LocaModa Inc., a mobile and Web-based interactive company, is currently displaying an application on Clear Channel Spectacolor's 40 feet-by-40 feet digital screen in New York's Times Square.

The first LocaModa application on the screen is a text messaging word game called Jumbli. Spectacolor runs the game twice every hour. Players who submit the highest-scoring words from their mobile devices see their names on the screen.

"Our main focus is connecting people and places," said Jayne Karolow, director of community at LocoModa, Cambridge, MA. "We want to give physical locations a presence and then allow for these screens to connect people through their phones and also with people at home.

"Why does the Web just have to be at your desk and on your couch?" she said. "We want to bring these Web capabilities out of home."

LocaModa's platform allows users to sign in anywhere to participate in their social networking and games.

Participants can also access the Times Square Jumbli game on www.jumbli.tv. Winners from the Web will also be displayed in Times Square.

Advertisers can include branding elements in Jumbli and other LocaModa interactive applications.

"Everyone has a cell phone and everyone at least in the past few years knows how to text message," Ms. Karolow said. "We can leverage a tool they already have and there is no Bluetooth or downloadable application needed."

The LocoModa offerings are also carrier-agnostic.

For their part, the billboards can be replicated anywhere and work on almost any platform. LocoModa's interactive applications are Flash-based and need to run on an IP addressable screen. The screens are browser-based, which means that users can access them online. Most digital signage today is either already Web addressable or easily configured.

LocoModa currently has a screen up in the Cleveland Airport for users to participate to kill time while waiting for a flight. The company is also looking to move into full networks mainly in the hospitality industry.

"When it comes to challenges I think a lot of it is just educating the public," Ms. Karolow said. "A lot of people misunderstand the cell phone and especially mobile-type activity. We are using a short-code and digital screen and we don't charge a premium message fee -- it's just like you're texting a friend."