Application description

Many people like to browse shops, go to flea markets or buy and sell used goods on internet platforms like Ebay. Browsing is quite natural behavior for many of us, especially for those
living in urban areas.
Our idea is to support this natural behavior with well-established mobile communication technology, like cell phones, labtop computers or PDAs. We want to build a platform that allows people to exchange goods, services and possibly many other things in a cheap and easy way.

One could compare the function of the mobile device to a mobile pinboard that is only accessible within a certain physical range around the user. Every user can put notes on his pinboard and other users can view other people's pinboards and leave private message for them.
If for example one user wants to sell his old car, he can put a note on his pinboard with the usual information about the car. If another user then sees this, he can either leave a message or talk to the other person directly, thereby getting the chance to ask questions about the car without
having to send e-mails or do phone calls.
This is one of the main advantages of our system: It would allow to exploit the advantage of physical proximity between the buyer and the seller. Using different categories, it would also be possible to not only trade goods but also to offer services like riding lessons or make it possible to meet people in your area that have the same hobbies.

Modern standard technologies like Bluetooth would already offer most of the foundations that are needed to build this system. Transmitting data via Bluetooth is free, easy and available to most people who have a modern cell phone.
The limited reach is not a disadvantage in this case since it is even desired to reach only a locally limited group of people. Thus implementing our ideas into modern cell phones would already be
possible and is mostly a matter of software.