A look into Plancast or what’s about to be called “Social Scheduling”

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 26th, 2011

Nobody wants to watch Kenny Loggins with me

There’s a new web app I’m loving and it’s called Plancast. People who don a social media marketer hat call this thing “social scheduling” where users can share events they’re attending based on location and category. So I decided to try it out and I must say that it has its uses: (1) you don’t need to be a member per se to see events as you can get invites via Facebook and Twitter. (2) Unlike Facebook that’s very much promotes friend-centric events, Plancast pushes events around your area. Yes the app asks for your geo-location.

The screen grab above is me inviting two friends whom I think would highly appreciate watching Kenny Loggins Live in Manila on the 22nd of May. I can invite them, send them an automated Twitter DM and I can even add Plancast to my Google Calendar (or Outlook or Yahoo! Calendar) so any event I approve automatically gets scheduled and synced. Just like Facebook Events for some devices. Right now it only seems to work for the web and on the iPhone.

Of course, the business application here is quite obvious. If I search for “Makati” and your establishment has a happy hour event listed, that’s how I’m going to discover it. So the difference here is that unlike Facebook where you’re most likely going to get passive event invites from people who were tagged by friends, Plancast is a more pro-active events finder as it’s more targeted by location and interest.

As of today’s writing, there’s only one event listed under Makati: the Android April 2011 Community Meetup organized by Charo. I can share this event to friends outside Plancast as well. If your friends are on Twitter and Facebook you have the option of auto-subscribing to them when they go on board.

I suggest you give Plancast a try. And then we can schedule our own Zombie Apocalypse!!!

Left 4 Dead: Rally for Philippine Steam community

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at December 2nd, 2008

I’m slowly becoming a convert to huge digital downloads. I wasn’t a big fan of torrents because of my relatively slow connection but the recent news that Left 4 Dead might not be available on retail for the PC in Datablitz (it might be available elsewhere) made me shell out cash instead for a digital copy through Steam. It took me about 36 hours to download, but it was well worth it. I’m able to backup games as well onto a portable hard drive in case I reformat.

L4D is THE game that brings together a montage of the best of zombie horror flicks, reminiscent from the fast “infected” zombies of 28 Days Later. And I’ve been playing. A lot.

What makes buying games off Steam more interesting is that I get to interact with old high school friends from the US who aren’t into the Facebook craze. Steam is fantastic – a digital download mechanism for games that incorporates its own “social networking” and copyright protection.

it works pretty much the way a social network would – every profile lists the games purchased, what game they are currently playing, how many hours clocked in and you can even invite friends into your current game lobby. Steam also has an integrated VoIP solution, a must have for most Source engine powered games like Half Life, Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2.

Anyone else playing Left 4 Dead or Team Fortress 2 from the Philippines? Add me up — the zombie apocalypse is more fun with friends!! My SteamID is “The Lolmower Man” and you can find my profile at http://steamcommunity.com/id/thejayvee.

P.S. I can run Steam on my Mac using Crossover. Hah! (See screenshot)