At the weekend, I went to a restaurant in London I’d heard served some pretty special spicy king prawns. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who wanted to eat there on a Friday night and when I got there it was crowded and I had to wait outside for a table. Unfortunately I had become too accustomed to the great weather we’ve been having in London and was ill-prepared for the rain shower which so helpfully coincided with my wait outside the restaurant.

This morning I read about a new service in Japan that could have saved me from getting wet. Doko-iko is a service which gives information about the levels of crowding and the waiting times for popular attractions, amusement parks and restaurants. The information on crowding and waiting times is not provided by the attractions and restaurants, but the general public themselves. The service offers incentives such as discount vouchers in return for updates.

Sounds like an interesting service, but the whole idea relies on updates from the public, so the crucial thing will be how good these ‘incentive’ vouchers will be.

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 2:43 pm