The Social Networking revolution has changed the way we find and interact with friends, colleagues and people with similar interests online. The technology has enabled us to connect, communicate and share with people who are often separated by large physical distances. Indeed social networking has forged stronger long-distance relationships with people who are across the country or on a different continent but has done little to enable  connections between people who are in the same room, or on the same train, in the same bar or at the same conference.

The Rococo LocalSocial platform changes this – it encourages connection and interaction between people nearby.

The technology allows anyone building a mobile client for their social network to provide compelling and innovative proximity features that enhance the user experience of the client

At its simplest the LocalSocial platform could be used to retrieve some social context for people nearby (their names for example, or their photos) – a great application for those of us who constantly forget names. More sophisticated applications of LocalSocial make it possible for members to discover people nearby who share the same interests; who are playing the same game; who have friends in common; or who are tweeting about the same topics.