PartyStrands: A Clubgoer-powered Experiment

So we’re a clubgoer, are we? You’re hittin’ the floor regularly and you’re as diehard a trance fan as one could be. In that case, PartyStrands could be right down your alley.

It is a concept that allows you to interact with the DJ and those around you via text message. Why would you want to do that? As someone that has yet to see the inside of a dance club, I’m not one to answer that question, but in an age when Second Life takes over peoples’ real lives, and Myspace is a place where kids and adults paste up odd tidbits of themselves, judging one another on the number of invites he/she receives over the course of their virtual existence, PartyStrands looks, well, normal.

When I first heard about PartyStrands, I thought it had something to do with arranging meetups – for clubbers. But my presumption was proven wrong when I took a look at the site. Instead of acting as a social calendar or to-do list of sorts, PartyStrands is something to be adopted by the owners and managers of clubs. The idea is to install a large screen or several around a venue, and PartyStrands will allow text messages sent from people’s phones to be displayed. Music requests can be made, and with enough participants, DJs can arrange to have those in attendance to choose the evening’s tracks.

At this point, you’re probably thinking the same thing I am: This will either work, or it’ll crash in a very bad and costly way. It all depends on whether those on the dance floor wish to publicize their presence to all. When profiles in the millions are plastered for all to see on the Web every day, it’s easy to see that, for many, privacy is moot.

PartyStrands’ first act will stir some club owners to attention, especially at a time when the world is in the thick of the Web 2.0 generation, but whether it ends up sticking it through the whole night is for the crowds to decide. Collectively, they present the most powerful voice today.

(Note: I didn’t enter the name “Sarah” you see below, so don’t go getting suspicious.)