Help kids while running your 26.2
This year, the New York City Marathon organizers are attempting something unprecedented – encouraging all participants to raise money for charity, with the goal of one million dollars for each mile of the course. With over 45,000 runners participating, there are a wide range of worthwhile charities being supported, so we wanted to do our part to urge these runners on. This weekend, when runners using RunKeeper unlock the special New York Marathon badge, a donation will be made to support Camp Interactive – a not-for-profit organization that empowers inner-city youth through the inspiration of the outdoors and the creative power of technology.
Any RunKeeper user who completes the course will unlock the new badge and help a great cause. Here’s how you do it: just add the NYC Marathon to your RunKeeper races, link your RunKeeper account to foursquare, and track your marathon on your iPhone or Android. Here at foursquare HQ, we’re cheering for our founders Dennis and Naveen to make it (they’re each fundraising individually for Camp Interactive). And if you want to watch, track RunKeeper users live on their site, or grab a spot along the route and cheer on the charitable runners.
Watch America vote today on elections.foursquare.com
Today, to help you remember to vote, we’ve loaded over 100,000 voting locations into the foursquare venue database. When you check in at one (they’re all called ‘voting location’), you’ll unlock an ‘I Voted’ badge. (And for absentee or mailed votes, you can unlock the badge by checking in somewhere and shouting “I Voted.”)
When you’ve done that, swing by elections.foursquare.com to watch America vote in real-time throughout the day, with all the check-in data from polling stations across the country. Navigate the map to see where foursquare voter turnout is happening, and all the details about how and where our country performs its civic duty.
It’s decorative gourd season
Our lead designer, @mari18, impressed us once again this year with her mayor pumpkin carving, but we were blown away when we saw what our community came up with for Halloween 2010! Big thanks to our awesome users for their creative efforts! Here are some of our favorites:
Clockwise, from the top left: @joemukai, @jnette, @craigbowman‘s girlfriend, @SunnyinSyracuse, @mamaier262, @wjkievit, @craigbowman, @teamoscil, @MrCippy, and @lorusso.
If you feel inspired by what you see, show your creativity this weekend by sharing your foursquare-related costumes on Twitter or Flickr with the hashtag #4sqHalloween; the best ones will get some free treats!
Oh, and we *may* have some spoooooooky new badges for you this weekend so have fun, be safe, and don’t forget to check in!
UPDATE: Sorry, we wrongly credited the bottom middle pumpkin. It’s an awesome contribution from @staceypedro.
New bigger swarm badges
Good news for your insanely big events: two new swarm badges. Introducing our new Super Duper Swarm (500 check-ins) and Epic Swarm (1000) badges.
Party on, kids!
Sanity or fear?!?!?!
Our nation, just days before the midterm elections, is divided. So, too, are Comedy Central viewers… March to Keep Fear Alive, or Rally to Restore Sanity? And while we’re excited to track actual votes on Tuesday, we’re also thrilled to be Comedy Central’s official partner to determine if fear or sanity rules in our nation’s capital.
So, for those of you headed down to Washington on Saturday, do what Stephen Colbert said: check in to your rally through foursquare or the official Sanity/Fear app.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Fear for All Pt. 1 | ||||
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Either way, you’ll unlock a badge to show your support for – Stewart’s sane side or Colbert’s fear nation – and Comedy Central will be measuring your votes in real-time to see who prevails.
Check back here and at comedycentral.com to see the live results on Saturday!
Check in and vote on foursquare
With election day right around the corner, we’re giving people yet another reason to go to their voting booth on Tuesday (in case choosing your government isn’t reason enough): a new ‘I Voted’ foursquare badge. On election day, simply head out to your local polling station and check in when you vote to unlock the badge.
We’ve also created a data-filled map, in partnership with Rock the Vote, the Pew Trusts, Google, the Voting Information Project, Engage, Twitter Vote Report, and Jess3, to share a sampling of foot traffic at each polling location. You could see that women are voting more than men in Arizona, or that turnout is especially high in Southern New Hampshire. It’ll all be live throughout the day at elections.foursquare.com, and you can stop by Tuesday morning for an embeddable version for your own website.
Though we’ve encouraged people to do things like work out and eat healthily, this is our first step in encouraging users to check in for a great civic cause. We hope you like it, but most of all, we hope you and your friends get out and vote this Tuesday.
New to foursquare? Sign up here and check in Tuesday to get counted.
P.S. For those of you voting by mail, simply check in anywhere in the US on Tuesday and shout ‘I Voted’ to unlock the badge. Every vote counts!
One small step for man, one giant check-in for mankind
Part of the founding mission of NASA is to inspire the next generation of explorers. While we’re not exploring the solar system, our idea behind foursquare is actually pretty similar: we want to help people explore. And today, that exploration includes the first extraterrestrial check-in. Yeah, a check-in from space.
Today, Expedition 25 Commander Douglas H. Wheelock became the first human to ever use a location-based service from space. Doug checked in from the International Space Station and unlocked the new NASA Explorer Badge.
We are very grateful to JESS3 and NASA for making this all happen. In the near future, explorers on earth who visit space-related places can also unlock the badge while learning about NASA history and the space program. Get started by following the NASA foursquare page
When Expedition 26 docks later this year, we’ll be excited to welcome Commander Scott Kelly to the ISS, where he’ll be competing for perhaps the most elusive mayorship on foursquare.
An easier path to your profile
A useful change today for those of you who conserve characters: if you’ve connected your foursquare account to your Twitter account, you now have a shorter URL for your profile. Instead of something like foursquare.com/user/dens, it’s now just foursquare.com/dens (though the old one will still work).
If you want to connect your account with Twitter (which also makes it possible for you to tweet your check-ins, mayorships, and new badges), just go to foursquare.com and click on the settings link on the top right of the screen, then scroll down to the big Twitter logo and follow the easy directions.
Happy tweeting.
Big Boi reppin’ the foursquare!
We love love Big Boi helping University of Nebraska-Lincoln set the record for biggest college Swarm last night with over 800 check-ins! Check it out:
Congrats on that badge, Big, and thanks to all the students at UNL for making this happen!
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