`People-nearby’ applications, such as Highlight, Grindr and Badoo, are used by millions of users to meet new people online. Eran is presenting an position paper that looks at these applications as a test-case for new location-based technologies. The position paper is presented in the first SOFTech workshop, which is focused on on building technology that nurtures offline interaction.

The position paper provides a critical review of available applications, and identifies three key properties that are essential for the applications: physical location, identity management, and trust. The paper suggests open research questions that can explain the usage patterns of these applications and guide the design of new technologies that encourage offline interactions.

The paper can be downloaded from here, and here is the presentation: