With the surprising news over the weekend that Facebook had acquired the Austin-based geosocial giant Gowalla, a lot of people have been asking me all sorts of different questions. These questions range from the most basic - i.e., "Why did Facebook acquire Gowalla?" to the more practical, like, "What does this imply for higher education?" I thought I would take a stab at both.

First, let's go back in time. Gowalla was, at one point, a sexy name in the start-up/tech industry. They were the darlings of SXSW 2010 and made magazine covers that pitted them against Foursquare like a battle of the bands, reminiscent of the rivalry between Blur and Oasis in the mid-90's in the UK and the media's portrayal of the impending war that would ensue.

Gowalla has maintained since the beginning that they were not really competing with Foursquare, and indeed, as Foursquare became the "chic" geo-social platform, Gowalla eventually pivoted to something new: an app about telling a story. Gowalla CEO Josh Williams hinted at this in a Huffington Post article he wrote following SXSW 2011, and what we were left with was a new Gowalla.

As I predicted, the transition Gowalla made was a shift from social to practical; from consumer-based application to enterprise application. It was a travel app. You used it to tell the story about your visits to new cities and places. You generated your own content. And though I kind of liked it, Gowalla's two million loyal users most certainly did not. In spite of the great product that Gowalla had built, reaction on Twitter and elsewhere was negative.

Gowalla's new product was tremendous for higher education, but unfortunately few schools recognized the opportunity to take advantage. On the flipside, I have always warned against adopting geosocial too strongly for fear that these startups will pivot or be acquired. In the case of Gowalla, that has certainly been the case.

Why was Gowalla so great for higher education? It's pretty simple. On Gowalla, you can create a themed experience. Let's take Princeton University, for example. On Gowalla, they could have created a themed Gowalla trip about exploring Princeton's storied eating clubs. Or maybe the "Freshman 15" - an idea that RPI is using with SCVNGR to help Freshmen find the 15 things they must do during their first year on campus.

Beyond that, the experience is genuine, not social. There is a key distinction to be made here. In our "social" lives, we lend ourselves a certain experience to our friends. We might try to seem cooler than we really are. On Gowalla, you act genuinely. You experience a story as it unravels and you share it as it happens. Except the sharing is oftentimes for your own self: you store these memories because they are dear to you.

For a school, the power of user-driven content is immense. If I want something a little more telling than a "check-in" or a fancy badge, then Gowalla was my answer. It told wonderful stories about my institution; it helped me learn about my audience; it helped me market my school; it helped me educate people about my school. The list could have been endless. Few schools realized its potential and instead focused on what was trendy.

So what does this mean for higher ed? Explicitly? Not much. Implicitly? Quite a bit.

Facebook has acquired Gowalla mostly as a talent acquisition. They want the Gowalla staff to work on the Facebook timeline. Given Gowalla's expertise at trying to get to the "story," the marriage with Facebook seems perfect. Gowalla will help Facebook to do better story-telling. However, the Gowalla product will cease to exist, and Facebook will get none of Gowalla's data.

A dead Gowalla means nothing for higher ed then, right?

Wrong.

Facebook's decision to close down Facebook Places was a huge indicator that the "check-in" space was fading and that we were gravitating towards new forms of geolocation: practical means like getting directions or finding where the closest taxi is. Now, Facebook's acquisition of Gowalla is a huge indicator of the importance of tying your location into a story. People are no longer concerned with "here I am." They are concerned with, "What did Jeff's campus visit experience look like?"

Imagine if you could capture the campus visit as a story and share that with your friends. Much cooler than a check-in, right?

I'll leave it at that and let your imagination run wild. Gowalla might be done, but its acquisition by Facebook should trigger higher ed's interest in what is to come.