"Mogli" is a social network for short-distance communication. Messages are posted in groups, so-called "packs". They are limited in their spatial and temporal appearance.

The idea is based on the behavior of wolves in nature and how they communicate.

Starting from the location of the sender, messages are available in a radius of 100 meters. An area which relates to the user in the digital and also in the physical world.

The “packs” act like filters to group messages that deal with the same topic. When the information flow stops, messages are deleted forever.

The project emerged from my Bachelor thesis topic. "Biologic inspired gestaltung of digital media". My goal was to find processes in nature, which can be used in digital media, to enhance there experience. During the research time I discovered the way wolves communicate in nature. They howl and use this very simple way of communication for a lot of different situations. Dating, territorial marking or group building are just some of them.

My idea was, to use this limited and simple way of communication also in the digital world. The questions I asked myself was e.g if there is a need for information to be available for everyone ? Isn't it sometimes better to just know what is happening in a close range? The other questions I tried to cover was the temporal aspect of information and if they should be available forever. Also the digital representation of ourselves was a important topic. Does our digital representation match with the much more dynamic and always changing physical world ?

My goal was to crate a mobile application, which covers all of this questions and create a social network that is different from most networks we know today.

I wanted to criticize common social networks and show, if other non common approaches would enhance the way we think about them. As said before, storing information is a huge topic people discuss these days. Some fear it, some use it for negative actions. The time I discovered "snapchat", an mobile application, that stores pictures for maximal 10 seconds, I saw, what another way of thinking can create. This application has become huge over the last years and is still growing. There seems not to be always the need to orientate on huge networks like Facebook.

Often new applications don't bother to think about such questions, and integrate Facebook, like it is the only standard we know today.

I researched a lot in the direction of natural processes and design, that has its roots in nature. Bionics is one of the huge directions one can go. But also artistic approaches are really interesting. Cohen van Balen and James Auger to name just two. For research purposes I also visited a wolf center near my hometown. To see wolves in action was a enhancing experience. Also the talk with experts gave more information one can research online.

What was important for me, was not just theorize about my topic, but also create some outcome which based on it. I am really interested in objective-c and the possibility to implement ideas for mobile devices, which are ideal for a location based communication system.

In this case, a critical mass is very important. For testing I gave 10 people a beta version of the application. It was okay for major error correction but still is not even close to the mass one needs to implement a whole location based social network.

At the "Hochschultage 2014" which is a annual presentation of all students from the HfK one agency head showed interest to support finalizing the application. It's still open if in near future a cooperation will take place or not. If not, my main goal is still to bring it into the Appstore as soon as possible.

"Mogli" is basically for everyone, who is also interested in mobile communication. There is no certain type of person, that fits into the audience.

As I pointed out before, what makes "Mogli" different is the new approach on social networking. My main goal is to use limitation for enhancement, discussing the need of infinite possibilities.

As we experienced first in twitter, where the limitation of the text length changed so much, or new approaches like "snapchat" which found their niche, which is constantly growing.

"Mogli" creates a new social experience, which changes the way of thinking about common conditions. Talking to strangers, who sit in the same train or room in a way we have never experienced before. The dynamic profile makes you as anonymous as you want to and as covered as you wish to be. Getting arrested in times of revolution for posting messages on twitter that broke the current law is just one example, why stored information is not always for everyones benefit. The temporal aspect ( messages have a lifetime of 10 minutes if nobody answers them) let us think less about consequences, spares the internet from useless storage, enhances the current more than other networks, that create basically a future past.

There is so much to discover by using a system like this. Only by thinking about it, many use case scenarios appear to ones mind. E.G. tagging messages on certain places, discussing about the food in a restaurant, shouting for help nearby, lending tools from neighbors, discussing a sport event, revolution appointments etc.