Location-Based Social Networking System

Mates is a location-based social networking systemdeveloped at the University of Michigan and aimed at introducing and connecting people based on both their physical location and other properties they might have in common (classmates, neighboors, …). Positioning is done via GPS, WiFi and self positioning. I would love to see how their WiFi positioning works or how they mix these technologies. The IM application (based on GAIM) seems to rely on pre-defined locations (and not on position + map).

The most intersting aspect of this project is that they provided an open WSDL, so any type of clients could rely on the Mates relationship engine.