future locations

i want real-time as well. the thing is im often not able to update my location realtime but i already know where i will be.

eg. im about to leave for a cafe that does not have wifi. before i leave the house i'd like to set my location to 'the cafe', to take effect in an hour from now.

Yea I don't want to see Brightkite turn into another Dopplr, but I agree that it would be handy to have at least some kind of scheduling system. I just had to drive down to campus for a class, and it would've been nice to simply sign into Brightkite while I was poking on the 'net before I left and set @campus as my location for the next hour two. Instead, I had to get out of my car and stumble through the parking lot as a typed out an (admittedly short) SMS *when* I got to campus.

I can see plenty of other scenarios where some kind of scheduling would be useful, too. One of my groups of friends, for example, finds it pretty offensive to whip one's phone out and goof around with it or send SMS. I would much rather post that I'll be meeting these people at a restaurant or bar ahead of time so I don't have to step on their toes by whipping out my phone when I'm actually there.

I agree with David, it would be very handy to be prompted via a schedule to confirm your location, rather than to have to be pro-active about it. If you could keep your regular schedule (i.e. Home, Work, Gym, Home) with times, and get a message to confirm you have arrived at your estimated arrival time, (maybe with quick click to your placemarks in case you divert to an alternate location) the end result would be peoples location information would be much more up-to date, rather than being only as fresh as your last concerted effort.

Of course you can't be all things to all people, just depends on what your mission is...

After this thread was posted, another about Future check-in was made. See it also.