Toying with ideas: geotagged podcast

Posted on June 8, 2009

Came up with a good distraction tonight and thought briefly about being an iPhone developer. Was chatting with @Simon_Chapman (not sure I’d bother clicking there – nothing but tumble weed) about the various services out there and was trying to come up with a unique way to use some of the new features offered by the iPhone 3.0 software.

Specifically we were talking about how to use the new support for in app purchases and location to build a compelling service. The first thing that came to mind was pretty obvious and no doubt you’d just end up a small fish in a big pond with some monsters, create a service to search for and buy tickets for events near you.

The next idea that came to mind is to create a map based podcasting application. Allow any geotagged podcasts to be places on a map. Browse the map and get some audio or video about things around you. Revenue could be either generated through advertising or through access to premium content.

There you go, that one’s free, unless I find the spare time to develop it myself.

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Location, location, location

Posted on November 4, 2008

Previously I made some vague statements about location based services being the future of mobile. I just want to go back and touch on the point I made at the end of that post and highlight it a bit.

when I’m out there the data I want most is about out there

When I’m sitting somewhere waiting for someone I use my phone to check on any any feeds I’m following or to read my email, but I want so much more than that. The fact of the matter is location does matter, because but more often than not I want to know more than just where my nearest coffee shop or bar is; and I want to know more than just how to get there. I want the depth of information I can find on the internet, but I want to see it on a map and I want to see it relative to where I am.

I want more than is on offer right now with location based services. I want to be able to pull a richer set of information off the Internet and overlay it on a map. I’m not entirely sure what that richer set of data is, or how to display it – I just know it’s not what is out there now. It’s not just a glorified business directory, it’s not just directions to somewhere and it’s not just a simple news mashup.

Watch this space.

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Location based is the future of mobile

Posted on October 14, 2008

First we started to explore, then quickly we needed to figure out where we were and we’ve been building increasing numbers ever more sophisticated maps, guide books and other sources of location based information ever since. The extension of this location based information to mobile Internet enabled devices is the obvious next step and potentially huge market. Just think of all the location based data people pay for:

• Mapping probably the biggest market segment, and the first which we’ll see device convergence. Look to see the traditional GPS hardware/software become applications for the current and next generation devices.
• Reviews A common feature of newspapers, local and region
• Business Directories again, think of the big yellow book of business for every area. It’s one of the most common things to look for in an area.
• Travel Guides More than just reviews, travel guides also provide us with areas of interest and all of that is very useful in an up to date online service

All of this is pretty obvious and most of it exists now. The problem up to now has been the walled garden approach taken by the mobile phone companies. They had the ability to determine position, but wanted to charge for it. Unfortunately for us consumers, charging for that data has meant that for the most part services would need to turn a profit for every single request, from the start or they’d be very expensive to develop and very quickly.

Mobile data has recently become very cheap and new devices with integrated ability to determine their location is having a profound impact on the mobile landscape. They’re allowing us to build services which instead of answering the question: where is my nearest X, will let us explore the area around us. Mapping the wealth of knowledge on the internet to physical locations and allowing us to actually input data when we’re most likely to want to – when we’re actually there.

From experience, when I’m out there the data I want most is about out there.

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