The metadata around the people who choose to use the app and how they judge "sketchy" can be useful in describing far more than the neighborhood in question. Users are content - I can't see the privacy settings, but there is a gold rush for personal location data, and anyone who is using the app is giving it up. What they/we think we are producing when we use an app is often less important than what's happening under the hood, from a data standpoint, and there are some interesting extrapolations to pursue with an app like this one.

In the interest of full disclosure, I met Herrington briefly at NYC BigApps, and he was aware of the ways that his peers might potentially abuse the app and expose him to a shit storm. I had no advice for him, but I also understand that entrepreneurs take risks. The team's execution and how society uses the data will guide whether the app reinforces, exposes, or subverts racism/racists. I can also see how it might provide useful city data.

Lastly, I think a crowd-sourced map of race traps, Klan activity, etc. would be interesting, visually compelling, useful, and competitive for funding if the team is tight and you can connect with investors who understand the investment value of culture. It's more data for the big bucket and another way to generate important dialogue.

Okay, stay awesome!

Candida

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 1:13 AM, Jonathan <[address removed]> wrote:

To think someone thought this worth venture capital. Maybe one off us should build an app that tells us where we can go to avoid driving while black traffic stops and Klansman.

Jonathan

Sent from myMail for iOS

Friday, August 8, 2014, 12:43 AM -0400 from Steven Francisco <[address removed]>:

if it keeps the gentrification at bay I might report whole neighborhoods...
On Aug 8,[masked]:11 AM, "Therese L" < [address removed] > wrote:
>Thought this was interesting to share. 
>
>Is there any way to keep white people from using computers, before this whole planet is ruined? I ask because the two enterprising white entrepreneurs above just made yet another app for avoiding non-white areas of your town—and it's really taking off!
>
>Crain's reports on SketchFactor, a racist app made for avoiding "sketchy" neighborhoods, which is the term young white people use to describe places where they don't feel safe because they watched all five seasons of The Wire:
>
>SketchFactor, the brainchild of co-founders Allison McGuire and Daniel Herrington, is a Manhattan-based navigation app that crowdsources user experiences along with publicly available data to rate the relative "sketchiness" of certain areas in major cities. The app will launch on the iTunes on Friday, capping off a big week for the startup, which was named as a finalist in the NYC BigApps competition.
>
>According to Ms. McGuire, a Los Angeles native who lives in the West Village, the impetus behind SketchFactor was her experience as a young woman navigating the streets of Washington, D.C., where she worked at a nonprofit.
>
>...
>
>After meeting Mr. Herrington, an electrical engineer who was taken with the SketchFactor idea, the two quit their Washington D.C.-based jobs and decamped to New York City with funding from family and friends.
>
>As one of the finalists in the BigApps competition, SketchFactor is poised to receive more attention when it launches. With firsthand experience living in Washington, D.C., where white terror is as ubiquitous as tucked-in polo shirts, grinning caucasians Allison McGuire and Daniel Herrington should be unstoppable in the field of smartphone race-baiting—they're already finalists in a $20,000 startup contest! But don't worry: they're not racist. It says so right on their blog, which asks people to share "sketchy" stories about strangers they spot:
>
>Who we're not: racists, bigots, sexists. Any discriminatory posts will be deleted.
>
>Source: http://valleywag.gawker.com/smiling-young-white-people-make-app-for-avoiding-black-1617775138/all
>
>Sent from my iPhone
>
>
>
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