First it was mySpace, then Facebook, then Twitter, and now the buzz among the Internet Technology front runners is Foursquare. It’s a simple concept - wherever you happen to be - a restaurant, the beach, a place of interest etc - tag yourself, that you’re there. And let all your contacts (similar to your facebook friends concept) know where you are down to the metre, and what you think of the place.

To try sucker you into “playing” foursquare more often, they give you points when you check into places, and you can become the mayor of the place etc.

Sounds stupid to me, although…

I’m one of the Internet Technology front runners I mentioned above whose addicted to it.

Last night, there were 5 of us having dinner at a wonder sushi restaurant called Kyoto Garden Sushi in Tamboerskloof. 3 of us were on Foursquare all trying our best to become the mayor of the restaurant.

The other 2 kept telling us not to use Foursquare, but then ended up using their blackberry’s just as much on BBM or sms’ing! (go figure!!)

So the question I woke up to this morning isn’t whether Foursquare has value to investors - at SXSW last week, over a quarter million people checked into Foursquare in one day - with that many people using it, it currently has great value - it’s whether they keep the momentum going, and build something real from it, and offer real value to the user.

The real value should come from 2 places:

1. The crowdsourcing element - you get to see which of your friends and contacts have been to places you’ve tried and see their opinions of the places (if they include comments, which many people don’t seem to be doing)

2. The social aspect - you can see which of your contacts are close to you, or at the same place as you (although I can’t see myself calling up most of my contacts, and saying “heya, saw you’re at Coffee Shop JayZee down the road from me. I know we’re not great friends, but more associates. I also don’t know how many people you’re with at the place, or whether you’re in a meeting or a romantic setting with your partner. But no problem - I’ll be over in 5 minutes to join you!”

I’m addicted to Foursquare, because I like testing out new Internet consumer applications that are taking the world by storm - am I addicted to Foursquare because I can become mayor of Kyoto Garden Sushi for a few minutes? Not likely!