Join the journey workshop - facilitated by Glenn Letham

Introduction video

Workshop tasks:

1. Timeline geo development & overview your own current geospatial
2. Concept a future  geo technology / software utilizing PC & mobile

• Who will be using it?
• How money will be made?

Team 1

Location based technologies and services history & now

• Main purpose: navigation, first uses: yachting
• Vehicle navigation has grown to a necessity
• Nokia N95 and iPhone have created a new market
• Mapping market is somewhat saturated, everyone is looking for new uses
• Information is evolving from specific location information (pinpoints) to “fuzzier” (you get information from a radius around you)

Key findings for uses:

• There aren’t that many services or tool that you could mash-up or aggregate location based data to something that people find truly useful
  • “If it’s useful, we will pay for it”
• Privacy concerns (who needs to know?)
  • How to filter and monitor your private location data?
• Open sourced map creation
• Distinction between different map information
  • Have different maps for movies, dining out etc.
• Historical/personal GPS log, “Have I been here?”
• What am I doing? (activity specific)
• Ease of use (geotagging) & ease of access paramount
• Key findings for uses:
• How location based data could help real estate?
• What is happening now (entertainment / current events)? To have a “Live” experience.
• Walking map vs. Google street maps
• Virtual tagging/art
• Live view of public transport
• Travel mashups
• Surveillance

   

Team 2

• Location based technologies and services history & now
  • Has it really took off?
  • Other than navigation, we don’t have that much general usage of location data
  • People are e.g. geotagging media, but we use it very little.
    • Even the people who are creating lot of geotagged data aren’t doing much to use that data
  • Now most of location based services are too labour-intensive, posting the data and retrieving it. Automatic integration will be a major factor for future adoption. And also the ability to switch your location broadcasting off.
• Future uses
  • Historical perspectives
    • When you are in a certain place, you will be prompted with who has been there earlier and find more about the history of the place. Question is how to filter the information?
  • Geocaching
    • Can be a fun way of learning about new places and get information on them
• Other ideas & pieces of converstations
  • Is usability a true driver? Tech is just there
  • Privacy (awareness, gender)
  • Flocking data (e.g. Tom Tom)
  • Anonymous group vs. Individual
  • Could we avoid places?

Team 3

Location based technologies and services history & now

• People who have made all their data (videos, blogs etc.) geotagged have found that people really respond to it differently. People are using different communication methods depending on the location information of a single person.
• If we can add layers to geotagged information (e.g. emotions, moods), then the uses can really vary and take off
• “Set it and forget it”
  • In order to make applications useful, once you have created your location profiles (at home, at work), you have to be able to forget them

People will also pay for quality of information

• We could pay for a restaurant review that was done last night, but not for a review done year ago

Future use cases

• Location meets emotions: consumer gets relevant messages from e.g. bars / restaurants / nightclubs based on their broadcasted moods / shared plans. 
• With location based information you can also save money (GPS tracked parcels) or you can pay a bit extra for security
• Adding geocasting to your mobile profiles: when you select Silent profile, device starts broadcasting that information
• Crowdsourcing lost & found: people can send beacons (“I’ve lost my laptop in Kamppi, has anyone seen it?”)

Questions and general comments

• “I want to make my location life easier to broadcast.”
• How accurate should location be? – For each group?
• Short-term location based work
• Silent = invisible/cloaked
• Informative GPS vs. Discovery only
• Combine GPS + Bluetooth

   

Team 4

Location based technologies and services history & now

• Iraq (Desert Storm) and Google Earth & Maps being major milestones
• 9/11 emergency act: phones has to know where they are in order to receive emergency messages
  • Has contributed a lot to location based service adoption in US
• Flickr geotagging has made it popular

About the future of location based services

• Location information will be a commodity in the future. The question is what are we going to do with it?
  • Marketing: photos, calendar
  • Social recommendations
  • Virtual billboards
  • Tracing, where have I been?
  • Location associated with objects
  • Privacy???
  • Beyond GPS???
• Feeling: how are people feeling in different parts of the world
• Age demographics: children & elderly people have no choice but to accept that their location information is watched.