Mobile Social LocationMatt Biddulph, Nokia

icons by http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/

Photo by mackarus - http://flic.kr/p/7x6aHm

ConnectedPhoto by mackarus - http://flic.kr/p/7x6aHm

Always with youPhoto by mackarus - http://flic.kr/p/7x6aHm

Full of sensorsPhoto by mackarus - http://flic.kr/p/7x6aHm

Where have we been?

Street dataWe’ve always had static information in public space that’s designed to be interpreted by users of that space.

photo: http://flic.kr/p/9CKCw

Ratings and ReviewsThere have always been websites that let users rate and review places - sites like TripAdvisor have a huge amount of data collected over years.

And yes, Beijing has an official star-rating committee for toilets.

Mobile ContentIn the early days of small mobile devices, apps like Vindigo delivered static content by syncing to an internet-connected computer. The device is blind - it doesn’t know where its user is or anything about the environment in which it’s used. It has to be told.

The interfaces on these apps are usually very simple and fast, partly due to the low power devices, but also because they’re designed to be used in a hurry in public space.

Maps

Traditional symbolic representations of space ...

Maps

... are now widely available online to build into apps

Navigation

Turn-by-turn navigation - usually provided by Navteq, Teleatlas and Google - is the hot topic in online maps right now.

Photo by Perfesser - http://flic.kr/p/4cbfmj

Checking inIf we can translate a user’s location into something meaningful, we can add layers of information on top.

Checking inLots of interesting apps are based around the idea of “checking in” at a location rather than simply recording GPS tracklogs.

Place, not lat/long

A simple lat/long coordinate is not enough for most people-oriented apps. We need a way to turn a GPS read into a human-meaningful place such as a cafe, office or home. APIs and datasets to do this are starting to appear.

Photo by paalia - http://flic.kr/p/6sAzuf

Place, not lat/long

“electronic acquisition pays no attention to geography”—Chris Heathcote, 2004

A simple lat/long coordinate is not enough for most people-oriented apps. We need a way to turn a GPS read into a human-meaningful place such as a cafe, office or home. APIs and datasets to do this are starting to appear.

Photo by paalia - http://flic.kr/p/6sAzuf

51.5064, -0.1168

Let’s take a journey from a single piece of data using some web APIs

Flickr has a reverse geocoder that turns a lat/long into a place

This gives us many IDs we can use to talk about the lat/long

And the Yahoo Geoplanet Explorer helps us browse some of the attributes of the place

Flickr will show us pictures of the place

Tom Taylor’s Boundaries viewer will show us the shape of the nearby neighbourhoods

Geosetta will translate the place IDs into IDs used by other systes

Geonames indexes Wikipedia by place

And we can see that we’re in the Southbank Centre, home of @media 2010

Where are we going?

Location brokersAs location information becomes a core part of many apps, we’re seeing services such as Yahoo Fire Eagle, Google Latitude and Twitter provide a way to selectively share your location with other applications. This can provide a quick bootstrap for a new app, and separate the problem of location acquisition (via many possible devices and channels) from application concerns.

Compass

We’ve had GPS for a long time and it’s been in affordable devices for a couple of years. Manufacturers appear to have only recently recognised that an electronic compass adds a lot to the picture that the “blind” phone sees by GPS...

Augmented Reality... in particular, knowing which way a user is oriented allows more effective overlaying of information onto their local context.

Photo by Marc Wathieu - http://flic.kr/p/5ZwuhQ

SensorsThe process of making devices less blind doesn’t have to stop at GPS and compass. Projects like Nokia’s Push N900 are encouraging users to augment their devices with new sensors and capabilities using platforms like Arduino.

Photo by Rain Rabbit - http://flic.kr/p/6Y8ejj

Sensors

http://blogs.nokia.com/pushn900/

The process of making devices less blind doesn’t have to stop at GPS and compass. Projects like Nokia’s Push N900 are encouraging users to augment their devices with new sensors and capabilities using platforms like Arduino.

Photo by Rain Rabbit - http://flic.kr/p/6Y8ejj

Visualisation

We’re becoming a more information-literate culture, and information visual and data exploration tools are becoming commonplace.

Visualisation

We’re becoming a more information-literate culture, and information visual and data exploration tools are becoming commonplace.

RealtimeThere’s growing interest in apps that can communicate in both directions between client and server - the return of Push. Protocols like XMPP and Pubsubhubbub are providing a way for an app to push information to users in realtime based on their preferences or their current context.

Photo by Hugo! - http://flic.kr/p/2yr85

mattb

bopuc

tominsam

moleitau

moia

The social graph(s)

See http://www.hackdiary.com/2010/02/10/algorithmic-recruitment-with-github/ for this section

lingrch

charlenopires

Allinthedata

georgepalmersnowblink

miyagawa

simonw

tmtmtmtm

andrew

jtweed

ntoll

melo

danlucraft

thesmith

fhelmberger

braindeaf

jjl

nikolaypurzelrakete

yncyrydybyl

eightbitraptormcroydon

pierslowe

alexstubbs

timcowlishaw

rux

tcaine

jasoncalesvetlyak40wt

andybeeching

jonocole

geoffgarside

FND

maccman lifo

kanzure

sh1mmer

molilymikestenalfredwesterveld

thechrisoshowdeepak

samsoir

dennyhalim

sartak

bileckme

danski

tomafro

dstrelau

aphillipo

jystewart

cbetta

julians

smtlaissezfaire

themattharrisperigrin

dhilton

barbie

greut

thommay

superfeedrbruntonspall

Floppy

edouard

arcanez

stig

floehopper

Jonty

rarepleasures

gugod

danwrong

tonyg

tonyl

tyru

jensy

jaygooby

georgebrock

bob-p

pusewicz

lawrencec

bumi

melito

jason23z

psd

matagus

rjray

NeilCrosby

dvydra

grillpanda

bru

the-experimenters

mxcl

chris-d-adams

joshbuddy

pkqk

rlivsey

professionalnerd

richardhodgson

tomdyson

jberkel

dsingleton

cv

nefarioustim

Roelven

cc

andyhd

flunder

hungryblank

colin

digdog

bingos

ja

tobypadilla

filipeamoreira

thmghtd

simonmaddox

si

james

pjbarry

straup

cdent

richardc

marcusramberg

tomtaylor

nothingmuch

jaigouk

rmetzler

ask

chrisroos

hdurer

robmckinnon

zachinglis

c9s riklomas

fidothe

atl

memespring

whomwah

otfrom

richardkeen

phae

salfield

ashbbobtfish

stever

danieljohnmorris

normdrewm

gillesruppert

webiest

rjw1

tomyan

isofarro

fredrikmollerstrand

topfunky

petemounce

libin

camelpunch

olly

micrypt

bbcpete

BenWard

nogeek

iamdanw

jibes21

kenlim

benpickles

pablete

craigw

nevali

cyrildoussin

dwhittle

gfx

lazyatom

sammyt

IanPouncey

steppenwells

jwheare

muesli

natbat

ginader

stonegao

philnash

esneko

BenHall

thrudigital

Rodreegez

mojodna

cwninja

reddavis

rafl

holizz

brett

AndrewDisley

eartle

gerhard

bradleywright

rondevera

monadic

matthewford

acastro

tims

crowbot

timd

dorward

jaikoo

tackley

Marak

carlo

sriprasannaabecciu

newbamboo

BenJam

aubergene

baob

lrug

vancaem

elliottcable

ejdraper

jcoglan

acme

twoism-dev

minty

muffinresearch

matth

mattb

threedaymonk

dannyamey

chrismear

cheeaun

guioconnor

metade

deanwilson

kraih

bricas

russss

SteveMarshall

osde8info

natematias

skarab

techbelly

dougma

kalv

ebrettfelixcohen

mokele

garethr

e1i45

matclayton

threebytesfull

mikewest

baseonmars

wakatara

spjwebster

dwo

kurtjx

blaine

monkchips

rozza

harry-m

kulor

liquid

davorg

zaczheng

ejeliot

evilstreak

andrewmcdonough

dann

tim

willi

stinie

evangineer

voodoochild

tommorris

tonytw1

philhawksworth

hubgit

gklopper

haifeng

lingrch

charlenopires

Allinthedata

georgepalmersnowblink

miyagawa

simonw

tmtmtmtm

andrew

jtweed

ntoll

melo

danlucraft

thesmith

fhelmberger

braindeaf

jjl

nikolaypurzelrakete

yncyrydybyl

eightbitraptormcroydon

pierslowe

alexstubbs

timcowlishaw

rux

tcaine

jasoncalesvetlyak40wt

andybeeching

jonocole

geoffgarside

FND

maccman lifo

kanzure

sh1mmer

molilymikestenalfredwesterveld

thechrisoshowdeepak

samsoir

dennyhalim

sartak

bileckme

danski

tomafro

dstrelau

aphillipo

jystewart

cbetta

julians

smtlaissezfaire

themattharrisperigrin

dhilton

barbie

greut

thommay

superfeedrbruntonspall

Floppy

edouard

arcanez

stig

floehopper

Jonty

rarepleasures

gugod

danwrong

tonyg

tonyl

tyru

jensy

jaygooby

georgebrock

bob-p

pusewicz

lawrencec

bumi

melito

jason23z

psd

matagus

rjray

NeilCrosby

dvydra

grillpanda

bru

the-experimenters

mxcl

chris-d-adams

joshbuddy

pkqk

rlivsey

professionalnerd

richardhodgson

tomdyson

jberkel

dsingleton

cv

nefarioustim

Roelven

cc

andyhd

flunder

hungryblank

colin

digdog

bingos

ja

tobypadilla

filipeamoreira

thmghtd

simonmaddox

si

james

pjbarry

straup

cdent

richardc

marcusramberg

tomtaylor

nothingmuch

jaigouk

rmetzler

ask

chrisroos

hdurer

robmckinnon

zachinglis

c9s riklomas

fidothe

atl

memespring

whomwah

otfrom

richardkeen

phae

salfield

ashbbobtfish

stever

danieljohnmorris

normdrewm

gillesruppert

webiest

rjw1

tomyan

isofarro

fredrikmollerstrand

topfunky

petemounce

libin

camelpunch

olly

micrypt

bbcpete

BenWard

nogeek

iamdanw

jibes21

kenlim

benpickles

pablete

craigw

nevali

cyrildoussin

dwhittle

gfx

lazyatom

sammyt

IanPouncey

steppenwells

jwheare

muesli

natbat

ginader

stonegao

philnash

esneko

BenHall

thrudigital

Rodreegez

mojodna

cwninja

reddavis

rafl

holizz

brett

AndrewDisley

eartle

gerhard

bradleywright

rondevera

monadic

matthewford

acastro

tims

crowbot

timd

dorward

jaikoo

tackley

Marak

carlo

sriprasannaabecciu

newbamboo

BenJam

aubergene

baob

lrug

vancaem

elliottcable

ejdraper

jcoglan

acme

twoism-dev

minty

muffinresearch

matth

mattb

threedaymonk

dannyamey

chrismear

cheeaun

guioconnor

metade

deanwilson

kraih

bricas

russss

SteveMarshall

osde8info

natematias

skarab

techbelly

dougma

kalv

ebrettfelixcohen

mokele

garethr

e1i45

matclayton

threebytesfull

mikewest

baseonmars

wakatara

spjwebster

dwo

kurtjx

blaine

monkchips

rozza

harry-m

kulor

liquid

davorg

zaczheng

ejeliot

evilstreak

andrewmcdonough

dann

tim

willi

stinie

evangineer

voodoochild

tommorris

tonytw1

philhawksworth

hubgit

gklopper

haifeng

http://jung.sourceforge.net/

http://gephi.org/

http://measuringmeasures.com

There’s a lot of hard computer science around processing graphs. The Jung library makes this a lot easier.

Buy it!

http://lucene.apache.org/mahout/

There’s also a lot of hard computer science around machine learning. Mahout is building scalable Hadoop-based libraries for recommendation, clustering, collaborative filter and auto-classification.

http://lucene.apache.org/mahout/

“scalable, Apache licensed machine learning libraries”

There’s also a lot of hard computer science around machine learning. Mahout is building scalable Hadoop-based libraries for recommendation, clustering, collaborative filter and auto-classification.

Careful where you go

Red dot feverSchuyler Erle coined the term “red dot fever” - the naive tendency to plot datapoints on maps without thinking through the design implications. It’s very easy to fire up a map API and add markers to a map without realising how unclear the representation can become. Information can often be processed by clustering or filtering before being mapped. Indeed, maps aren’t always the best representation of place data.

100 50 000500 1 000 5 000 10 000 30 00020 0003 0002 000

300

5

10

50

100

200

70

30

20

7

3

4

200 300

Population (millions)

1 000

100

10

<1

1

2006 data for countries & territories from UN Statistics Division, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and others sources as stated in:"Gapminder documentation 2007:1" at: www.gapminder.org/publications.

Free to copy for non-commercial useE-mail: info@gapminder.org

www.gapminder.org

Regions

Sub-Saharan Africa

Arab states

Europe & Central Asia

Americas

Asia & Pacific

BY: $

Gapm

inder World Chart 2006 - Ver. January 2008

Gapminder World Chart 2006

RichPoor

Sick

Healthy

Antigua & Barbuda

Dominica

Faeroe Is.

Greenland

Kiribati

Marshall Is.

Monaco

N.Mariana Is.

Palau

San Marino

Seychelles

St. Kitts & Nevis

Tonga

American Samoa

Anguilla

Montserrat

Turks & Caicos Island

Tuvalu

Nauru

Andorra

Bermuda

Cayman Is.

Isle of Man

Liechtenstein

British VirginIslands

Jersey

Aruba

Bahamas

Bahrain

Barbados

Belize

Bhutan

Brunei

Cape Verde

Comoros

Cyprus

Djibouti

Equatorial Guinea

Fiji

Fr. Polynesia

Grenada

Guam

Guyana

Iceland

Luxembourg

Macao

Maldives

Malta

Mayotte

Micronesia

Netherlands Ant.

New Caledonia

Qatar

Sao Tome & Principe

Solomon Islands

St. Lucia

St. Vincent & Grenadines

Suriname

Vanuatu

Virgin Islands(U.S.)

Samoa

Sierra Leone

Albania

Armenia

Austria

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Benin

Bolivia

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Botswana

Bulgaria

Burundi

Central African Rep.

Congo, Rep. (Brazzaville)

Costa Rica

Croatia

Denmark

Dominican Rep.

El Salvador

Eritrea

Estonia

Finland

Gabon

Gambia

Georgia

Guinea

Guinea Bissau

Haiti

Honduras

Hong Kong

IrelandIsrael

Jamaica

Jordan

Kuwait

Kyrgyz Rep.

Laos

Latvia

Lebanon

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

LithuaniaMacedonia

Mauritania

Mauritius

Moldova

Mongolia

Namibia

New Zealand

Nicaragua

NorwayOman

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Puerto Rico

Rwanda

Singapore

Slovak Rep.

Slovenia

Somalia

Swaziland

Sweden

Switzerland

Tajikistan

Timor LesteTogo

Trinidad &Tobago

Turkmenistan

United Arab Emirates

Uruguay

West Bank& Gaza

Serbia &Montenegro

Afghanistan Angola

Burkina Faso

Cambodia

Cameroon

Chad

Colombia

Côte d'Ivoire

Ecuador

Ghana

Guatemala

Iraq

Kenya

North Korea

Madagascar

Malawi

Mali

Morocco

Mozambique

Myanmar

Nepal

Niger

Peru

Senegal

Sri Lanka

Syria

Tanzania

Tunisia

Uganda

Ukraine

Uzbekistan

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Sudan

Algeria

Argentina

ChileCuba

CzechRepublic

Hungary

Kazakhstan

Malaysia

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

Venezuela

Taiwan

AustraliaBelgium Canada

Greece

Italy

South Korea

Netherland

Spain

Congo DR(Kinshasa)

Egypt

Ethiopia

France

Germany

Iran

Philippines

Thailand

Turkey

UK

Vietnam

Brazil

Bangladesh

Indonesia

Japan

Mexico

Nigeria

Pakistan

Russia

USA

China

India

Money Gross National Income per capita - in US dollar by exchange rate (log)

Low income countries Middle income countries High income countries

Maps aren’t the only way to show geo-data

OutdoorsIt’s important to be humble as a mobile developer. Never forget that your application may be used in the street, in parallel with another app or activity, and for less than 30 seconds at a time. Your app may be the irritation standing in the way of someone getting the information they need right now.

Photo by JanneM - http://flic.kr/p/6sjM3e

“A typical user pulls a device out of a pocket or bag and uses it for a few seconds, or maybe a few minutes, before putting it away again.”

—iPhone Application Programming Guide

Data entryPhones are usually not great data entry devices. When we built the Dopplr Social Atlas mobile application, we allow users to record places they like with a minimal interaction - only two taps are required. We upload these pings to the Dopplr website and complete the data gathering through the website at a later time. This allows us to use large widgets such as maps and autocomplete that would not be practical on the small screen.

RoamingBe aware that (particularly outside North America) many apps are used outside their phone’s home country. Roaming data charges are still disturbingly high and not everyone is organised enough to swap SIM cards at the airport when they travel. Be conservative with your use of data.

“35 ways to find your location”

Chris Heathcote, Etech 2004

There’s a great set of slides from Chris Heathcote reminding us that GPS isn’t the only way to find your location. There are many other technical and cultural approaches.

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2004/view/e_sess/4657

A phone isn’t just a pocket computer that runs apps.

It’s a bridge between the internet and the real world.

Thank YouMatt Biddulph, Nokia