The Declaration of Location

Editor’s note: With the launch of TNW Location today, and the beginning of SXSWi in Austin, which is widely being called “The Location Wars”, we thought that we’d make a kind of revolutionary declaration of our own to kick all of this off.

When in the Course of human events (SXSWi) it becomes necessary for Users to dissolve the Desktop bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the Mobile Web, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Privacy and of the W3C entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of Cool Kids requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation of Sucky, Non-Location-Aware Apps.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that NOT all Apps are created equal, but that they should be endowed by their Developer with certain unalienable Location Features, that among these are Check-ins, Map View and the pursuit of Badges.

That to secure these rights, Early Adopters are instituted among Users, deriving their (just?) power from the consent of their Followers. That whenever any Form of Social Media becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new type of Social Media, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form (i.e. Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, et al), as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety (think PleaseRobMe) and Happiness (mayorships).

Large User Bases, indeed, will dictate that Social Networks such as Facebook, long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; but they all need to get on the Location Bandwagon ASAP. If they don’t, it is a User’s right, it is their duty, to throw off such Boring Services, and to embrace new Location Apps for their future enjoyment.

We, therefore, the Representatives of TNW Location, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of the Internet, solemnly publish and declare, that The Time of Location is Upon Us.