occurrences.

The aim is to provide users with a platform that allows them to discover the best things to see and do upon arriving in a new place. Built with the student ‘backpacker’ ethos at the forefront, iSpye is building a community of people who believe there are no boundaries, no such thing as too many travel connections and will never say no to a valuable life experience!

The app has been built for iOS and Android devices. Version 1 has three main features, which are as follows:

• News Feed – venues and events are displayed as pins, which are categorised and shown in the users feed in a list format. There are two features of the feed: Discover and Buzz. Discover displays pins closest to the user and Buzz shows pins that are tending i.e. the most popular pins at any given time, relative to the users location. The popularity of a pin is defined by the community either upping or downing that pin and a trend is started by the first users activity. A user may up or down a pin through either the Discover tab (most likely while attending the pin or the morning after) or the Buzz tab (to contribute to the trend). The purpose of a users activity is to inform the community of their current experience at a venue or event and not, like tripadvisor, to rate the venue or event itself. A user may vote a pin up or down once every 24 hours, so if they return to the venue or event at a later date they may vote again. The aim is to provide the community with an accurate idea of which venues are the best or busiest at any point in time.

• Mapping – users can drop pins to represent venues found or events occurring. Each pin is displayed at its exact location on a map and can be seen by all members of the iSpye community. By clicking on a pin, users can instantly see how many times the pin has been upped and down. The user is able to gather further information by opening the pins page. A page displays statistics (number of ups, number of downs, %age of male voters, %age of female voters and average age of voters), thoughts and IM profiles of recent users who voted on the page. Thoughts are posted by users and describe their experience of the venue. Users looking at the page are able to gain a sense of whether or not they should attend the venue or event simply by looking at the statistics, thoughts and/ or by chatting via IM (next bullet point) to users who are currently at or have previously been to the pin.

• Instant Messaging – users can communicate with other users of the iSpye community via Instant Messages. Users are displayed according to their location and a user may chat with another user to find out information about their current or past experience(s) of a pin. The best source of information comes from locals and the IM client allows all users to obtain information in real time. The IM tab also has built in search functionality, allowing users to search for users in other cities. The purpose of search is to allow a user to begin gathering information on the city they are about to visit and meet likeminded people prior to their arrival.

iSpye allows users to tap into a global community of travellers and locals to gain an instant insight into the best and busiest places around them. iSpye will officially launch in October 2013.