)-ians,

Theory: Checking into a location that 50+ people have already checked into in the last three hours gets you a Swarm Badge.

Procedure:

• Accept the challenge thrown by Foursquare, Pune to unlock the Swarm Badge.
• Create an event on Facebook inviting the students of SIMC (UG) to be part of the challenge.
• Educate those unaware of Foursquare. Wonderful opportunity to invite Mr. Shri and Mr. Sahil Khan to come and interact with the students.
• Create the location ‘Maadhyam Fest’ on Foursquare prior to the event.
• Ensure no one misses the event. Schedule it after classes and exams conclude for the day, i.e., around 5 pm on 14-01-11.
• Provide laptops for on-the-spot sign-ons to Foursquare on the day of the event. There’ll always be late bloomers.
• Check-in to the location ‘Maadhyam Fest’ on Foursquare.
• Repeat the previous step more than fifty times.
• Unlock the Swarm Badge.

Observations:

• Since the event was a precursor to Maadhyam ’11, we had more attendees than we expected.
• Mr. Shri gives great presentations; the students got the hang of Foursquare real quick.
• The Swarm Badge was unlocked, but not without the heart-in-the-mouth moments. It took approximately two hours after the 50+ check-ins for the badge to appear on everybody’s badge list.
• A regular Foursquare user will tell you that it’s very rare for a person to unlock a Swarm Badge right after unlocking the Newbie Badge. Congratulations to all those lucky bums who did just that.
• Now the Super Swarm Badge is in our sight (250+ check-ins within 3 hours). We will unlock it during Maadhyam ’11. If we succeed, we will be the first group in India to have done so.
• Come and see to believe.

Inferences:

• A lot can happen over a tweetup.
• We were only the second group in India to achieve this feat.
• #epicwin 🙂

– Abhinandar Sridhar