Trapster

When I have extra time at work, I sign up for stuff. Well, I sign up for stuff and I blog.

Lately my brother has been on my case about Jott, which is a service that translates voice to text for free. This has a number of awesome applications, including my brother's newfound ability to blog from the car. ("Hello, Jott? Please tell my blog that I'm on my way to Jungle Jim's with my sister. Over and out.")

I don't want to talk about Jott right now, but instead a service that I found through Jott: Trapster. (By the way, if you look up Trapster on Wikipedia you might get the following Marvel Comics character.)


The real Trapster-- by which I mean the site Trapster.com-- is yet another interesting example of what can be done by the sheer force of user power!! (Sorry, still in Marvel mode.) Here's what happens:

--You're driving, and you narrowly escape a speed trap.
--You let Trapster know.
--Trapster in turn texts any other Trapster users in the area.

Other interesting items:

--Trapster "learns" whether or not you're trustworthy, based on how many of your speed traps are confirmed by other Trapster users.
AND
--To bring it full circle, you can use Jott to make your Trapster post. So, instead of doing that deadly texting-driving combo, you can make a quick phone call to Jott and it'll let Trapster know.

Okay, maybe you still shouldn't be calling while you're driving, especially while you're jetting around speed traps, but the point is that stuff like this fascinates me. After all, the only thing that Trapster is really doing is starting, and facilitating, a conversation.