Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  The Artful and Mobile Dodger (05 Mar 2005) Whether Dodgeball succeeds as a business may depend on its success as a social platform. "With Dodgeball, you know there's always someone out there you can run into," says Kristin. "It makes the city feel smaller, more homey." How much users like her will pay to send and receive Dodgeball messages remains to be seen. The service is currently free, but Crowley would like to start charging for the Dodgeball messages. "Whenever a popular new technology has appeared, from piano rolls to VCRs, people have always questioned its viability—because it doesn't look like the old model—but in the end, we've always found a way to pay for the things people like doing," says Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor in NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. "So if people keep finding value in it, it will be viable as a business." Article URL: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/mar05/0305webs.html Read 83 more articles from IEEE Spectrum sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Transparent Transistors     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy