Lean Busque, founder and chief product officer of TaskRabbit [2], speaks about the emergence of SoLoMoCo (social, location and mobile-based commerce).
Photo: Kevin Krejci/Flickr [3]
Where you do what you do is growing in importance to the future of technology and business. Location-based technology has exploded in recent years, with startups like Foursquare (which gained traction for location-based check-ins) and Facebook (the leader in all things social) leading the charge.
But geospatial data has been an important part of the web’s fabric since its early days. Remember when MapQuest disrupted the print-based map business by allowing users to map and print out their itineraries? And remember when mobile devices [4] took this trend a step further by enabling real-time, turn-by-turn GPS navigation?
Maps, however, won’t be relegated to history. The future of map data is hot right now, as many app developers and tech companies debate whether to license API data from Google Maps [5] or use data from the open-source OpenStreetMap [6].
Gathering to discuss, debate and share experiences in all things location, technology leaders attending the O’Reilly Where Conference in San Francisco [7] delved into the big issues. Notable speakers at the event included Ben Milne, founder of location-based payment company Dwolla; Thomas Goetz, executive editor of Wired magazine; and Brian McClendon, vice president of engineering at Google.
One of the big wow moments at the Where Conference came when Google unveiled a Mercedes-Benz tricked out with Android apps, local search and Google Maps. How long will it be until smartcars like this become as ubiquitous as smartphones [8]?
Photo: Kevin Krejci/Flickr [9]
Here are a few highlights we snagged from the Twitterverse from people attending the 2012 Where Conference.
Social, Local and Mobile Commerce
The new buzz word: lo-mo-co. Basically it is about replicating the mom-and-pop store experience to the large grocery chains #whereconf [10]
— Oliver (@abalakov) April 3, 2012 [11]
Mobile content marketing: "Shoppers have a mall in their pocket," per @jackabraham [12]. #whereconf [10]twitpic.com/94s3mx [13]
— Margot Bloomstein (@mbloomstein) April 2, 2012 [14]
Really interesting discussions on the future of LoSoMo and now Co (local, social, mobile and commerce) #whereconf [10]
— Sharjeel Noor (@sharjeelnoor) April 3, 2012 [15]
Check out @Kovinsky [16] speaking about Harnessing Video for Realtime Merchandising & Customer Engagement! #whereconf [10] twitter.com/PrismSkylabs/s… [17]
— Prism Skylabs (@PrismSkylabs) April 2, 2012 [18]
"Sendinga payment should be as simple as making a call to an API" @dwolla [19] pres at #whereconf [10]
— Brent Pierce (@brent_pierce) April 3, 2012 [20]
Facebook has 200 million users with location tagged content #whereconf [10] 2 billion monthly actions location tagged post, photos, video, event
— Gib Olander (@golander59) April 3, 2012 [21]
Of Maps and Data
Over 1 million sites have Google Maps integrated - Eric Gunderson, MapBox #whereconf [10]
— Dana Stanley (@DanaMStanley) April 3, 2012 [22]
"this is the year of the open map" @ericg [23] #whereconf [10]
— Frederic Julien (@fredjulien) April 3, 2012 [24]
a map is not always the best way to represent your data.. people can get lost in spatialness & not see the relationships! @noahi [25] #whereconf [10]
— Glenn Letham (@gletham) April 3, 2012 [26]
Its power is in combination with other data "Location alone is a blunt instrument" - Scott Kveton, Urban Airship #whereconf [10]
— Dana Stanley (@DanaMStanley) April 3, 2012 [27]
sitting in To Google or Not to Google? Cost/Benefit Analysis Of Rolling Your Own Maps whereconf.com/where2012/publ… [28] by @sd [29] #whereconf [10]
— eric gundersen (@ericg) April 3, 2012 [30]
Q: Maps were navigation now realtime decision support - @AGpublic [31] Future decisions next? @DSearls [32] Do #intentionmaps [33] exist? #VRM [34] #whereconf [10]
— Bill Wendel (@RealEstateCafe) April 4, 2012 [35]
Our own @dthompson [36] presenting on his realtime map collaboration tool MapChat. github.com/dthompson/mapc… [37] #whereconf [10] twitter.com/yuletide/statu… [38]
— Alex Yule (@yuletide) April 4, 2012 [39]
Google Earth: 75% of world population covered in hi-res, updated bi-weekly. "The future of mapping is 3D" - Google Geo VP #WhereConf [40]
— Patrick Meier (@PatrickMeier) April 4, 2012 [41]
Google Maps data is powered by 8 data enters globally. 75ms avg tile latency #whereconf [10]
— Melinda Roberts (@locatiom) April 4, 2012 [42]
Mobile Matters In Location Tech
"Should #whereconf [10] have had #NFC [43] related content?" asks @brady [44]. Nope, #NFC [43] is a dead tech. It missed the window.
— Alasdair Allan (@aallan) April 4, 2012 [45]
"Cell phones have become virtual biographers of our personal data" #whereconf [10]
— jack hutton (@jackhutton) April 4, 2012 [46]
Many mobile apps are leveraging geofences -- all acknowledge battery drain issue but no one discussing the solutions #whereconf [10]
— pkabel (@pkabel) April 4, 2012 [47]
Enterprise level mobility is key now #whereconf [10]
— nazila (@floraandflying) April 3, 2012 [48]
More Pics of the Google Android-powered Mercedes-Benz
Android powered benz. buh. #whereconf [10] instagr.am/p/JAYBpeOZ5B/ [49]
— Andrew J Matranga (@andrewmatranga) April 4, 2012 [50]
Oops, I meant Google Mercedes. Here's the dashboard #whereconf [10] twitter.com/brady/status/1… [51]
— brady forrest (@brady) April 4, 2012 [52]
Google car (Mercedes of course) #whereconf [10] twitter.com/kjphotography/… [53]
— kjphotography (@kjphotography) April 4, 2012 [54]