Unlocking the social media potential of your bike lock!

The incident.

Seventeen weeks ago, I locked my bicycle over a subway grate in Flatiron, and right after I finished pulling the keys out to be on my way they fell down to the depths of said grate to be lost forever. Luckily some very nice New York City police officers witnessed the whole thing and rounded up a lovely gentleman from a nearby construction site to hack the lock away and free my bike, creating quite a scene I instagramed the incident to remind me of my idiocy and also to highlight the beauty of human nature and the strength of the U-Lock.

Given my incident, you can imagine my excitement when I came across the Mashable article this morning showcasing Bitlock, the bike lock of the future.With Bitlock you don't need keys to remove your lock, just a smartphone and Bitlock's app. One click of a button and poof your bike is unlocked. The app also seconds as a social network and tracks how far you have ridden and how many calories you've burned. The app also lets you grant your friends permission to unlock your bike to borrow it. In effect, the lock creates a mini community around your bike through social media.

While the company is quite new, I imagine that the data it gathers from its users will be valuable information and useful to, say city planners looking to install a bike sharing program. Or to companies looking to target the bicycling community at large.