So for the SMS week in LiveWeb, we were exploring the usage of a web service called textmarks.com.
First, Alberto, Sanjay, and I were interested in building a simple application that would allow a user to submit a location (cross-streets) and get both the nearest train station and immediate schedule. This would help commuters to avoid missing their train, and it would make late night and solo travel a bit safer. We ran into a block and consulted both Shawn, Dennis (teaching Designing Around Place), and Robert who made something similar (muniriders.net) and provided a link to the GTFS data exchange.
Second, I thought I would just allow a user to type a word and have an image displayed on the a web page of that word, which could be sorta cool in some specific contexts, but it wasn’t working and I wasn’t too passionate about it.
So finally, I played with the provided code for week 8, and have a small application that allows a user to change the color of a web-page through SMS. See it here.
A great example of this service blown into full utility is thenewvote.com. Nice work guys!