Introduction

Whether you are a business, artist, musician, or any other person who needs to get noticed, CafeSync aims to make it easier.

How it works:

Using your GPS or Wifi connections, you leave your card wherever you go, and as you go you will pick up other users’ cards no awkward small talk, no messy bulletin board nonsense just person to person networking done passively.

Cards:

CafeSync uses the card paradigm to visualize connections gathered by CafeSync, and these cards are designed to put you in the best light possible by letting you choose what the other users see. Whether you want to add a resume style intro, or link people to your blog, or online market place (etsy), or social networking service you can. Giving possible employers, customers, or fans a quick and easy way to find out about you. Or If you would rather, you can go incognito, and collect cards without sharing your own which is perfect for anyone wanting to explore the world around them, but feel they have nothing to add to the network. (everyone has something to add, even if you are just linking others to something you believe in)

Interface

There are two search areas: “Passersby” (who is around you and who you passed that day) and “Area” (which includes everyone in a 30-50 mile radius). Whether you are looking for something or wanting to be found, you know that those using the service will be available at your leisure.

Timed deletion:

As the service grows, there will be times when you are inundated with new cards. Thankfully, CafeSync will get rid of unsaved cards after 72 hours from your list. Of course, you can always delete them sooner if you so choose.

Saved cards:

Once you save a card, you will find it in the Contacts area of the application. Once in your contacts you can send a connection request to the owner of the card which opens up the ability to chat with, and in future versions schedule meetings or plan events.

Never out of date:

One of the biggest issues with contact lists, or business cards, is that at some point the information provided is no longer valid. In a world that changes as quickly as the weather, it is imperative that your contacts stay up-to-date. With CafeSync, that’s exactly how it works. With OpenSeed as its back end service the contact info is updated shortly after a change is detected on the server, but as the OpenSeed is built around the idea of a “scattered cloud” the data is stored locally as well. This allows you to access the card even when not connected to a network. (This does not include the blog posts or other online services not provided by OpenSeed).

Swapping:

Sometimes you want to make sure you get someone’s card safely stored in your contacts area before the end of a conversation. With CafeSync, this is made easy by using the swap feature represented by the CafeSync “Synced Cups.” Wherever you see this icon you can generate a one-time code to share your card (or any card) to any CafeSync user, or accept a card by inputting its one-time code. Once the code is entered on the recipient’s app, the card is saved in their contacts, so there is no need worrying about loosing their card before getting back to the office the next day.

We are still in the early days, and have made a slight modification to how the area code works. I believe in the idea of "programming in the open" so when we hit a stable enough release I post it to the Android play store.

Primary technologies

javascript 
c/c++ 
Qt/Qml

Roadmap

Events
End to end encrypted chat
Improved swapping experience
Achievements
Business services
Special rewards for those that help further the service through patronage here or other places
Badges for various things
Better integration with the Operating System
iOS re-implementation

How to contribute?
Bug reports,
Feature suggestions,
translations, evangelism

I've been working on CafeSync off and on for the last few years, as its main developer, and in my opinion is more relevant than ever as we rely more and more on our digital life to commingle with our day to day activities. I also believe that though there are many services that offer some aspects of what CafeSync offers none have the breath or reach of the project.

In the next blog post we will go over some of the finer points of the interface and its features. As these posts are written an index of posts will be found here.

Feature Series

-Integrations

Find out more

Curious about CafeSync and what it does? Check out my other posts here on Utopian and/or SteemIt

• Intro
• Integrations
• Sorting

Downloads

Android Version

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Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors

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