Comments on: Nokia Open Lab Pt 2 – the geo-location workshop.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:46:54 +0000

haha! thanks Micki, I’m well in touch with my inner ol’-dude

I’m a very happy ‘n’ satisfied sat-nav owner. We bought one when we had to drive from London to Amsterdam and then to Geneva, before heading back to London, and knew that it would save us money on the trip by a) not getting lost and driving around aimlessly and b) helping us avoid toll roads.

What it didn’t tell us is that to get to Geneva w/out the toll roads, you need to drive through the effing Alps, down some pretty scary treacherous roads, which at that time of year were covered in snow and had us sliding all over the place praying not to die…

So I’m sure a GPS/weather/traffic news mashup would kick ass. I think it was Glenn who mentioned that TomTom now have a technology that ‘crowd source’ the speed of traffic from multiple TomTom users… great idea, given the massive fuel wastage that goes on in traffic jams. Shame they don’t reinvest some of the money they’re making into setting up mass transport solutions in LA

But anyway, you can RFID your keys if you want, I’ll keep playing the ‘where the fuck did I leave my keys?’ game, and trying to remember to put them in the weird hippy hanging pocket thing that’s on the wall behind the door where my wife wisely puts anything I might need on my way out… :p

By: Micki Krimmel

Micki Krimmel — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:35:20 +0000

We have all sorts of ways of “getting lost” and we continue to do it no matter what new tools we create to avoid it. That’s the thing about technology. It’s never perfect. It fits right in with the rest of life, dunnit? So toss aside your old man sentimentality and embrace evolution!

By: glenn letham

glenn letham — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:12:44 +0000

indeed Steve, the possibilities for the musician are endless… routing, navigation and sharing locations are just the start. Suggestions for play lists based on your location, offering a coupon or free song based on your location, meeting new friends and expanding your social network based on your location and preference in music… the pieces are there. Then there’s the mobile apps that can listen to a snippet of a song, identify the artist, let you buy the track, provide concert locations near you, and even suggest similar artists that you may like etc… the sky is the limit. thanks for your thoughts man… well done.. Glenn (the geo guy!)

By: steve

steve — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:46:27 +0000

Yeah, I intended to address that in the post, Anne, but it was already too long by the time I got to it

True, knowing where you’re going in no way prevents us from picking the wrong destination…!

Also, batteries run out, satnavs break, and gadgets are left on the train…

The danger is not not getting lost, it’s forgetting to develop spatial thinking, to develop route-memory, to use some intuition and whatnot… I’ll write more about this when I get to the post about Adam Greenfield’s talk. Looking forward to everyone else’s takes on it too!

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:40:32 +0000

Oh ye of little faith. While you may be able to find yourself on a map, you can easily get lost if you don’t know where you’re headed… metaphorically and literally.

By: ilicco

ilicco — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:26:38 +0000

“ours is the last generation that will ever get lost”

- and that will be a BIG shame as i have said for years (ever since missing a flight from Darwin to Bali 18 years ago and had to fly to Singapore and get a 40 hour train ride to get there…)

you can’t have “an Adventure”…. without having an Adventure…