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Totally on the money imho.
Nice one Andrew and by the way Rummble rocks. Hard.
Not sure about this - maybe it's "mobile LOCATION-BASED social network" - i can't see this having any impact on the likes of itsmy.com, mocospace, heysan etc... There is a lot more to mobile than just location - it's only really the Silicon Valley companies (Brightkite, Loopt) that have got such a bee in their bonnet about mobile location.
I also think that while we're moving towards a time where we just say "there is no mobile internet, it's just the Internet", we're not there yet. Using your analogy of television and Internet, for quite a while after the colour TV came around, people still referred to it *as* a colour TV. It's only when that medium (colour tv) is taken for granted (or as standard) that it becomes "a TV".
Just my thoughts.
Looking forward to your next post.
Thanks for your thoughts and the compliments! You're right that we're not there YET with it just being "internet". There are of course, also considerations of severe fragmentation of technology and platforms, cost of access and control. Imagine if the Internet had been owned worldwide by 400 Telecoms companies?
The sentiment is right though; I'm talking about the future and the future can sometimes arrive abruptly. Imagine if Google DID buy up the UK's analogue TV spectrum in 2 years time and launch a free data service on such high bandwidth, to fuel its advertising business? Disruption is possible, even if it seems unlikely today.
I'm building a business to last so I'm looking at 3-10 years time; some business strategy rightly serves near-term goals - revenue generating itsmy.com, mocospace and others being a great example. These companies do have to be careful though, longer term.
Ignoring location on mobile would be a bit like ignoring broadband (thus video on the web) or even like the current social network leviathans ignoring mobile.
Location will eventually affect nearly all mobile consumer services in some way - even for basic insights: geographical location (for language, proximity, social potential), context of the user (time of day, travelling, stationary, airborne?) etc. Nearly all of these come back to location or its associated benefits.
Social networks will eventually die - we are social animals, so our software and our digital ecosystem will become inherently social across the board. The same will be eventually true for location.
Right, that'll happen. Webheads persist with this notion for some reason.
Good post otherwise.
Keep up the good work with Rummble!
One comment about CellID : I do not think that Google could release it for free as it's an agreement with operators. They could arge that they created also their own database, but the mix with the operator database might generate some legal trouble....
(and disclosure: we are running OpenCellID.org ( http://www.opencellid.org ) the largest open source and free CellID user generated database.
Regards
I've also posted my first look on Latitude over at http://www.andrewgrill.com/blog?p=1742
Please Mr Industry, can I have my 'Pint nearby' button?
@Mike42 You've just given my Rummble boys a fun idea - thanks :-)
Ask a bunch of normal people "how would you like it if you could set your phone so that anyone in your network could find out where you were?"
Go on. Maybe you know 2, 5, 10 normal people - go ask them.
When the results come back - 9 out of 10 normal people saying "no thanks, duh!", which means the whole idea is an Epic Fail - you'll realise you don't need battle-hardened industry veterans like Andrew to impart such hard-earned wisdom. You can actually just talk to a few normal people, and they will tell you.
Amanda
2 years ago, if you asked the same '2, 5, 10 normal people' if they would want to type 1-2 line updates of what they were up to throughout the day on a PC, already with EMAIL or BLOGGING apps, and publish them online for a bunch of friends, relatives, possibly colleagues, to read and comment back on, how many would have said "no thanks - duh"?
Latitude is not about tracking. At all. Anyone who thinks it is has utterly missed the point. It's about Facilitating Serendipity.
...and anyone who thinks this information on your location isn't already out there via IP addresses, WiFi MAC addresses, Bluetooth devices etc is fooling themselves. The mechanisms to track people have been there for years. How do you think Google knows pretty much to the first 3 digits of your postcode where you are when doing a search?
The controls Latitude give you are enough. I'm sold. The social issues raised by "Why are you hidden?" etc are the same as "Why didn't you Friend me?" - i.e. are non-issues. I've NEVER had issues from someone I declined for FB, Skype, LinkedIn, etc - and I've rejected HEAPS over the last few years.
If you get Social Networks, you get why people might not want you in particular spheres (unless you are a sociopath). Same applies for location publishing.
/m
What I'd like to add is really courtesy of the great thought leader Peter Cochrane, whom I had the pleasure of enjoying a morning coffee with recently.
Peter's thinking also goes beyond where you are, to where your friends and even your "things" are; THEN applying this intelligently in connection applications. I've already added a note to self on RTM to blog about this in more detail in the near future :-)
To give a couple of use cases:
- Your TV, games console and stereo all understand where they are in relation to the each other, and the other items in flat. Suddenly the connections are broken. Either one/some/all of the items has been stolen, sold or lent to someone. A connected system would be able to detect this chance in state behaviour and begin processes to inform, action, remember and set prompts to your requirement - calling home if required. Ideally this would happen seamlessly, so eventually (just like social media) it will become a part of mainstream everyday life.
- You leave your laptop at on the table whilst grabbing a coffee. Once your personal mobile device (phone or even watch) has moved over a certain distance the laptop locks and all data become inaccessible (that's if we're still storing any data locally at this point!!). Someone does a runner with the laptop - it's useless.
- Worried parents let their 16 year old daughter hit the town for the first time on a Friday night. They agree her boundaries and route home, which are sketched onto an online map. If she step outside the geo-fence or proximity to friends the relevant alerts kick into action...
There are infinite more examples, however "The Sociology of Things" is an fascinating concept (especially since it is us humans that give "things" life) that will also build upon the commoditised location frameworks as they mature.
Problem is, arrogant VC idiot control freaks yet to spawn their own kids envisage themselves tight-leashing their offspring, so keep giving other idiot control freaks money to launch products like GPS watches and the like. Normal people recognise this sort of thing for the BS it rightly is.
Now, should the teen find themselves in trouble, there's absolutely nothing wrong with her being able to fire up an app like GMaps with Latitude, and showing Dad where she is so he can come get her / change the tyre / drop off a change of clothes. But the control, the publishing, is firmly in the teen's hands. The option is there, if she needs to use it. She can find her friends, if she wants to. she can share with others - if she wants to.
The kids will get Latitude and its implications / mechanisms much quicker than their parents. that's Google's play here - and it's long term.
/m
But i agree that this operator claim seems to me sometime hard to belive because:
- the connection is always going between google map and google server, and never ask a something to a positionning server
- There is no reference to the operators in the commercial conditions of the applications.
But even, they could have a direct connection on the backend side, especially if the operator decorate request coming from the mobile with some extra information, but this is hard to verify.
Loopt's model is broken but I hear their app is being used as gay hookup app. As for location dating, that's a weird one. Men seem to be a lot more promiscuous so gay dating could be a niche you could go after.