Verizon Announces LBS (Location Based Services) with Motorola V325, VZ Navigator so that Bush and Dick Can Trace Your Every Move
Personally, I like Bush. Bush teaches us all that fearing an unknown foreign entity leads to creating a more fearful enemy within. Within the White House that is. So with Bush and Dick's Blessing, Verizon released the Motorola V325 with VZ Navigator LBS Location Based Services Enabled e911 chip.
What this enables you to do is see all the restaurants and gas stations whereever you drive. You may even be able to see the gas prices of all the stations within a certain radius. All hunky-dorry? No!.
Verizon is keeping records of where you are. Where you were. How fast you drove. WHO YOU WERE WITH.
Don't Worry. Sprint, Cingular, T-Mobile, And every other AMERICAN Cell Phone Carrier will do the same thing. So you non Verizon Customers, You too can enjoy the watchful eye of BIG BROTHER - coming soon to a everywhere near you.
So take this as an example. Let's say you like Turkish Food. Heck, and you have a sweet-tooth for that Honey Drizzled Deep Fried Iraqi Desert Ka’ab Ghazal . And you happen to frequent a Middle Eastern Travel Agency because there's a really hot receptionist who works there part time. You are being tracked.
If some chump named Akheem Bin Hussein Ladin gets pinched by the POPO, The first thing the Federalles will do is a cross reference of all the people WHO WERE IN THE SAME PLACES at the SAME TIMES. Here's the kicker, Sorry Mr. Jim Smith, Your name comes up more often on the GPS LBS database than the 7-11 cashier next door. Expect a full and invasive FBI raid on all your property Monty Python Spanish Inquisition Style.
PS. I love my middle eastern friends. Only humor was intended so relax. I mean it!
__
want more wireless internet gear? Like a cell phone repeater ?
posted by Robert Kim, EVDO HSdpa Advisor @ 9:19 AM
WHAT IS EVDO? Wireless EVDO Map EVDO WIFI Router http://HSDPA-coverage.com/ EVDO Lightning Rod Antenna
2 Comments:
Anonymous said...
Your paranoia lost you a customer.
8:14 AM
Robert Kim, EVDO HSdpa Advisor said...
Hi... if you define Paranoia as par·a·noi·a
(par·a·noi'·a) as -
n. "Accurately relating the degree of privacy invasion upon the "FREE COUNTRY's Citizens" by its elected leaders." Then looks like "YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH (think Jack Nick)."
Folks... THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!
ps... were just having some fun here. let me know if you want to borrow a grain of salt. :o)
8:55 AM
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Location-Based Services (LBS) Augments ClickSoftware's ServiceOptimization Suite
BURLINGTON, Massachusetts, February 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
- LBS Addition Enables Better Automatic Decision-Making in the Service
Organization
ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CKSW), a leading provider of
workforce and service optimization solutions, today announced the general
availability of location-based services (LBS), the latest addition to version
7.5 of ClickSoftware's ServiceOptimization Suite.
LBS is designed to capture the location information of a field service
engineer and/or his or her vehicle and integrate it with ClickSchedule for
use in optimized scheduling. LBS then enables service organizations to
improve their service operations by allowing them to make decisions and take
actions based on location information including, near real-time engineer
locations. In effect, LBS enables service managers to "see" the current
location of the entire mobile workforce at one time.
ClickSoftware's first-class LBS solution can receive location information
from GPS, cell-tower ID, cellular triangulation, assisted GPS and others and
integrates to ClickSchedule via Web Services. In addition to location
information, LBS provides information on an engineer's travel direction,
average speed and whether or not the engineer is currently moving.
Information also includes a time stamp to establish when the information was
processed. LBS also captures information on engineers' actual daily routes
and provides after-the-fact analysis capabilities to compare planned versus
actual routes to provide customer service representatives more complete
information when addressing customer issues.
LBS functionality, which can be used with both hand-held or truck-mounted
devices, is particularly helpful in organizations that need to make emergency
changes in the daily schedule and need to know who the closest skilled
engineer is to the emergency job site. ClickSoftware's solution comes with an
interactive wizard to facilitate these kinds of decisions based on the
location information. Additionally, LBS provides an important security
measure for organizations with field engineers who work in remote areas and
is essential in the fast recovery of stolen vehicles.
"The applications of location-based services are numerous, and when used
correctly, LBS can provide significant benefits to a service organization,"
said Dr. Moshe BenBassat, founder and CEO of ClickSoftware. "Our uniqueness
relative to the competition is in enabling proactive, automatic, and
optimized decisions. It is not just about visualizing locations on a map, it
is about acting on it. With the release of our new LBS we are setting the bar
higher. Whether the organization needs to quickly assign an engineer to fix a
gas leak, locate an engineer in rural parts of the country, or track down a
stolen service vehicle, ClickSoftware's LBS technology, together with our
world class ServiceOptimization Suite, not only ensures these needs are met,
but also keeps the organization running at optimal efficiency all the while."
About ClickSoftware
ClickSoftware is the leading provider of workforce and service
optimization solutions that maximize workforce productivity and customer
satisfaction while minimizing operations costs. ClickSoftware's
ServiceOptimization Suite provides an integrated, intelligent solution for
automatic, efficient, and effective decisions over the entire service
decision-making chain. It includes reliable customer demand and workload
forecasting, strategic and tactical capacity planning, optimized shift
planning, daily service scheduling, troubleshooting and repair support,
wireless workforce management, and business analytics-connecting all
organizational levels and functions. The company is located in Burlington,
Massachusetts, and in Israel, with offices in Europe and Asia Pacific.
For more information about ClickSoftware, please call +1-781-272-5903 or
888-438-3308, or visit http://www.clicksoftware.com.
This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements
within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. These forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, those regarding growth in ClickSoftware's
revenues and sales and partner networks. Such "forward-looking statements"
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may
cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those
projected. ClickSoftware's achievement of these results may be affected by
many factors, including among others, the following risks: that the economic
outlook may adversely affect the demand for ClickSoftware's products; that
the market acceptance of ClickSoftware's products may not grow as
anticipated; new product development and performance technological
difficulties; that ClickSoftware may fail to expand its relationships with
third parties that provide implementation and professional services to its
clients; and other risks associated with ClickSoftware's business. For
additional information regarding risks relating to ClickSoftware's business,
see ClickSoftware's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
including ClickSoftware's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2004, and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. ClickSoftware does not undertake to update any forward-looking
statements.
BURLINGTON, Massachusetts, February 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
- LBS Addition Enables Better Automatic Decision-Making in the Service
Organization
ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CKSW), a leading provider of
workforce and service optimization solutions, today announced the general
availability of location-based services (LBS), the latest addition to version
7.5 of ClickSoftware's ServiceOptimization Suite.
LBS is designed to capture the location information of a field service
engineer and/or his or her vehicle and integrate it with ClickSchedule for
use in optimized scheduling. LBS then enables service organizations to
improve their service operations by allowing them to make decisions and take
actions based on location information including, near real-time engineer
locations. In effect, LBS enables service managers to "see" the current
location of the entire mobile workforce at one time.
ClickSoftware's first-class LBS solution can receive location information
from GPS, cell-tower ID, cellular triangulation, assisted GPS and others and
integrates to ClickSchedule via Web Services. In addition to location
information, LBS provides information on an engineer's travel direction,
average speed and whether or not the engineer is currently moving.
Information also includes a time stamp to establish when the information was
processed. LBS also captures information on engineers' actual daily routes
and provides after-the-fact analysis capabilities to compare planned versus
actual routes to provide customer service representatives more complete
information when addressing customer issues.
LBS functionality, which can be used with both hand-held or truck-mounted
devices, is particularly helpful in organizations that need to make emergency
changes in the daily schedule and need to know who the closest skilled
engineer is to the emergency job site. ClickSoftware's solution comes with an
interactive wizard to facilitate these kinds of decisions based on the
location information. Additionally, LBS provides an important security
measure for organizations with field engineers who work in remote areas and
is essential in the fast recovery of stolen vehicles.
"The applications of location-based services are numerous, and when used
correctly, LBS can provide significant benefits to a service organization,"
said Dr. Moshe BenBassat, founder and CEO of ClickSoftware. "Our uniqueness
relative to the competition is in enabling proactive, automatic, and
optimized decisions. It is not just about visualizing locations on a map, it
is about acting on it. With the release of our new LBS we are setting the bar
higher. Whether the organization needs to quickly assign an engineer to fix a
gas leak, locate an engineer in rural parts of the country, or track down a
stolen service vehicle, ClickSoftware's LBS technology, together with our
world class ServiceOptimization Suite, not only ensures these needs are met,
but also keeps the organization running at optimal efficiency all the while."
About ClickSoftware
ClickSoftware is the leading provider of workforce and service
optimization solutions that maximize workforce productivity and customer
satisfaction while minimizing operations costs. ClickSoftware's
ServiceOptimization Suite provides an integrated, intelligent solution for
automatic, efficient, and effective decisions over the entire service
decision-making chain. It includes reliable customer demand and workload
forecasting, strategic and tactical capacity planning, optimized shift
planning, daily service scheduling, troubleshooting and repair support,
wireless workforce management, and business analytics-connecting all
organizational levels and functions. The company is located in Burlington,
Massachusetts, and in Israel, with offices in Europe and Asia Pacific.
For more information about ClickSoftware, please call +1-781-272-5903 or
888-438-3308, or visit http://www.clicksoftware.com.
This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements
within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. These forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, those regarding growth in ClickSoftware's
revenues and sales and partner networks. Such "forward-looking statements"
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may
cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those
projected. ClickSoftware's achievement of these results may be affected by
many factors, including among others, the following risks: that the economic
outlook may adversely affect the demand for ClickSoftware's products; that
the market acceptance of ClickSoftware's products may not grow as
anticipated; new product development and performance technological
difficulties; that ClickSoftware may fail to expand its relationships with
third parties that provide implementation and professional services to its
clients; and other risks associated with ClickSoftware's business. For
additional information regarding risks relating to ClickSoftware's business,
see ClickSoftware's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
including ClickSoftware's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2004, and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. ClickSoftware does not undertake to update any forward-looking
statements.
Software-based GPS solution is optimized for mobile devices
RF Micro Devices has readied a new software-based GPS solution labeled RFMD GPS RF8110. It is an optimized end-to-end solution to enable the integration of high-performance GPS applications in smartphones, wireless PDAs, digital cameras, gaming devices and other cost-sensitive, battery-operated mobile devices. Until now, mass deployment of GPS in mobile devices has been hindered by the high cost and size of conventional hardware-based GPS implementations. The RFMD GPS RF8110 redefines the boundaries of cost, power and size - enabling accelerated, widespread adoption of GPS in cost-sensitive mobile devices.
The RFMD GPS RF8110 is a highly scalable and flexible solution, allowing it to be optimized for a wide variety of product platforms. The solution eliminates the need for a dedicated baseband ASIC by leveraging the available host processing power and memory resources in feature-rich smartphones, wireless PDAs and other consumer devices. It is based on a mixed-signal 0.18 ｵm CMOS RFIC bundled with the developer痴 proprietary core GPS software. The RFIC has a hardware accelerator on-chip to offload the system's applications processor and to minimize the data transfer rate to the host CPU. Low power consumption is achieved through various hardware and software-controlled power save modes.
The solution supports push-to-fix, location-based services (LBS) applications, as well as automotive and pedestrian navigation in outdoor and low signal strength environments. Designed to be used in "best-in-class" portable devices, this solution can be easily integrated into a variety of leading host platforms powered by ARM-based applications processors like Intel's XScale processor, Texas Instrument's OMAP, Freescale's i.MX and Samsung's S3C. It is operating system-agnostic and supports a variety of mobile platforms including Linux, Windows Mobile 5.0 and Symbian. The RFMD GPS RF8110 supports both autonomous as well as standards-based assisted modes of operation. The RFMD GPS RF8110 reduces the total bill-of-materials (BOM) and leads to significant cost and size savings. In large volumes, the price of the RFMD GPS RF8110 RFIC bundled with core GPS software is approximately $3.
RF Micro Devices has readied a new software-based GPS solution labeled RFMD GPS RF8110. It is an optimized end-to-end solution to enable the integration of high-performance GPS applications in smartphones, wireless PDAs, digital cameras, gaming devices and other cost-sensitive, battery-operated mobile devices. Until now, mass deployment of GPS in mobile devices has been hindered by the high cost and size of conventional hardware-based GPS implementations. The RFMD GPS RF8110 redefines the boundaries of cost, power and size - enabling accelerated, widespread adoption of GPS in cost-sensitive mobile devices.
The RFMD GPS RF8110 is a highly scalable and flexible solution, allowing it to be optimized for a wide variety of product platforms. The solution eliminates the need for a dedicated baseband ASIC by leveraging the available host processing power and memory resources in feature-rich smartphones, wireless PDAs and other consumer devices. It is based on a mixed-signal 0.18 ｵm CMOS RFIC bundled with the developer痴 proprietary core GPS software. The RFIC has a hardware accelerator on-chip to offload the system's applications processor and to minimize the data transfer rate to the host CPU. Low power consumption is achieved through various hardware and software-controlled power save modes.
The solution supports push-to-fix, location-based services (LBS) applications, as well as automotive and pedestrian navigation in outdoor and low signal strength environments. Designed to be used in "best-in-class" portable devices, this solution can be easily integrated into a variety of leading host platforms powered by ARM-based applications processors like Intel's XScale processor, Texas Instrument's OMAP, Freescale's i.MX and Samsung's S3C. It is operating system-agnostic and supports a variety of mobile platforms including Linux, Windows Mobile 5.0 and Symbian. The RFMD GPS RF8110 supports both autonomous as well as standards-based assisted modes of operation. The RFMD GPS RF8110 reduces the total bill-of-materials (BOM) and leads to significant cost and size savings. In large volumes, the price of the RFMD GPS RF8110 RFIC bundled with core GPS software is approximately $3.
Google Promotes AdRank
Site publishers who have wondered why certain ads appear where they do in their AdSense blocks can learn about that in Google's latest AdSense blog post.
AdWords uses a ranking system to order the advertisements appearing throughout Google's far-flung network of publishers. They have dubbed the system, appropriately enough, AdRank. Simply stated, the higher the AdRank, the higher the ad's placement online.
Google's AdSense team discussed how AdRank is calculated:
While bid price (the price advertisers are willing to pay for each click per thousand impressions) is obviously an important factor, we also calculate advertiser Quality Score to make sure the best performing ads will always appear on your site. Quality Score takes into account factors such as an ad's relevancy and click-through rate (CTR) (i.e. how likely users are to click on a given ad) because a higher CTR sometimes outweighs the benefits of a higher bid price.
As Google explains it, the system is a very good thing for publishers because it places ads in AdSense blocks that can generate the most revenue for a site.
Also, site publishers should not be alarmed when CPM-based ads suddenly appear and occupy some or all of the ad spaces in the block. "It has to produce an effective CPM greater than the sum of the individual text ads," the blog said.
---
Email WebProNews here.
Drag this to your Bookmarks.
Add to Del.icio.us | DiggThis | Yahoo My Web
View All Articles by David A. Utter
Site publishers who have wondered why certain ads appear where they do in their AdSense blocks can learn about that in Google's latest AdSense blog post.
AdWords uses a ranking system to order the advertisements appearing throughout Google's far-flung network of publishers. They have dubbed the system, appropriately enough, AdRank. Simply stated, the higher the AdRank, the higher the ad's placement online.
Google's AdSense team discussed how AdRank is calculated:
While bid price (the price advertisers are willing to pay for each click per thousand impressions) is obviously an important factor, we also calculate advertiser Quality Score to make sure the best performing ads will always appear on your site. Quality Score takes into account factors such as an ad's relevancy and click-through rate (CTR) (i.e. how likely users are to click on a given ad) because a higher CTR sometimes outweighs the benefits of a higher bid price.
As Google explains it, the system is a very good thing for publishers because it places ads in AdSense blocks that can generate the most revenue for a site.
Also, site publishers should not be alarmed when CPM-based ads suddenly appear and occupy some or all of the ad spaces in the block. "It has to produce an effective CPM greater than the sum of the individual text ads," the blog said.
---
Email WebProNews here.
Drag this to your Bookmarks.
Add to Del.icio.us | DiggThis | Yahoo My Web
View All Articles by David A. Utter
Track Anyone With a Cell Phone
Published 2.07.2006 by WallyJ | E-mail this post
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is copied from LiveAmmo. Where they got it, I have no idea.
"By using one of the many mobile phone location tracking services aimed at businesses or concerned parents, and some trickery it is possibly to get almost anyone's mobile phone position without their agreement. All that is required is their mobile phone number, and carrier.
Over the past year a number sites have popped up offering web based mobile phone tracking services. To use their services you purchase a monthly subscription or set number of credits, and enter in the targets phone number. The target then receives an SMS message asking them to confirm they consent to the tracking. After the target replies, the tracker can then request their position online and receive a street address, post code, and map of their location with an accuracy of around 250 meters.
As recently publicised by The Guardian, and The Register a simple / reasonably covert attack (assuming you have physical access to the target phone) would be to just reply to the confirmation message, and delete all evidence afterwards. For the attack described as follows physical access to the device is not required significantly lowering the bar for successfully activating the tracking service.
At first sight the system may seem secure due to the challenge (target receives SMS) - response (target replies to SMS) authentication method, however the required response is always the same and the SMS message from field is used to identify the target that agreed to the tracking. The problem arises since the SMS from field (similar to caller ID on a phone) is spoofable as previously reported.
This obviously raises a number of privacy concerns."
Comment: the predictability of those SMS authorization messages is of key concern for the security of mobile location-based services. As this attack demonstrates, one need only know the mobile number of the person to track in order to subscribe them to a tracking service without their permission. Another thing to consider is the ease with which Bluetooth-enabled mobile handsets can be hacked, which would also give an attacker the ability to tap into a mobile handset and send/receive SMS enrollment messages for location-based services tracking.
A recent article from Popular Science shows how a Bluetooth adapter can be modified to access devices more than a mile away, so the supposed 30-meter limitations of Bluetooth isn't accurate depending on the antenna used by the attacker.
Published 2.07.2006 by WallyJ | E-mail this post
E-mail this post
Remember me (?)
All personal information that you provide here will be governed by the Privacy Policy of Blogger.com. More...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is copied from LiveAmmo. Where they got it, I have no idea.
"By using one of the many mobile phone location tracking services aimed at businesses or concerned parents, and some trickery it is possibly to get almost anyone's mobile phone position without their agreement. All that is required is their mobile phone number, and carrier.
Over the past year a number sites have popped up offering web based mobile phone tracking services. To use their services you purchase a monthly subscription or set number of credits, and enter in the targets phone number. The target then receives an SMS message asking them to confirm they consent to the tracking. After the target replies, the tracker can then request their position online and receive a street address, post code, and map of their location with an accuracy of around 250 meters.
As recently publicised by The Guardian, and The Register a simple / reasonably covert attack (assuming you have physical access to the target phone) would be to just reply to the confirmation message, and delete all evidence afterwards. For the attack described as follows physical access to the device is not required significantly lowering the bar for successfully activating the tracking service.
At first sight the system may seem secure due to the challenge (target receives SMS) - response (target replies to SMS) authentication method, however the required response is always the same and the SMS message from field is used to identify the target that agreed to the tracking. The problem arises since the SMS from field (similar to caller ID on a phone) is spoofable as previously reported.
This obviously raises a number of privacy concerns."
Comment: the predictability of those SMS authorization messages is of key concern for the security of mobile location-based services. As this attack demonstrates, one need only know the mobile number of the person to track in order to subscribe them to a tracking service without their permission. Another thing to consider is the ease with which Bluetooth-enabled mobile handsets can be hacked, which would also give an attacker the ability to tap into a mobile handset and send/receive SMS enrollment messages for location-based services tracking.
A recent article from Popular Science shows how a Bluetooth adapter can be modified to access devices more than a mile away, so the supposed 30-meter limitations of Bluetooth isn't accurate depending on the antenna used by the attacker.
Siemens Announces The SXG75 3G GPS Navigation Phone
Wed Mar 09, 2005 12:31 pm
With the SXG75, Siemens Communications unveils its first mobile phone specifically designed to take advantage of the new UMTS networks. Equipped with a built-in GPS module with A-GPS option, the SXG75 always steers the users in the right direction, wherever they travel. Its 2 megapixel digital camera, a second CIF camera for video telephony and a high-resolution color display, ensures images of perfect clarity are guaranteed. A FM radio receiver with RDS service and MP3 player, plus a fully-fledged organizer with Bluetooth for wireless data exchange, promises this multimedia megastar is sure to meet the highest demands of the most ambitious user. Along with an e-mail client, Multimedia Messaging (MMS) and a fast XHTML web browser, Instant Messaging and Push and Talk (availability dependent on network operator) are also supported. The optional "Mobile Music Set" accessory even transforms the phone into a portable stereo system. With the integrated GPS module and mobile offboard navigation solutions from Siemens VDO Automotive, getting lost in a strange city is a thing of the past. If GPS navigation is interrupted or lost, A-GPS provides the positioning data to continue the navigation (availability dependent on network operator). The SXG75 also supports location-based services such as restaurant tips, special offers or major tourist sights. Other practical applications include the built-in translation help for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages, as well as a photo editor and a program for creating panoramic pictures. These days fast access to information and high-volume data transfer from anywhere on the road pose no problem to third-generation mobile phone networks, enabling completely new applications such as video telephony, video streaming and audio streaming. The SXG75 from Siemens is ideally equipped to exploit the rich opportunities offered by UMTS communications. The comprehensive technical specification of this multimedia all-rounder sets new standards. This ultra high-tech mobile can of course be used in conventional GSM networks too. Multimedia without compromise: for high-quality photos and video recording, the SXG75 comes complete with an integrated 2 megapixel digital camera plus a second CIF camera on the front of the housing for video calls. The large 262,000 color TFT display (2,2 inches) with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels can be used to view movies and video clips in high quality – or even directly from the Internet via video streaming. A built-in MP3 player and FM radio receiver provide superb musical entertainment on the move, while the audio quality of the portable "Mobile Music Set IMS-700" makes listening with the SXG75 a pleasure. A particularly useful feature is that the music is automatically muted as soon as an incoming phone call is signaled. Designed to the highest specification, Siemens also offers battery powered active speakers as an accessory, allowing a further interface for even more music sources such as PC, MiniDisc or CD. Be it Multimedia Messaging (MMS), e-mail client, Instant Messaging or Push and Talk (PaT) – the SXG75 caters to the entire spectrum of mobile multimedia communications. A fast XHTML web browser is provided for surfing the Internet, whilst Bluetooth technology allows use of the fully-fledged integrated organizer for appointments, tasks, contacts and notes to be synchronized in a flash with MS-Outlook running the Mobile Phone Manager application on a PC. The 128 MB internal phone memory (64 MB for free use) provides more than enough space for images, music tracks, large volumes of data and applications. A slot for interchangeable reduced-sized multimedia cards offers additional memory capacity. Weighing a mere 134 grams and measuring 111.5 x 53 x 20 mm, the smart design of this slim UMTS phone features light colors and clean-cut angular forms, accentuating its advanced technical capabilities and giving it a style of its own. In addition to the "Mobile Music Set IMS-700", there are also further original Siemens accessories for the SXG75. They include a selection of headsets such as Bluetooth Headsets, a Stereo Headset or an elaborately designed Headset Purestyle as well as a number of high quality hands-free Bluetooth solutions for in-car use. An attachable Flash for the integrated camera, a choice of chargers, a data cable and a practical case complete the portfolio. Offered in the "metallic white" color, the SXG75 is priced locally and is available from September 2005. - Siemens SXG75 Photo 1 - Siemens SXG75 Photo 2
// posted by telekom @ 5:54 PM
Comments: Post a Comment
Wed Mar 09, 2005 12:31 pm
With the SXG75, Siemens Communications unveils its first mobile phone specifically designed to take advantage of the new UMTS networks. Equipped with a built-in GPS module with A-GPS option, the SXG75 always steers the users in the right direction, wherever they travel. Its 2 megapixel digital camera, a second CIF camera for video telephony and a high-resolution color display, ensures images of perfect clarity are guaranteed. A FM radio receiver with RDS service and MP3 player, plus a fully-fledged organizer with Bluetooth for wireless data exchange, promises this multimedia megastar is sure to meet the highest demands of the most ambitious user. Along with an e-mail client, Multimedia Messaging (MMS) and a fast XHTML web browser, Instant Messaging and Push and Talk (availability dependent on network operator) are also supported. The optional "Mobile Music Set" accessory even transforms the phone into a portable stereo system. With the integrated GPS module and mobile offboard navigation solutions from Siemens VDO Automotive, getting lost in a strange city is a thing of the past. If GPS navigation is interrupted or lost, A-GPS provides the positioning data to continue the navigation (availability dependent on network operator). The SXG75 also supports location-based services such as restaurant tips, special offers or major tourist sights. Other practical applications include the built-in translation help for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages, as well as a photo editor and a program for creating panoramic pictures. These days fast access to information and high-volume data transfer from anywhere on the road pose no problem to third-generation mobile phone networks, enabling completely new applications such as video telephony, video streaming and audio streaming. The SXG75 from Siemens is ideally equipped to exploit the rich opportunities offered by UMTS communications. The comprehensive technical specification of this multimedia all-rounder sets new standards. This ultra high-tech mobile can of course be used in conventional GSM networks too. Multimedia without compromise: for high-quality photos and video recording, the SXG75 comes complete with an integrated 2 megapixel digital camera plus a second CIF camera on the front of the housing for video calls. The large 262,000 color TFT display (2,2 inches) with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels can be used to view movies and video clips in high quality – or even directly from the Internet via video streaming. A built-in MP3 player and FM radio receiver provide superb musical entertainment on the move, while the audio quality of the portable "Mobile Music Set IMS-700" makes listening with the SXG75 a pleasure. A particularly useful feature is that the music is automatically muted as soon as an incoming phone call is signaled. Designed to the highest specification, Siemens also offers battery powered active speakers as an accessory, allowing a further interface for even more music sources such as PC, MiniDisc or CD. Be it Multimedia Messaging (MMS), e-mail client, Instant Messaging or Push and Talk (PaT) – the SXG75 caters to the entire spectrum of mobile multimedia communications. A fast XHTML web browser is provided for surfing the Internet, whilst Bluetooth technology allows use of the fully-fledged integrated organizer for appointments, tasks, contacts and notes to be synchronized in a flash with MS-Outlook running the Mobile Phone Manager application on a PC. The 128 MB internal phone memory (64 MB for free use) provides more than enough space for images, music tracks, large volumes of data and applications. A slot for interchangeable reduced-sized multimedia cards offers additional memory capacity. Weighing a mere 134 grams and measuring 111.5 x 53 x 20 mm, the smart design of this slim UMTS phone features light colors and clean-cut angular forms, accentuating its advanced technical capabilities and giving it a style of its own. In addition to the "Mobile Music Set IMS-700", there are also further original Siemens accessories for the SXG75. They include a selection of headsets such as Bluetooth Headsets, a Stereo Headset or an elaborately designed Headset Purestyle as well as a number of high quality hands-free Bluetooth solutions for in-car use. An attachable Flash for the integrated camera, a choice of chargers, a data cable and a practical case complete the portfolio. Offered in the "metallic white" color, the SXG75 is priced locally and is available from September 2005. - Siemens SXG75 Photo 1 - Siemens SXG75 Photo 2
// posted by telekom @ 5:54 PM
Comments: Post a Comment
U.S. IT Budget: New Geospatial Line of Business
I'm not sure what this really means, but Fed Sources reports that there are three new lines of business in the President's IT budget:
There are three new "Lines of Business" (LOBs) (IT Infrastructure, Geospatial and Budgeting). The six existing LOBs are Case Management, Federal Health Architecture, Financial Management, Human Resources Management, Grants Management and Information System Security.
Can someone more savvy in budget issues explain the significance, or lack thereof, of this addition?
Update 2/8 am:
This from a Q & A with White House on Director of Office Management and Budget, Joshua Bolton:
Q Your budget proposes three new line of business programs in IT infrastructure, geospatial and budget formulation. Can you go into some detail about that, and what you expect?
DIRECTOR BOLTEN: Clay, is that something you want to take?
Q The question is, the three new lines of business -- IT infrastructure, geospatial and budget formulation, how they´ll bring benefits or what they´ll require.
MR. JOHNSON: All three of those programs are -- deal with matters that are common across many agencies. And so we looked to come up with government-wide solutions to government-wide opportunities or problems. Geospatial -- there are a number of agencies that use geospatial information. And rather than each of them have been trying to come up with separate mechanisms for collecting this information and having accurate resources to turn to, we´re coming up with a resource that all agencies can tap into.
The other two were?
Q IT infrastructure and budget formulation.
MR. JOHNSON: Well, by budget formulation, they´re looking for common -- developing common expenditure codes that all agencies can use that will allow us to pull up data by expense type much more -- with a much more productive fashion, so we can have better information, better diagnostic information about our expenditures.
Q And then IT infrastructure?
MR. JOHNSON: IT infrastructure is there are a number of common infrastructure expenditures that every agency faces -- IT security, IT training, a help desk and so forth. And we´re looking for coming up with government-wide solutions to those common needs that every agency has.
I'm guessing they are speaking of Geospatial One-Stop? Perhaps its matured enough to have its own line of business? Again, input from those who understand this process would be appreciated!
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Here's the Geospatoial text from page 153 of "Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Govern-ment, Fiscal Year 2007", found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/pdf/spec.pdf
"Geospatial.—to identify opportunities for opti-mizing and consolidating Federal geospatial-re-lated investments to reduce the cost of Govern-ment and improve services to citizens through business performance improvements. The LoB taskforce will analyze cost benefits, alternatives and risks, define roles and responsibilities, ex-pected outcomes, performance measures, mile-stones, and timelines. The Federal Geographic Data Committee will continue to develop the Na-tional Spatial Data Infrastructure and full imple-mentation will require Federal agencies to play a critical role; therefore, the establishment of the Geospatial LoB will ensure sustainable business model for Federal partners to establish a sustain-able business model for Federal partners to col-laborate on geospatial-related activities and in-vestments."
#1 Mike Mahaffie (Link) on 2006-02-08 11:01 (Reply)
I'm not sure what this really means, but Fed Sources reports that there are three new lines of business in the President's IT budget:
There are three new "Lines of Business" (LOBs) (IT Infrastructure, Geospatial and Budgeting). The six existing LOBs are Case Management, Federal Health Architecture, Financial Management, Human Resources Management, Grants Management and Information System Security.
Can someone more savvy in budget issues explain the significance, or lack thereof, of this addition?
Update 2/8 am:
This from a Q & A with White House on Director of Office Management and Budget, Joshua Bolton:
Q Your budget proposes three new line of business programs in IT infrastructure, geospatial and budget formulation. Can you go into some detail about that, and what you expect?
DIRECTOR BOLTEN: Clay, is that something you want to take?
Q The question is, the three new lines of business -- IT infrastructure, geospatial and budget formulation, how they´ll bring benefits or what they´ll require.
MR. JOHNSON: All three of those programs are -- deal with matters that are common across many agencies. And so we looked to come up with government-wide solutions to government-wide opportunities or problems. Geospatial -- there are a number of agencies that use geospatial information. And rather than each of them have been trying to come up with separate mechanisms for collecting this information and having accurate resources to turn to, we´re coming up with a resource that all agencies can tap into.
The other two were?
Q IT infrastructure and budget formulation.
MR. JOHNSON: Well, by budget formulation, they´re looking for common -- developing common expenditure codes that all agencies can use that will allow us to pull up data by expense type much more -- with a much more productive fashion, so we can have better information, better diagnostic information about our expenditures.
Q And then IT infrastructure?
MR. JOHNSON: IT infrastructure is there are a number of common infrastructure expenditures that every agency faces -- IT security, IT training, a help desk and so forth. And we´re looking for coming up with government-wide solutions to those common needs that every agency has.
I'm guessing they are speaking of Geospatial One-Stop? Perhaps its matured enough to have its own line of business? Again, input from those who understand this process would be appreciated!
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Here's the Geospatoial text from page 153 of "Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Govern-ment, Fiscal Year 2007", found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/pdf/spec.pdf
"Geospatial.—to identify opportunities for opti-mizing and consolidating Federal geospatial-re-lated investments to reduce the cost of Govern-ment and improve services to citizens through business performance improvements. The LoB taskforce will analyze cost benefits, alternatives and risks, define roles and responsibilities, ex-pected outcomes, performance measures, mile-stones, and timelines. The Federal Geographic Data Committee will continue to develop the Na-tional Spatial Data Infrastructure and full imple-mentation will require Federal agencies to play a critical role; therefore, the establishment of the Geospatial LoB will ensure sustainable business model for Federal partners to establish a sustain-able business model for Federal partners to col-laborate on geospatial-related activities and in-vestments."
#1 Mike Mahaffie (Link) on 2006-02-08 11:01 (Reply)
Define: Geographic Exploration Systems
Geographic Exploration System (GES) is a new buzzword, in case you hadn't noticed. The term, in its recent incarnation, seems to date back to ESRI announcing ArcGIS Explorer last summer in San Diego and last fall in Warsaw. More recently GeoWorld editor Matt Ball tackles the topic in a feature called, "Digital Reality: Comparing Geographic Exploration Systems." In it, he distinguishes this class of products as offering "the ability to visualize the globe in three dimensions."
Ball includes a series of products in his comparison: Skyline's Terra Suite, GeoFusion's GeoPlayer and GeoMatix Toolkit, NASA's World Wind, GeoTango's GlobeView (recently acquired by Microsoft), Carbon Tools Gaia, and ESRI's ArcGIS Explorer. Google Earth, of course, fits in this group, too.
The interesting thing to remember here is that these are all client/server solutions, true systems. Ideally, you download an app and run it on your local machine and tap into data served up by one or more providers (via open or proprietary standards, or a mix) on the Internet. So, while these are all 3D viewers, the ability to visualize the entire globe is really up to those providing the data. And, of course, if you are planning to be offline, you'd better download the data you'll need when disconnected.
Google Earth is giving everyone the idea that all viewers must "come with" oodles and oodles of high resolution data when in fact, some come with basically none and send you out to find it. When comparing Google Local/Earth and Live Local many reviews go into great depth about the data available, as they should. Some geographic data still costs money and we as well as the consumer level user need to know that. ESRI wants users to know that; that's how it hopes to leverage ArcWeb Services, which of course, includes data and services.
One historical note. If I recall correctly, in about 1992 ArcView (good old desktop ArcView 1, I think) was described as a Geographic Exploration System. It was 2D and accessed existing ESRI formatted data from its sample CDs, your existing GIS implementation or from data you purchased (including Directions Magazine founder Scott Elliott's 15 CD Wessex data). Times have changed…
Interestingly, ESRI's website does not appear to include the term "Geographic Exploration System." In fact, "geographic exploration" is only found on K-12 and library pages, where I should add, it most certainly belongs.
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Adena,
Yes! The term 'Exploration System' was used in San Diego and I definitely heard it from the front row in Warsaw when it was announced last fall.
Thus, I am not too surprised to hear it because, from what I have seen and how I look at this, it is an exploration system. It fits.
While none of us have the final product, the distinction I made at the time, was that it 'accepted' data into the 'system' for more 'exploration'.
I think people got hung up on Google Earth and have missed the essence of ArcWeb Services and ArcGIS explorer. If one misses the connection - the conduit - then they miss the purpose and direction and fall back to lumping the ESRI product 'against' Google Maps, Yahoo and Earth and so on.
That is a big mistake... because...Google is a centralised processor system. ArcWeb services are dependent upon 'users' creating stuff with tools - then - sticking it into the system. The accent is on GIS tools - the rest of the Explorer is exactly that -Exploring someone else's creation.
I did a review of ArcGIS 9.0 some time ago - it was published - I forget which magazine. In that review I mentioned one of the issues about these new products pertains to the naming conventions used.
Maybe that is intended, maybe not
Maybe its still all exploratory?
Jeff
#1 Vector One (Link) on 2006-02-07 15:58 (Reply)
Jeff,
Thanks for the follow up. Good to hear from you!
I can't help but note this quote from Jack Dangermond in the Atlantic Monthly (sub required, but there's a temp link, see link below) that Stefan and Ogle Earth cites (http://www.ogleearth.com/2006/02/ogle_earth_ment.html).
It makes me think you and Jack may have different ideas on this. And, as Stefan notes, there are many efforts currently to do just what Jack says is not possible.
"There’s no way to connect a professional data set to Google Earth, so in a sense it is pretty thin. [...] But because it is spellbinding to customers, it can only build awareness of geography."
#1.1 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2006-02-08 12:40 (Reply)
Hi Adena,
Ok, I went to read the note you mentioned.
Actually, to me, it is quite straightforward. My thought is as follows.
Google Earth is an exceptionally good product (for Americans, Canadians and those in some big cities
#2 Jeff Thurston (Link) on 2006-02-09 14:17 (Reply)
Geographic Exploration System (GES) is a new buzzword, in case you hadn't noticed. The term, in its recent incarnation, seems to date back to ESRI announcing ArcGIS Explorer last summer in San Diego and last fall in Warsaw. More recently GeoWorld editor Matt Ball tackles the topic in a feature called, "Digital Reality: Comparing Geographic Exploration Systems." In it, he distinguishes this class of products as offering "the ability to visualize the globe in three dimensions."
Ball includes a series of products in his comparison: Skyline's Terra Suite, GeoFusion's GeoPlayer and GeoMatix Toolkit, NASA's World Wind, GeoTango's GlobeView (recently acquired by Microsoft), Carbon Tools Gaia, and ESRI's ArcGIS Explorer. Google Earth, of course, fits in this group, too.
The interesting thing to remember here is that these are all client/server solutions, true systems. Ideally, you download an app and run it on your local machine and tap into data served up by one or more providers (via open or proprietary standards, or a mix) on the Internet. So, while these are all 3D viewers, the ability to visualize the entire globe is really up to those providing the data. And, of course, if you are planning to be offline, you'd better download the data you'll need when disconnected.
Google Earth is giving everyone the idea that all viewers must "come with" oodles and oodles of high resolution data when in fact, some come with basically none and send you out to find it. When comparing Google Local/Earth and Live Local many reviews go into great depth about the data available, as they should. Some geographic data still costs money and we as well as the consumer level user need to know that. ESRI wants users to know that; that's how it hopes to leverage ArcWeb Services, which of course, includes data and services.
One historical note. If I recall correctly, in about 1992 ArcView (good old desktop ArcView 1, I think) was described as a Geographic Exploration System. It was 2D and accessed existing ESRI formatted data from its sample CDs, your existing GIS implementation or from data you purchased (including Directions Magazine founder Scott Elliott's 15 CD Wessex data). Times have changed…
Interestingly, ESRI's website does not appear to include the term "Geographic Exploration System." In fact, "geographic exploration" is only found on K-12 and library pages, where I should add, it most certainly belongs.
Karma for this article: ++ | + | 0 | - | --
Posted by Adena Schutzberg at 06:54 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)
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Adena,
Yes! The term 'Exploration System' was used in San Diego and I definitely heard it from the front row in Warsaw when it was announced last fall.
Thus, I am not too surprised to hear it because, from what I have seen and how I look at this, it is an exploration system. It fits.
While none of us have the final product, the distinction I made at the time, was that it 'accepted' data into the 'system' for more 'exploration'.
I think people got hung up on Google Earth and have missed the essence of ArcWeb Services and ArcGIS explorer. If one misses the connection - the conduit - then they miss the purpose and direction and fall back to lumping the ESRI product 'against' Google Maps, Yahoo and Earth and so on.
That is a big mistake... because...Google is a centralised processor system. ArcWeb services are dependent upon 'users' creating stuff with tools - then - sticking it into the system. The accent is on GIS tools - the rest of the Explorer is exactly that -Exploring someone else's creation.
I did a review of ArcGIS 9.0 some time ago - it was published - I forget which magazine. In that review I mentioned one of the issues about these new products pertains to the naming conventions used.
Maybe that is intended, maybe not
Maybe its still all exploratory?
Jeff
#1 Vector One (Link) on 2006-02-07 15:58 (Reply)
Jeff,
Thanks for the follow up. Good to hear from you!
I can't help but note this quote from Jack Dangermond in the Atlantic Monthly (sub required, but there's a temp link, see link below) that Stefan and Ogle Earth cites (http://www.ogleearth.com/2006/02/ogle_earth_ment.html).
It makes me think you and Jack may have different ideas on this. And, as Stefan notes, there are many efforts currently to do just what Jack says is not possible.
"There’s no way to connect a professional data set to Google Earth, so in a sense it is pretty thin. [...] But because it is spellbinding to customers, it can only build awareness of geography."
#1.1 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2006-02-08 12:40 (Reply)
Hi Adena,
Ok, I went to read the note you mentioned.
Actually, to me, it is quite straightforward. My thought is as follows.
Google Earth is an exceptionally good product (for Americans, Canadians and those in some big cities
#2 Jeff Thurston (Link) on 2006-02-09 14:17 (Reply)
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Google, Telecom Execs Stir Up The Internet Access Debate On Capitol Hill
The issue is network neutrality: Should telecom and cable companies charge premiums for companies like Google and Skype that benefit from broadband pipes?
By J. Nicholas Hoover
InformationWeek
Feb 7, 2006 05:00 PM
The phone and cable companies have been very vocal in recent months about Internet access. They think Internet service companies like Google, eBay and Vonage should have to pay more to get to better service on the broadband pipes the access companies have built out. If the hundreds of people snaked outside and packed into room 562 at the Dirksen Senate Building this morning are any indication, it's an issue that's only going to heat up.
The looming fight over tiers of differentiated service brought several Internet big shots, telecommunications industry representatives and academics to Capitol Hill today to testify on the principle of network neutrality. Network neutrality proponents say information networks must be open and not discriminate between services and applications. On the other side, telecommunications and cable companies note they've paid out big bucks for extensive broadband networks that are still being built, and that it's from those pipes that Internet service providers benefit.
Internet and VoIP players argue that they need to be allowed unfettered access to the Web in order to accelerate innovation and maintain their own livelihoods. If it were not for the open model of the Internet where anyone who wants to put up a service or Website can, they say, Google, Skype and their ilk may never have been born.
"The Internet’s open, neutral architecture has proven to be an enormous engine for market innovation, economic growth, social discourse, and the free flow of ideas," Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's founding fathers and VP at Google, told members of the Senate Commerce Committee. "Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success."
Although Internet service providers disagree, telecommunications companies say they have no plans to block, impede, or degrade service. They say they only need to be able to change pricing schemes for Internet service providers in order to keep rolling out broadband. "If broadband providers are to continue to make these investments, and if consumers are going to be given the levels of services and innovative new products and features they desire, all at prices they can afford," said National Cable and Telecommunications Association President and CEO Kyle McSlarrow, "broadband providers need to have continuing flexibility to innovate in the business models and pricing plans they employ."
It's still early in the discussion on Capitol Hill, and while Democrats on the Commerce Committee like Barbara Boxer, Calif., clearly come down on the side of Internet companies, several of the Senators today were trying to grasp more of the issue rather than grandstanding. "We have a real tough job ahead," Senator Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, told a group of reporters after the hearing. He'd earlier wished aloud that there was much more time to debate the issues at hand.
Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission have been kicking the network neutrality ball around for a few months now, with not much to show for it. But those debates may escalate soon even on the Hill, as several Congressmen, including Stevens, have discussed broad transformation of the nation's telecommunications laws to complement the shifting communication paradigms of the Internet generation. Others have proposed more limited changes. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced today that he will soon be introducing a bill that would assure that information from one company is treated no differently from information from a second company, and that those who provide Internet access will not give preferential treatment to their own traffic over that of third parties like Yahoo.
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The issue is network neutrality: Should telecom and cable companies charge premiums for companies like Google and Skype that benefit from broadband pipes?
By J. Nicholas Hoover
InformationWeek
Feb 7, 2006 05:00 PM
The phone and cable companies have been very vocal in recent months about Internet access. They think Internet service companies like Google, eBay and Vonage should have to pay more to get to better service on the broadband pipes the access companies have built out. If the hundreds of people snaked outside and packed into room 562 at the Dirksen Senate Building this morning are any indication, it's an issue that's only going to heat up.
The looming fight over tiers of differentiated service brought several Internet big shots, telecommunications industry representatives and academics to Capitol Hill today to testify on the principle of network neutrality. Network neutrality proponents say information networks must be open and not discriminate between services and applications. On the other side, telecommunications and cable companies note they've paid out big bucks for extensive broadband networks that are still being built, and that it's from those pipes that Internet service providers benefit.
Internet and VoIP players argue that they need to be allowed unfettered access to the Web in order to accelerate innovation and maintain their own livelihoods. If it were not for the open model of the Internet where anyone who wants to put up a service or Website can, they say, Google, Skype and their ilk may never have been born.
"The Internet’s open, neutral architecture has proven to be an enormous engine for market innovation, economic growth, social discourse, and the free flow of ideas," Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's founding fathers and VP at Google, told members of the Senate Commerce Committee. "Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success."
Although Internet service providers disagree, telecommunications companies say they have no plans to block, impede, or degrade service. They say they only need to be able to change pricing schemes for Internet service providers in order to keep rolling out broadband. "If broadband providers are to continue to make these investments, and if consumers are going to be given the levels of services and innovative new products and features they desire, all at prices they can afford," said National Cable and Telecommunications Association President and CEO Kyle McSlarrow, "broadband providers need to have continuing flexibility to innovate in the business models and pricing plans they employ."
It's still early in the discussion on Capitol Hill, and while Democrats on the Commerce Committee like Barbara Boxer, Calif., clearly come down on the side of Internet companies, several of the Senators today were trying to grasp more of the issue rather than grandstanding. "We have a real tough job ahead," Senator Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, told a group of reporters after the hearing. He'd earlier wished aloud that there was much more time to debate the issues at hand.
Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission have been kicking the network neutrality ball around for a few months now, with not much to show for it. But those debates may escalate soon even on the Hill, as several Congressmen, including Stevens, have discussed broad transformation of the nation's telecommunications laws to complement the shifting communication paradigms of the Internet generation. Others have proposed more limited changes. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced today that he will soon be introducing a bill that would assure that information from one company is treated no differently from information from a second company, and that those who provide Internet access will not give preferential treatment to their own traffic over that of third parties like Yahoo.
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u-Nav Microelectronics Picks Tensilica's Xtensa Processors for Portable GPS Systems
Monday February 6, 8:30 am ET
Low Power Was Key Criteria for u-Nav's Choice of Xtensa Processors
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2006--Tensilica®, Inc. today announced that u-Nav Microelectronics, a worldwide leader in ultra-low power Global Positioning Systems (GPS) semiconductors, has picked the Xtensa® configurable processors for its next-generation GPS designs, which will be targeted for portable applications such as mobile wireless handsets and consumer devices.
We selected the Tensilica Xtensa processor because they offered us the most flexibility and achieved the lowest power for a programmable solution," stated Greg Winner, COO of u-Nav Microelectronics. "With the ability to customize Xtensa through Tensilica's automated processor generation technology, and the inclusion of u-Nav's custom instructions, we created a unique way to significantly lower the total power consumption of our complete GPS system-on-chip design."
"Many engineering teams assume that configurable processor technology is useful only in applications that have significant high performance (speed) requirements. But the engineers at u-Nav quickly realized that extending the Xtensa processor through our Tensilica Instruction Extension (TIE) language and processor generator technology was an ideal method to drive towards optimal power efficiency for mobile applications," stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica's vice president of marketing. "At Tensilica we are excited to be partnering with u-Nav as this relationship highlights yet another win for the Xtensa architecture in high-volume mobile handset applications."
About u-Nav Microelectronics
u-Nav is a privately held, fabless semiconductor company that develops GPS semiconductor and software solutions for the emerging mobile location based services market. u-Nav's technology delivers ultra-low power and leading-edge performance enabling operation indoors and in urban canyons. u-Nav Microelectronics is headquartered in Irvine, California, with design and development centers in Irvine, Singapore and Tampere, Finland. Applications and Sales offices are located worldwide.
About Tensilica
Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the growing need for optimized, application-specific processor solutions in high-volume embedded SOC applications. With over 80 customers worldwide for its Xtensa configurable and extensible processor cores, Tensilica is the only company that has transformed the once-arduous task of generating a customized processor core and companion software development tool environment into an automated process that takes less than one hour. For more information on Tensilica's patented approach to the creation of application-specific building blocks for SOC design, visit www.tensilica.com.
Editors' Notes:
Tensilica and Xtensa are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Tensilica's announced licensees include ALPS, AMCC (JNI Corporation), Astute Networks, Atheros, ATI, Avago Technologies, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, Cypress, Crimson Microsystems, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, Ikanos Communications, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC Laboratories America, NEC Corporation, NetEffect, Neterion, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), NVIDIA, Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., sci-worx, Seiko Epson, Solid State Systems, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Stretch, TranSwitch Corporation, u-Nav
Microelectronics and Victor Company of Japan (JVC).
Contact:
Tensilica, Inc.
Paula Jones, 408-327-7343
paula@tensilica.com
or
Tanis Communications
Erika Powelson, 831-424-1811
erika@taniscomm.com
or
u-Nav Microelectronics
Lewis Boore, 949-341-3211
lew.boore@unav-micro.com
Monday February 6, 8:30 am ET
Low Power Was Key Criteria for u-Nav's Choice of Xtensa Processors
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2006--Tensilica®, Inc. today announced that u-Nav Microelectronics, a worldwide leader in ultra-low power Global Positioning Systems (GPS) semiconductors, has picked the Xtensa® configurable processors for its next-generation GPS designs, which will be targeted for portable applications such as mobile wireless handsets and consumer devices.
We selected the Tensilica Xtensa processor because they offered us the most flexibility and achieved the lowest power for a programmable solution," stated Greg Winner, COO of u-Nav Microelectronics. "With the ability to customize Xtensa through Tensilica's automated processor generation technology, and the inclusion of u-Nav's custom instructions, we created a unique way to significantly lower the total power consumption of our complete GPS system-on-chip design."
"Many engineering teams assume that configurable processor technology is useful only in applications that have significant high performance (speed) requirements. But the engineers at u-Nav quickly realized that extending the Xtensa processor through our Tensilica Instruction Extension (TIE) language and processor generator technology was an ideal method to drive towards optimal power efficiency for mobile applications," stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica's vice president of marketing. "At Tensilica we are excited to be partnering with u-Nav as this relationship highlights yet another win for the Xtensa architecture in high-volume mobile handset applications."
About u-Nav Microelectronics
u-Nav is a privately held, fabless semiconductor company that develops GPS semiconductor and software solutions for the emerging mobile location based services market. u-Nav's technology delivers ultra-low power and leading-edge performance enabling operation indoors and in urban canyons. u-Nav Microelectronics is headquartered in Irvine, California, with design and development centers in Irvine, Singapore and Tampere, Finland. Applications and Sales offices are located worldwide.
About Tensilica
Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the growing need for optimized, application-specific processor solutions in high-volume embedded SOC applications. With over 80 customers worldwide for its Xtensa configurable and extensible processor cores, Tensilica is the only company that has transformed the once-arduous task of generating a customized processor core and companion software development tool environment into an automated process that takes less than one hour. For more information on Tensilica's patented approach to the creation of application-specific building blocks for SOC design, visit www.tensilica.com.
Editors' Notes:
Tensilica and Xtensa are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Tensilica's announced licensees include ALPS, AMCC (JNI Corporation), Astute Networks, Atheros, ATI, Avago Technologies, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, Cypress, Crimson Microsystems, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, Ikanos Communications, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC Laboratories America, NEC Corporation, NetEffect, Neterion, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), NVIDIA, Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., sci-worx, Seiko Epson, Solid State Systems, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Stretch, TranSwitch Corporation, u-Nav
Microelectronics and Victor Company of Japan (JVC).
Contact:
Tensilica, Inc.
Paula Jones, 408-327-7343
paula@tensilica.com
or
Tanis Communications
Erika Powelson, 831-424-1811
erika@taniscomm.com
or
u-Nav Microelectronics
Lewis Boore, 949-341-3211
lew.boore@unav-micro.com
NEC & WIND Collaborate on Assisted GPS Commercial Trials
via ACN Newswire) - Rome and Tokyo, Japan, Feb 6, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - NEC Corporation today announced that it has been collaborating on joint field trials for SUPL-based Assisted GPS location services with WIND, Italy's leading mobile operator.
Following two trials in May and September last year, the companies are please to announce the successful attainment of the high levels of performance and accuracy, required to offer the next generation of location based services.
WIND successfully tested the accuracy and performance of the NEC solution at 15 locations around Italy with varying environmental conditions and topographies, both inside and outside, using A-GPS enables mobile phones.
The NEC system on trial is a Secure User Plane for Location (SUPL)-based system. SUPL is a standards-based interface, specified by the Open Mobile Alliance(TM) that enables a mobile phone to communicate with a location server in a network agnostic way, reducing deployment costs and simplifying service roaming.
The NEC A-GPS over IP platform is a complete solution allowing mobile operators to rapidly deploy various location-based services (LBS) that benefit from higher location accuracy. The solution uses A-GPS technology to enable highly accurate positioning of a mobile device
In A-GPS positioning, the service uses both an A-GPS chipset in the handset and a position calculation engine at the mobile operator or service provider, to determine the mobile device's location. An A-GPS chipset can be embedded within a mobile handset with little impact on form factor or battery life, unlike traditional GPS receivers in handheld devices.
NEC is a pioneer in A-GPS solutions and boasts a wealth of experience in developing location-based service systems for not only Japanese operators but also operators worldwide. NEC has made a valuable contribution to consumer location-based services in some of the world's leading mobile carriers, proving its competence in this field.
The system allows for positioning data management with high levels of reliability and privacy control, incorporating user-specified preferences. In conjunction with content delivery servers and Internet gateways, the NEC A-GPS over IP Solution enables diverse location based services. The solution supports Mobile Location Protocol, a standard interface with ASP/CP, making it easy for ASP and CP to develop a wide range of location service choices.
The A-GPS technology offers positioning accuracy superior to most other positioning techniques. Outdoors the NEC A-GPS over IP Solution works in conjunction with GPS satellites to accomplish highly accurate positioning. In indoor applications, it automatically falls back on the cell-based positioning technology as needed. Using these technologies in combination realizes an optimum positioning solution that minimizes `grey zones' where positioning is not available.
About NEC's Enriched Mobile Life Solutions
NEC's solutions for a better mobile lifestyle underpin the rich media delivery, voice and contextual service portfolios of leading mobile network operators around the world. A quicker time to live service, lower implementation risk and an annually evolving integrated product line, mean our customers become our partners as they rely on us to protect their market advantage.
NEC will exhibit its latest Mobile Solutions at this year's 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, being held from February 13 - 16, 2006, showcasing the products behind its leading position in the global 3G and mobile internet market. At this year's 3GSM World Congress, NEC will unveil a selection of integrated products and services that show how NEC is adding value today to its customers by providing end-to-end solutions. NEC's booth illustrates network evolution, service solutions, customer value chain solutions, a product portfolio of network infrastructure and value added services, mobile handsets and semiconductor solutions.
For more information regarding NEC's activities at 3GSM, please visit:
http://www.nec-3gsm.com
About WIND Telecomunicazioni S.p.A.
Established in 1997, WIND is the leading Italian operator offering integrated fixed, internet and mobile telecommunications solutions.
WIND manages Europe's most extensive TLC network run by a non-incumbent operator. WIND covers more than 98,9 percent of the Italian population with its mobile network, offers fixed telephony and internet services over the entire national territory and has a more than 18,000 kilometres long fibre optic backbone.
WIND is the leading non incumbent operator on the Italian fixed telephony market, runs Italy's most successful internet Portal (Italia On Line) and is the Italian largest Internet Service Provider (ISP). WIND is also Italy's 3rd largest mobile operator, with a 16 percent market share gained in just three years from launce of its mobile service.
About NEC Corporation
Different Kinds of Geospatial Data
Geospatial Semantic Web
The most value asset in a GIS system is data. Without data, a GIS system is like a computer system with the best peripherals but only with an empty hard drive — it’s useless. If data is so important, it is necessary for us to understand the role of data in the future GIS systems — i.e., the Geospatial Semantic Web.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Semantic Geospatial Web, Geodata, Mapping, Geocoding February 7th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: geospatial, GIS, geospatial semantic web, mashup, knowledge representation | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
MOD: Mashups of the Day
daddytypes.com: a Google Maps mashup that shows all known New York City men’s rooms with baby diaper-changing tables. This mashup was featured in a recent New York Times article.
Kayak Buzz: a Google Maps and Kayak mashup that tells you where you can go for under a certain amount of money? It displays airfares under a user defined amount of money on a Google Map.
Posted in Geospatial Applications, Semantic Geospatial Web, Mapping, Mashups of the Day February 6th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: maps, baby, NYC, travel, kayak, mashup, technology, gis, geospatial | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
Virtual NYC Tour with Google Maps and Wiki
Mash-up is a buzz word these days. Mash-up applications are applications that exploit two or more distinctive technologies provided by some existing applications and combined them to create new capabilities.
Virtual NYC Tour is an interesting mash-up application that exploit Google Maps and Wiki.
The site, www.virtualnyctour.com, lets users choose from 17 different trails for a “walking tour” of locations such as Soho, Ground Zero and Central Park. A map pinpoints the user’s location while photos show what can be seen along that route (cars, trash bags on the sidewalk, people talking on cell phones, and, oh yeah, amazing architecture). Alongside that are historical and other summaries from Wikipedia.
Posted in Google Maps, Geospatial Applications, Image Annotation, Yahoo! Maps, Semantic Geospatial Web, Geodata, Mapping, Geocoding January 19th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: google maps, wiki, nyc, tour, mash-up, geospatial, gis | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
An Optimal Way to Geocode Locations Using Microformats
In the past, I talked about the use of microformats to geocode locations on the Web. Microformats is a new approach that attempts to introduce meaningful markups in the existing HTML pages. In particular, it exploits the use of HTML attribute values.
Norman Walsh has a post that discusses different ways to encode the latitude and longitude information of the Eiffel Tower using microformat.
There is also an interesting comment from Elliotte Rusty Harold that shows how the same information can be encoded in a more optimal representation.
Just be warned. The described approach only works if the end user application (e.g., a browser) knows how to ignore the non-standard HTML tags. Otherwise, it may create problems during the page rendering process.
Posted in Ontology, Semantic Geospatial Web, Geodata, Metadata, Geocoding January 17th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: geocode, geospatial semantic web, microformat, gis, semantic web, semanticweb, xml, html | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
Is Geospatial Ontology Just a Bunch of Tags?
People often ask the question:
Is geospatial ontology just a bunch of tags (e.g., XML tags, technorati tags or flickr tags)?
Why is it so important to differentiate tags from ontologies?
Before I try to answer these questions, let me say few words about the term “ontology” with respect to computing systems.
What’s Ontology?
The concept of ontology originates from the studies of philosophy. Today in computer science, especially in the field of Artificial Intelligence, ontology is a set of vocabularies and relations that people or computing machines must agree upon in order to communicate. Without sharing a common ontology, they won’t be able to share information effectively.
Why I think Tags are not Ontology
Let’s take the technorati tag “cell” as an example. The term cell in our pop culture could mean cellphone, the smallest basic unit of an animal of a plant, or a small residential accommodation in a prison. Let’s say you tagged one of your blog post with the tag “cell”. This blog post was later discovered by a technorati search bot. Now the question is how much information can the search bot learn from the tag “cell”?
No much. All it knows is that your post is tagged with an English word that spells ‘c’, ‘e’, ‘l’, ‘l’. It probably doesn’t even know your post is about cellphones, human cells or prison cells.
A natural question to ask is that can we do better? For example, can we help the search bot to know more about the content of our blog? In other words, can we help computing systems to understand the semantics of information?
I don’t know for sure, but I do believe it’s possible. In fact, many ongoing Semantic Web efforts in OGC and W3C are working to solve this kind of problems.
Coming Back to Geospatial Ontology
Once we understand tags are not ontology, we can immediately conclude that geospatial ontology is not just a bunch of tags. What makes geospatial ontology so interesting is that much of the information in our everyday life involves some kind geospatial ontology. If we are on the path to develop computing systems that could understand the semantics of our blog posts, for example, we must pay extra attention to geospatial ontology.
In the near future, I will discuss geospatial ontology development and its usage in real world applications.
Posted in Ontology, Semantic Geospatial Web, Geodata, Metadata January 17th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: ontology, tags, technorati, ogc, w3c, geospatial, gis, geospatial web, semantic web, geospatial semantic web, flickr | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
New Geospatial Semantic Web Podcast Page
Today I added a new page that collects podcast shows that discuss geospatial technology and the Semantic Web. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet seen shows that specifically focus on the cross-fertilazation of the two technologies. I hope this is going to change in the near future.
http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/podcasts/?
Posted in General, Semantic Geospatial Web January 10th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: podcast, geospatial semantic web, gis, geospatial, technology | 1 comment | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
Podcasts
For those who love Podcast, here is a collection of Podcast shows that discuss geospatial technology and the Semantic Web. If you have a show that you want to add, email me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interview with Peter Morville (author of Ambient Findability), VerySpatial Podcast, January 15, 2006.
Summary: VerySpatail interviews that Peter Morville on the subject Ambient Findability. Ambient Findability is a notion that describes things in the physical world can be easily found, tracked, searched, and geo-located in an anywhere any time fashion. Peter thinks Ambient Findability is the cross-breed of ubiquitous computing and the Web.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Quest for Reliable Directions, NRP, January 10, 2006.
Summary: Experts talked about map data usage in popular mapping service web sites such as Yahoo! Maps, Google Maps and MapQuest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The New Sense of the Web, OnPoint with Tom Ashbrook, January 03, 2006.
Summary: The digital realm is exploding into the physical world. They call it the “geo-spatial web.” Already it means online maps loaded with information about the physical world, and someday soon, that physical world itself will be tagged and teeming with data for the asking: What is that building? Where is my dog? Who is that man? Hear about the ambitions and implications of the “geospatial web.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn left at the Internet, MarketPlace, November 22, 2005.
Summary: Online mapping programs are among the most popular Internet tools. Trade in geographic data generates hundreds of millions each year. Rachel Dornhelm talked to the folks who give those online sites their sense of direction.
Posted in General January 10th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: podcast, geospatial, gis | 1 comment | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
ESRI Federal User Conference
The ESRI Federal User Conference (FedUC) is January 31?February 2, 2006, at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The conference supports those who deploy ESRI software for geoprocessing and analysis, integrated work flows, and intelligent collaboration across government. (source blog)
Going through the program schedule (pdf), I see a lot of interesting application domain that could exploit Semantic Web technology. I think the use of ontologies and RDF can be useful in the following domains:
Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure: the Year of Alignment (page 3)
WMD Response in a Joint Civil and Military Environment (page 6)
GIS for Homeland Security and Emergency Management (page 8 )
Preserving GeoSpatial Data (page 12)
I’m quite disappointed to see the word “semantic” is not mentioned anywhere in the entire 27 pages document. The word “intergration” is mentioned is 15 times. Do people really believe that knowledge integration problems can be solved without some kind of understanding of the semantics?
Posted in General, GIS in Government, Geospatial Applications January 9th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: esri, conference, geospatial, gis | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
Geospatial Semantic Web
The most value asset in a GIS system is data. Without data, a GIS system is like a computer system with the best peripherals but only with an empty hard drive — it’s useless. If data is so important, it is necessary for us to understand the role of data in the future GIS systems — i.e., the Geospatial Semantic Web.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Semantic Geospatial Web, Geodata, Mapping, Geocoding February 7th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: geospatial, GIS, geospatial semantic web, mashup, knowledge representation | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
MOD: Mashups of the Day
daddytypes.com: a Google Maps mashup that shows all known New York City men’s rooms with baby diaper-changing tables. This mashup was featured in a recent New York Times article.
Kayak Buzz: a Google Maps and Kayak mashup that tells you where you can go for under a certain amount of money? It displays airfares under a user defined amount of money on a Google Map.
Posted in Geospatial Applications, Semantic Geospatial Web, Mapping, Mashups of the Day February 6th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: maps, baby, NYC, travel, kayak, mashup, technology, gis, geospatial | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
Virtual NYC Tour with Google Maps and Wiki
Mash-up is a buzz word these days. Mash-up applications are applications that exploit two or more distinctive technologies provided by some existing applications and combined them to create new capabilities.
Virtual NYC Tour is an interesting mash-up application that exploit Google Maps and Wiki.
The site, www.virtualnyctour.com, lets users choose from 17 different trails for a “walking tour” of locations such as Soho, Ground Zero and Central Park. A map pinpoints the user’s location while photos show what can be seen along that route (cars, trash bags on the sidewalk, people talking on cell phones, and, oh yeah, amazing architecture). Alongside that are historical and other summaries from Wikipedia.
Posted in Google Maps, Geospatial Applications, Image Annotation, Yahoo! Maps, Semantic Geospatial Web, Geodata, Mapping, Geocoding January 19th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: google maps, wiki, nyc, tour, mash-up, geospatial, gis | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
An Optimal Way to Geocode Locations Using Microformats
In the past, I talked about the use of microformats to geocode locations on the Web. Microformats is a new approach that attempts to introduce meaningful markups in the existing HTML pages. In particular, it exploits the use of HTML attribute values.
Norman Walsh has a post that discusses different ways to encode the latitude and longitude information of the Eiffel Tower using microformat.
There is also an interesting comment from Elliotte Rusty Harold that shows how the same information can be encoded in a more optimal representation.
Just be warned. The described approach only works if the end user application (e.g., a browser) knows how to ignore the non-standard HTML tags. Otherwise, it may create problems during the page rendering process.
Posted in Ontology, Semantic Geospatial Web, Geodata, Metadata, Geocoding January 17th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: geocode, geospatial semantic web, microformat, gis, semantic web, semanticweb, xml, html | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
Is Geospatial Ontology Just a Bunch of Tags?
People often ask the question:
Is geospatial ontology just a bunch of tags (e.g., XML tags, technorati tags or flickr tags)?
Why is it so important to differentiate tags from ontologies?
Before I try to answer these questions, let me say few words about the term “ontology” with respect to computing systems.
What’s Ontology?
The concept of ontology originates from the studies of philosophy. Today in computer science, especially in the field of Artificial Intelligence, ontology is a set of vocabularies and relations that people or computing machines must agree upon in order to communicate. Without sharing a common ontology, they won’t be able to share information effectively.
Why I think Tags are not Ontology
Let’s take the technorati tag “cell” as an example. The term cell in our pop culture could mean cellphone, the smallest basic unit of an animal of a plant, or a small residential accommodation in a prison. Let’s say you tagged one of your blog post with the tag “cell”. This blog post was later discovered by a technorati search bot. Now the question is how much information can the search bot learn from the tag “cell”?
No much. All it knows is that your post is tagged with an English word that spells ‘c’, ‘e’, ‘l’, ‘l’. It probably doesn’t even know your post is about cellphones, human cells or prison cells.
A natural question to ask is that can we do better? For example, can we help the search bot to know more about the content of our blog? In other words, can we help computing systems to understand the semantics of information?
I don’t know for sure, but I do believe it’s possible. In fact, many ongoing Semantic Web efforts in OGC and W3C are working to solve this kind of problems.
Coming Back to Geospatial Ontology
Once we understand tags are not ontology, we can immediately conclude that geospatial ontology is not just a bunch of tags. What makes geospatial ontology so interesting is that much of the information in our everyday life involves some kind geospatial ontology. If we are on the path to develop computing systems that could understand the semantics of our blog posts, for example, we must pay extra attention to geospatial ontology.
In the near future, I will discuss geospatial ontology development and its usage in real world applications.
Posted in Ontology, Semantic Geospatial Web, Geodata, Metadata January 17th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: ontology, tags, technorati, ogc, w3c, geospatial, gis, geospatial web, semantic web, geospatial semantic web, flickr | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
New Geospatial Semantic Web Podcast Page
Today I added a new page that collects podcast shows that discuss geospatial technology and the Semantic Web. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet seen shows that specifically focus on the cross-fertilazation of the two technologies. I hope this is going to change in the near future.
http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/podcasts/?
Posted in General, Semantic Geospatial Web January 10th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: podcast, geospatial semantic web, gis, geospatial, technology | 1 comment | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
Podcasts
For those who love Podcast, here is a collection of Podcast shows that discuss geospatial technology and the Semantic Web. If you have a show that you want to add, email me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interview with Peter Morville (author of Ambient Findability), VerySpatial Podcast, January 15, 2006.
Summary: VerySpatail interviews that Peter Morville on the subject Ambient Findability. Ambient Findability is a notion that describes things in the physical world can be easily found, tracked, searched, and geo-located in an anywhere any time fashion. Peter thinks Ambient Findability is the cross-breed of ubiquitous computing and the Web.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Quest for Reliable Directions, NRP, January 10, 2006.
Summary: Experts talked about map data usage in popular mapping service web sites such as Yahoo! Maps, Google Maps and MapQuest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The New Sense of the Web, OnPoint with Tom Ashbrook, January 03, 2006.
Summary: The digital realm is exploding into the physical world. They call it the “geo-spatial web.” Already it means online maps loaded with information about the physical world, and someday soon, that physical world itself will be tagged and teeming with data for the asking: What is that building? Where is my dog? Who is that man? Hear about the ambitions and implications of the “geospatial web.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn left at the Internet, MarketPlace, November 22, 2005.
Summary: Online mapping programs are among the most popular Internet tools. Trade in geographic data generates hundreds of millions each year. Rachel Dornhelm talked to the folks who give those online sites their sense of direction.
Posted in General January 10th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: podcast, geospatial, gis | 1 comment | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
ESRI Federal User Conference
The ESRI Federal User Conference (FedUC) is January 31?February 2, 2006, at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The conference supports those who deploy ESRI software for geoprocessing and analysis, integrated work flows, and intelligent collaboration across government. (source blog)
Going through the program schedule (pdf), I see a lot of interesting application domain that could exploit Semantic Web technology. I think the use of ontologies and RDF can be useful in the following domains:
Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure: the Year of Alignment (page 3)
WMD Response in a Joint Civil and Military Environment (page 6)
GIS for Homeland Security and Emergency Management (page 8 )
Preserving GeoSpatial Data (page 12)
I’m quite disappointed to see the word “semantic” is not mentioned anywhere in the entire 27 pages document. The word “intergration” is mentioned is 15 times. Do people really believe that knowledge integration problems can be solved without some kind of understanding of the semantics?
Posted in General, GIS in Government, Geospatial Applications January 9th, 2006 by harrychen | Tags: esri, conference, geospatial, gis | No comments | Post to del.icio.us | Digg this story | I Reddit
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Location Based Marketing - Could it Really Work? Part Three at MobHappy
by Russell Buckley on February 2nd, 2006 in Marketing, Location Based Services
This is Part 3 of my look at Location Based Marketing.
Part 1 identified that the key to success is the type of messages that marketers plan to send in the channel. It’s key to getting potential users to sign up in the first place (opt in), stopping them from opting out on an ongoing basis and it’s key if the messages are going to work and that recipients will respond to them.
In Part 2, we looked at some of the physical characteristics of LBM messages, that are essential to success, such as they should be free, not interrupt the mobile user and that they should quietly disappear when they have stopped being relevant.
In this final part, I’m going to look at the content of the advertising itself - saving the most important discussion to last.
It’s worth stressing that marketers must focus on this aspect, as users will have to agree to sign up to receive your advertising in the first place. If the implication is that you’re just going to send them a diet of same-old-same-old branding advertising, it’s safe to say that you won’t get many opt-ins.
As an example, Coca-Cola have always been at the forefront of advertising excellence and mobile innovation. Supposing they were one of the pioneers in LBM, which is quite a likely scenario. Using traditional, interruptive advertising thinking, they might reasonably consider sending a very short video of a Coke bottle onto your phone, along with the “Life Tastes Good” strapline they currently use in the UK.
Using best practice (they read Part 2, you see) this appears for about 5 seconds on the phone from time to time and then disappears. In other words, it’s quite subtle, non-invasive and respects the fact that they’re appearing on YOUR private medium.
But why on earth would I, as a user, agree for Coke to appear in this way? This isn’t like a normal media channel where advertising comes pre-packaged and I can like it, lump it or cease to consume the medium. My phone works perfectly well without advertising, so marketers are going to have to make a much more convincing case that I should invite them in and let them stay.
Throughout these posts I’ve been very careful to talk about mobile marketing, as opposed to advertising, as I don’t actually think the advertising remit, practice and history is very helpful in enabling us with the new thinking required. We cannot treat mobile marketing as a one-way “consumption” process and must think how we can add value to the lives of the recipient of our messages. What can we offer them that will make them agree to engage with us?
The obvious answer is that we can pay them with cash or other currency, to be exposed to our messages. It’s so obvious that I don’t doubt that there are thousands of business plans being developed around the world as we speak, with the words “mobile”, “advertising” and “pay-to-receive” prominently scattered throughout their gushing pages.
The problem is that it doesn’t work and never has. The economics of advertising are such that you can offer only a very small reward to someone to view one ad. Therefore, it’s really only attractive to a tiny, tiny minority of people in the West who can afford a mobile phone and the cost of running one and to whom earning say, up to $10 a month is an attractive proposition.
It’s also worth pointing out that these people aren’t terribly attractive to advertisers in the first place, as they haven’t got much money to spend.
This is a great shame though, because as well as being an obvious solution, it’s also the easiest one for marketers - who cares what the messages actually say, if you’re paying people to watch them anyway? They’ll get what they’re given.
So how do we persuade people that they should expose themselves to our messages, or how do we add value to their lives in some way?
I think it comes down to the these factors, but there may well be more. Make sure you leave a comment if you think I’ve missed something or want to ruin my cunning IDEA idea:
Information
Deals
Engagement
Advertainment
Taking these briefly in turn, as I hope they well be somewhat self-explanatory, I think that mobile phone users will accept your marketing if they know the messages will contain at least one of the IDEA elements:
Information
Tell them something they don’t know. And possibly, that’s relevant to where they are. This could be news of a “Secret Sale” happening in the vicinity, but could be as wide as sports scores, music chart and gossip or breaking news.
I think this could also be combined with Pull-based information services, as sponsored content.
Deals
This was certainly our main thrust at ZagMe and we signed up 85,000 users in two malls in less than a year, so we know this has the potential to work as a proposition.
The premise here is that the user will get access to deals they wouldn’t have otherwise, if they sign up and use the channel. This can be location specific (ie discounts and promotions from local shops) or non-location specific - maybe they can get free or discounted mobile content (ringtones etc) for doing something.
Engagement
Much traditional advertising has been a one way monologue. Marketing has now evolved to becoming a conversation between a brand and its customers. This isn’t for every brand/customer relationship - frankly, I don’t want to talk to Coke, but there are plenty of people who do.
I think there are many fascinating opportunities for brands to engage via the mobile phone channel, where overt marketing practically disappears in puff of subtlety.
In this category, I’d also add User Created Content where the marketer is the enabler for customers to engage with each other.
Advertainment
Great advertising has always entertained as much as it persuaded and I’d be happy to watch a classic Guinness, Bud or Honda commercial on my mobile. But what proportion of total ad output is that? 1%, 5%? The fact is that many brands will have to really step up to meet this challenge.
Some may argue that such heights are out of reach of lesser brands. While this is an argument I don’t accept, there is an easier option, which is to entertain with other forms of content. Allow people to play a game you sponsor, or listen to music or audio content you bring them.
For me personally and I suspect many millions of mobile users out there, if a channel delivered on the IDEA values, we’d sign up for such a service tomorrow.
I have two final thoughts to share.
Firstly, such services may emerge as either solus efforts or a media channel. In other words, Coke may try this on their own or a media channel might emerge and sell access to their users to the likes of Coke and their agency.
In either case, the service is going to need a very strong gatekeeper to police the IDEA values. Because the moment some brand manager or agency tries to cut corners, there’s a danger that the user will opt out of the service altogether.
If you’re the media owner, this is going to put you in a very strange position of inevitably having to turn down paying “advertisers”, rather than risk your expensively acquired customer base. If an agency just doesn’t get the fact that your users won’t appreciate an ad saying “Check out our Gr8 APR percentages”, you’ll have to fire a potential client.
Don’t also forget that opt out is one of the most enduring acts a person can undertake. You might get married again if you divorce your husband, but you’ll never sign up again for a service that has pissed you off so much that you’ve opted out of it.
The final thought is targeting and relevance. We will know something about the recipient (probably just location, age and gender to start off) and it makes sense to make sure that your messages are appropriate to the audience.
In addition, such a channel should offer ways in which the user can tailor their experience, from opting out of certain brand’s communication altogether to specifying that, for example, they only want Advertainment messages. I don’t expect many will use these tools in the short term, but they will increasing become more popular over time.
I don’t want my coverage of targeting and relevance to seem like a throw away remark, but I’ve written a lot about it before and don’t feel it’s necessary to expand more here. But please don’t confuse brevity with importance - it’s a vital point.
So there you have the bones of the perfect LBM channel and I’m convinced that if the overall marketing proposition was right, people would be delighted to sign up and furthermore, that they’d love the service. It might even get people dedicating songs on radio stations to it, which is what happened to us at ZagMe.
I’d love to get your feedback on this, so if you’re a techie or marketer, LBM sceptic or evangelist, please leave a comment and have your say.
by Russell Buckley on February 2nd, 2006 in Marketing, Location Based Services
This is Part 3 of my look at Location Based Marketing.
Part 1 identified that the key to success is the type of messages that marketers plan to send in the channel. It’s key to getting potential users to sign up in the first place (opt in), stopping them from opting out on an ongoing basis and it’s key if the messages are going to work and that recipients will respond to them.
In Part 2, we looked at some of the physical characteristics of LBM messages, that are essential to success, such as they should be free, not interrupt the mobile user and that they should quietly disappear when they have stopped being relevant.
In this final part, I’m going to look at the content of the advertising itself - saving the most important discussion to last.
It’s worth stressing that marketers must focus on this aspect, as users will have to agree to sign up to receive your advertising in the first place. If the implication is that you’re just going to send them a diet of same-old-same-old branding advertising, it’s safe to say that you won’t get many opt-ins.
As an example, Coca-Cola have always been at the forefront of advertising excellence and mobile innovation. Supposing they were one of the pioneers in LBM, which is quite a likely scenario. Using traditional, interruptive advertising thinking, they might reasonably consider sending a very short video of a Coke bottle onto your phone, along with the “Life Tastes Good” strapline they currently use in the UK.
Using best practice (they read Part 2, you see) this appears for about 5 seconds on the phone from time to time and then disappears. In other words, it’s quite subtle, non-invasive and respects the fact that they’re appearing on YOUR private medium.
But why on earth would I, as a user, agree for Coke to appear in this way? This isn’t like a normal media channel where advertising comes pre-packaged and I can like it, lump it or cease to consume the medium. My phone works perfectly well without advertising, so marketers are going to have to make a much more convincing case that I should invite them in and let them stay.
Throughout these posts I’ve been very careful to talk about mobile marketing, as opposed to advertising, as I don’t actually think the advertising remit, practice and history is very helpful in enabling us with the new thinking required. We cannot treat mobile marketing as a one-way “consumption” process and must think how we can add value to the lives of the recipient of our messages. What can we offer them that will make them agree to engage with us?
The obvious answer is that we can pay them with cash or other currency, to be exposed to our messages. It’s so obvious that I don’t doubt that there are thousands of business plans being developed around the world as we speak, with the words “mobile”, “advertising” and “pay-to-receive” prominently scattered throughout their gushing pages.
The problem is that it doesn’t work and never has. The economics of advertising are such that you can offer only a very small reward to someone to view one ad. Therefore, it’s really only attractive to a tiny, tiny minority of people in the West who can afford a mobile phone and the cost of running one and to whom earning say, up to $10 a month is an attractive proposition.
It’s also worth pointing out that these people aren’t terribly attractive to advertisers in the first place, as they haven’t got much money to spend.
This is a great shame though, because as well as being an obvious solution, it’s also the easiest one for marketers - who cares what the messages actually say, if you’re paying people to watch them anyway? They’ll get what they’re given.
So how do we persuade people that they should expose themselves to our messages, or how do we add value to their lives in some way?
I think it comes down to the these factors, but there may well be more. Make sure you leave a comment if you think I’ve missed something or want to ruin my cunning IDEA idea:
Information
Deals
Engagement
Advertainment
Taking these briefly in turn, as I hope they well be somewhat self-explanatory, I think that mobile phone users will accept your marketing if they know the messages will contain at least one of the IDEA elements:
Information
Tell them something they don’t know. And possibly, that’s relevant to where they are. This could be news of a “Secret Sale” happening in the vicinity, but could be as wide as sports scores, music chart and gossip or breaking news.
I think this could also be combined with Pull-based information services, as sponsored content.
Deals
This was certainly our main thrust at ZagMe and we signed up 85,000 users in two malls in less than a year, so we know this has the potential to work as a proposition.
The premise here is that the user will get access to deals they wouldn’t have otherwise, if they sign up and use the channel. This can be location specific (ie discounts and promotions from local shops) or non-location specific - maybe they can get free or discounted mobile content (ringtones etc) for doing something.
Engagement
Much traditional advertising has been a one way monologue. Marketing has now evolved to becoming a conversation between a brand and its customers. This isn’t for every brand/customer relationship - frankly, I don’t want to talk to Coke, but there are plenty of people who do.
I think there are many fascinating opportunities for brands to engage via the mobile phone channel, where overt marketing practically disappears in puff of subtlety.
In this category, I’d also add User Created Content where the marketer is the enabler for customers to engage with each other.
Advertainment
Great advertising has always entertained as much as it persuaded and I’d be happy to watch a classic Guinness, Bud or Honda commercial on my mobile. But what proportion of total ad output is that? 1%, 5%? The fact is that many brands will have to really step up to meet this challenge.
Some may argue that such heights are out of reach of lesser brands. While this is an argument I don’t accept, there is an easier option, which is to entertain with other forms of content. Allow people to play a game you sponsor, or listen to music or audio content you bring them.
For me personally and I suspect many millions of mobile users out there, if a channel delivered on the IDEA values, we’d sign up for such a service tomorrow.
I have two final thoughts to share.
Firstly, such services may emerge as either solus efforts or a media channel. In other words, Coke may try this on their own or a media channel might emerge and sell access to their users to the likes of Coke and their agency.
In either case, the service is going to need a very strong gatekeeper to police the IDEA values. Because the moment some brand manager or agency tries to cut corners, there’s a danger that the user will opt out of the service altogether.
If you’re the media owner, this is going to put you in a very strange position of inevitably having to turn down paying “advertisers”, rather than risk your expensively acquired customer base. If an agency just doesn’t get the fact that your users won’t appreciate an ad saying “Check out our Gr8 APR percentages”, you’ll have to fire a potential client.
Don’t also forget that opt out is one of the most enduring acts a person can undertake. You might get married again if you divorce your husband, but you’ll never sign up again for a service that has pissed you off so much that you’ve opted out of it.
The final thought is targeting and relevance. We will know something about the recipient (probably just location, age and gender to start off) and it makes sense to make sure that your messages are appropriate to the audience.
In addition, such a channel should offer ways in which the user can tailor their experience, from opting out of certain brand’s communication altogether to specifying that, for example, they only want Advertainment messages. I don’t expect many will use these tools in the short term, but they will increasing become more popular over time.
I don’t want my coverage of targeting and relevance to seem like a throw away remark, but I’ve written a lot about it before and don’t feel it’s necessary to expand more here. But please don’t confuse brevity with importance - it’s a vital point.
So there you have the bones of the perfect LBM channel and I’m convinced that if the overall marketing proposition was right, people would be delighted to sign up and furthermore, that they’d love the service. It might even get people dedicating songs on radio stations to it, which is what happened to us at ZagMe.
I’d love to get your feedback on this, so if you’re a techie or marketer, LBM sceptic or evangelist, please leave a comment and have your say.
PayPal (Still) Looking To Mobile, But In The Wrong Places at MobHappy
MocoNews points out that PayPal is advertising open positions in “PayPal Mobile, signaling its intent to get into the mobile payments space. The listings describe PayPal Mobile as “a dynamic, young ’start-up’ business unit within PayPal dedicated to bringing value-added mobile payment services to consumers and merchants.” Of course, this is the same unit they pointed out in November 2004, and PayPal’s WAP service is still hanging on.
So many mobile payment companies described themselves as “like PayPal for mobile”, and it was always assumed that eventually PayPal would come in and own the space. The thing is though, most mobile payment systems are still a product in search of a market. Who needs PayPal-style mobile payments, really? The idea of using your phone to PayPal a merchant for purchases really isn’t that compelling when you’ve got credit and debit cards and good old cash, and reverse billing to a mobile phone bill works pretty well for mobile content.
Some of the contactless IC payment systems, like the ones used in Asia, are pretty interesting — but the payment stuff there is really just a sideline to all the other applications enabled by the robust and powerful platform carriers there are using. There’s a reason why the history of the mobile industry is littered with failed mobile payment companies. It’s got nothing to do with technology, marketing or implementation (though that often leaves something to be desired), it’s because there’s really little value in it for people in mature markets. There are plenty of existing payment mechanisms that satisfy people’s needs; mobile payments don’t promise to simplify things, or offer much benefit over them.
In emerging markets, however, there’s a huge opportunity. People are already using airtime as currency in some places, and Globe’s G-Cash system in the Phillippines is probably the best example of a mobile micropayment system. The opportunity for this type of m-banking, whether it’s “official” and run by a bank, or a more de facto or improvised system is huge. Several companies are already working in these areas, and they’ll find much more success than PayPal, or anybody else, pushing mobile payments in Europe and North America.
MocoNews points out that PayPal is advertising open positions in “PayPal Mobile, signaling its intent to get into the mobile payments space. The listings describe PayPal Mobile as “a dynamic, young ’start-up’ business unit within PayPal dedicated to bringing value-added mobile payment services to consumers and merchants.” Of course, this is the same unit they pointed out in November 2004, and PayPal’s WAP service is still hanging on.
So many mobile payment companies described themselves as “like PayPal for mobile”, and it was always assumed that eventually PayPal would come in and own the space. The thing is though, most mobile payment systems are still a product in search of a market. Who needs PayPal-style mobile payments, really? The idea of using your phone to PayPal a merchant for purchases really isn’t that compelling when you’ve got credit and debit cards and good old cash, and reverse billing to a mobile phone bill works pretty well for mobile content.
Some of the contactless IC payment systems, like the ones used in Asia, are pretty interesting — but the payment stuff there is really just a sideline to all the other applications enabled by the robust and powerful platform carriers there are using. There’s a reason why the history of the mobile industry is littered with failed mobile payment companies. It’s got nothing to do with technology, marketing or implementation (though that often leaves something to be desired), it’s because there’s really little value in it for people in mature markets. There are plenty of existing payment mechanisms that satisfy people’s needs; mobile payments don’t promise to simplify things, or offer much benefit over them.
In emerging markets, however, there’s a huge opportunity. People are already using airtime as currency in some places, and Globe’s G-Cash system in the Phillippines is probably the best example of a mobile micropayment system. The opportunity for this type of m-banking, whether it’s “official” and run by a bank, or a more de facto or improvised system is huge. Several companies are already working in these areas, and they’ll find much more success than PayPal, or anybody else, pushing mobile payments in Europe and North America.
W3C agrees on mobile web content practices
Key players in the mobile industry have reached a preliminary agreement on best practices for mobile Web content. This is an important step in W3C’s project to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device.
Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 provides guidelines for creating a consistent and positive user experience across the rapidly growing number of Web-enabled mobile devices.
“Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0” condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating content that will work well on mobile devices. Authors and other content producers will value the shared experience of how to create content that makes browsing convenient on mobile devices and to avoid known pitfalls on those devices (such as pop-ups and page-scrolling).
“Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0” was developed by a Working Group that included representatives from 30 organizations: Afilias Limited, America Online, Inc. (AOL), ANEC European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation, Argo Interactive Ltd, AT&T, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), elmundo.es, ERICSSON, France Telecom, Fundación CTIC (Centro Tecnológico para el Desarrollo en Asturias de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación), Fundación ONCE, Go Daddy.com, Google, Inc., Indus Net Technologies, International Webmasters Association / HTML Writers Guild (IWA-HWG), Internet Content Rating Association, mTLD Top Level Domain Limited, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Openwave Systems Inc., Opera Software, Segala, Sevenval AG, T-Online International AG, The Boeing Company, TIM Italia SpA, University of Helsinki, Vodafone and Volantis Systems Ltd.
Related News
Nokia and Vodafone to map the road to mobile Java standards
More news
Investor Business Technology
Key players in the mobile industry have reached a preliminary agreement on best practices for mobile Web content. This is an important step in W3C’s project to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device.
Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 provides guidelines for creating a consistent and positive user experience across the rapidly growing number of Web-enabled mobile devices.
“Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0” condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating content that will work well on mobile devices. Authors and other content producers will value the shared experience of how to create content that makes browsing convenient on mobile devices and to avoid known pitfalls on those devices (such as pop-ups and page-scrolling).
“Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0” was developed by a Working Group that included representatives from 30 organizations: Afilias Limited, America Online, Inc. (AOL), ANEC European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation, Argo Interactive Ltd, AT&T, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), elmundo.es, ERICSSON, France Telecom, Fundación CTIC (Centro Tecnológico para el Desarrollo en Asturias de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación), Fundación ONCE, Go Daddy.com, Google, Inc., Indus Net Technologies, International Webmasters Association / HTML Writers Guild (IWA-HWG), Internet Content Rating Association, mTLD Top Level Domain Limited, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Openwave Systems Inc., Opera Software, Segala, Sevenval AG, T-Online International AG, The Boeing Company, TIM Italia SpA, University of Helsinki, Vodafone and Volantis Systems Ltd.
Related News
Nokia and Vodafone to map the road to mobile Java standards
More news
Investor Business Technology
Micro Persuasion: Bye Bye Email Marketing, Hello RSS
Saul Hansell at the New York Times reports that America Online and Yahoo are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from others, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. (Update: Rebecca Leib notes in comments that ClickZ broke this earlier in the week.)
That's all folks. The door has officially closed on email marketing. Maybe this will drive more companies to start up opt-in RSS feeds and blogs that facilitate dialogue.
Saul Hansell at the New York Times reports that America Online and Yahoo are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from others, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. (Update: Rebecca Leib notes in comments that ClickZ broke this earlier in the week.)
That's all folks. The door has officially closed on email marketing. Maybe this will drive more companies to start up opt-in RSS feeds and blogs that facilitate dialogue.
CommunityWalk
For Communities...
Share your community with the world.
Join the growing community of people sharing their world with others!
Explore new places before taking trips, explore places you already know and love to get a fresh perspective!
For Individuals...
The best personal mapping service.
Great for a day of open houses, planning parties, planning and documenting trips, and much more.
For Businesses...
Put your business on the map!
Create a map of your business, nearby airports, parking, lunch spots, etc.
Take It With You!
Integrate your map into your blog, website, or Google Home Page.
CommunityWalk is used to power government websites around the world (London).
Email for more information about potential commercial versions with no ads.
Giving Back...
CommunityWalk is helping coordinate a donation drive for the Pakistan Earthquake relief efforts. [Blog] [Map]
CommunityWalk donates money to community efforts. [More]
In the News...
CommunityWalk stands to create whole new markets! (ZDNet)
CommunityWalk used to aid relief workers in Pakistan. (NPR)
CommunityWalk is part of a mapping revolution. (CNet).
From the Blog...
Torino Winter Olympics Map
Feb 4 04 2006 -- I've started creating a map of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Torino. It's only got a few of the venues so far, but I will continue to add to it over the coming days. It is also open to the public,... [More]
Technical detail log
Latest Change: Fixed a bug with the reset button.
See complete changelog
For Communities...
Share your community with the world.
Join the growing community of people sharing their world with others!
Explore new places before taking trips, explore places you already know and love to get a fresh perspective!
For Individuals...
The best personal mapping service.
Great for a day of open houses, planning parties, planning and documenting trips, and much more.
For Businesses...
Put your business on the map!
Create a map of your business, nearby airports, parking, lunch spots, etc.
Take It With You!
Integrate your map into your blog, website, or Google Home Page.
CommunityWalk is used to power government websites around the world (London).
Email for more information about potential commercial versions with no ads.
Giving Back...
CommunityWalk is helping coordinate a donation drive for the Pakistan Earthquake relief efforts. [Blog] [Map]
CommunityWalk donates money to community efforts. [More]
In the News...
CommunityWalk stands to create whole new markets! (ZDNet)
CommunityWalk used to aid relief workers in Pakistan. (NPR)
CommunityWalk is part of a mapping revolution. (CNet).
From the Blog...
Torino Winter Olympics Map
Feb 4 04 2006 -- I've started creating a map of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Torino. It's only got a few of the venues so far, but I will continue to add to it over the coming days. It is also open to the public,... [More]
Technical detail log
Latest Change: Fixed a bug with the reset button.
See complete changelog
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Google, VW Developing In-Car Navigation System February 3, 2006
The system will display photo-quality views of the route instead of the line drawings found with most GPS devices. By Antone Gonsalves TechWeb News Feb 3, 2006 05:04 PM
Google Inc. and Volkswagen of America Inc. are developing an in-car navigation system that displays a photo-quality view of a route, instead of the typical line drawings found in current systems.
Graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. is also part of the project, which has produced a prototype that was shown in last month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev. The three companies are hoping that consumers will take to seeing pictures of the stores, houses and office buildings they pass en route to a particular location.
Arne Stoschek, head of displays and sensor materials at Vokswagen's Electronic Research Lab in Palo Alto, Calif., said current navigation systems that present road maps and display directions are not the optimal way for helping people find a store in a shopping mall.
"It's not the way we actually perceive the environment," Stoschek said. "A photo representation of the surrounding environment with respect to the car is a much better way for navigation."
Rather than having to hunt for a toy store in an outdoor mall, VW drivers would be able to see the retailer's building, Stoschek said.
Neal Polachek, analyst for The Kelsey Group, said it was "premature" to say whether Google and Volkswagen, based in Auburn Hills, Mich., have a winner. The latter company declined to say when the navigation system would be available in cars, saying only that it planned to continue demonstrating the prototype at shows.
"The concept is interesting, but what happens in 12 months? Who knows?" Polachek said, noting that it's not unusual for projects to fizzle.
"Visuals of locations, however, would be very compelling. They would present a better experience than just maps," Polachek said.
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., would provide the search engine for retrieving information from the Web to overlay on the photos, Stoschek said. Using the system's touch screen, a driver could search for the closest gas station, for example, and get back a list of several on a photo of the surrounding area, along with the price of gasoline at the different locations.
Page 2:
The system will display photo-quality views of the route instead of the line drawings found with most GPS devices. By Antone Gonsalves TechWeb News Feb 3, 2006 05:04 PM
Google Inc. and Volkswagen of America Inc. are developing an in-car navigation system that displays a photo-quality view of a route, instead of the typical line drawings found in current systems.
Graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. is also part of the project, which has produced a prototype that was shown in last month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev. The three companies are hoping that consumers will take to seeing pictures of the stores, houses and office buildings they pass en route to a particular location.
Arne Stoschek, head of displays and sensor materials at Vokswagen's Electronic Research Lab in Palo Alto, Calif., said current navigation systems that present road maps and display directions are not the optimal way for helping people find a store in a shopping mall.
"It's not the way we actually perceive the environment," Stoschek said. "A photo representation of the surrounding environment with respect to the car is a much better way for navigation."
Rather than having to hunt for a toy store in an outdoor mall, VW drivers would be able to see the retailer's building, Stoschek said.
Neal Polachek, analyst for The Kelsey Group, said it was "premature" to say whether Google and Volkswagen, based in Auburn Hills, Mich., have a winner. The latter company declined to say when the navigation system would be available in cars, saying only that it planned to continue demonstrating the prototype at shows.
"The concept is interesting, but what happens in 12 months? Who knows?" Polachek said, noting that it's not unusual for projects to fizzle.
"Visuals of locations, however, would be very compelling. They would present a better experience than just maps," Polachek said.
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., would provide the search engine for retrieving information from the Web to overlay on the photos, Stoschek said. Using the system's touch screen, a driver could search for the closest gas station, for example, and get back a list of several on a photo of the surrounding area, along with the price of gasoline at the different locations.
Page 2:
ArcWeb Explorer: Quick Review
A few sites report that the beta of ArcWeb explorer is available, so instead of reporting that, I actually tried it! Warning: when you visit the link above, on the ESRI website, you will see ads from companies providing data to ArcWeb Services. That took me by surprise, I confess. I guess it's just another perk of being an ESRI data provider.Verdict: It's ok; I'd describe it as a sort of a Live Local/Google Local client wannabe.It uses Flash 8, which seems to work fine. It's Java, so you need not download anything. For now it's a front end to some selected ArcWeb Services. In time, developers will have access to tools to customize it, as I understand.It does, to quote the demo we gave for ArcView 1.0, about five things:navigate - You move around the map via a strange iPod-looking wheel. I found panning slow and could see each tile redrawing. I fould it awkward to use. (It wants to be as fast and elegant as Google Local panning, but it's not.)find - It geocodes quite well and will find location of computer by IP address (mine was spot on) and geocode lists of addresses in an Excel spreadsheet. (I didn't have such a spreadsheet to test, but I have to believe ESRI customers do.)directions - It will route between up to 10 locations "dragged and dropped" form the find widget. (Live Locally to me.)map styles - You can change map colors between default (pastelly), bright (yikes!) and gray scale.share - you can capture (copy) or send the URL of a map via e-mail
Vote for articles fresher than 7 days!
Posted by Adena Schutzberg in ESRI at 16:12 Comments (5) Trackback (1)
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Lots of linksLots of links: I'm reading lots, but don't have time to say much yet... here are some of the interesting things others have said this week that may have slipped by among other events.......
Weblog: JD on [TBD]Tracked: Feb 03, 17:01
Comments
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I agree that it's more awkward to use than competing products (Where is the drag to pan??). The 'GIS' box is a clear sign ESRI is still writing GIS software, not consumer oriented mapping software. Still amazes me they aren't learning from what made their competitors so popular. Remember it is mostly just GIS and DTP (Desktop Publishing) software users that have any idea how to drag a box to zoom in to something. Then again as a GIS user I am frustrated by the inability to draw a box with google and microsoft. Maybe a 'novice' and 'expert' navigation mode to suit both user types.I found the speed on a par with google and microsoft when I tried - but I admit some days they seem fast and some they seem slow. Internet sites of any kind always suffer from unpredictable performance.I don't see a way to route myself with 'stops' on the way in google or microsoft so this feature is unique. The bulk geocoder is a good feature. Although microsoft and google don't have it - others have provided similar free services - one based on yahoo comes to mind.To me it's really a 'me too' with some extra stuff - nothing likely to be perceived as earth shattering or forcing a paradigm shift as when google maps was launced and the online mapping war re-started.
#1 Casual Reader on 2006-01-28 12:57 (Reply)
The GUI design is amazing, easily the best of any browser-based mapping app, but a big disappointment for me is the lack of map dragging like in Google Local. Dragging is like tabs in browsers -- once you have it, your habits change so quickly that its sudden absence just jars. Draggable maps in a browser has got to be the biggest innovation in that space for 2005, so why aren't all such maps draggable in 2006?
#2 Stefan Geens (Link) on 2006-01-28 17:13 (Reply)
The only way to have draggable maps is to pre-render everything at multiple scales. This imposes a fixed number of zoom levels. Not to mention that if you want to change the symbology of something you have to re-render everything again. Plus, disk space starts to become a problem. So that's one reason you don't see them outside of Google.
#2.1 Chris on 2006-01-30 09:27 (Reply)
...or it can be done as we at Idevio do it: with streaming vector data and a java applet. That way we can have draggable zoom too. Check it out at http://www.idevio.com/demo/DemoTA/
#2.1.1 Patric (Link) on 2006-02-04 12:32 (Reply)
Hey, where's the love! Why no mention of Yahoo Maps Beta! Check it out if you're not aware of it.
#3 peta b on 2006-02-03 23:36 (Reply)
A few sites report that the beta of ArcWeb explorer is available, so instead of reporting that, I actually tried it! Warning: when you visit the link above, on the ESRI website, you will see ads from companies providing data to ArcWeb Services. That took me by surprise, I confess. I guess it's just another perk of being an ESRI data provider.Verdict: It's ok; I'd describe it as a sort of a Live Local/Google Local client wannabe.It uses Flash 8, which seems to work fine. It's Java, so you need not download anything. For now it's a front end to some selected ArcWeb Services. In time, developers will have access to tools to customize it, as I understand.It does, to quote the demo we gave for ArcView 1.0, about five things:navigate - You move around the map via a strange iPod-looking wheel. I found panning slow and could see each tile redrawing. I fould it awkward to use. (It wants to be as fast and elegant as Google Local panning, but it's not.)find - It geocodes quite well and will find location of computer by IP address (mine was spot on) and geocode lists of addresses in an Excel spreadsheet. (I didn't have such a spreadsheet to test, but I have to believe ESRI customers do.)directions - It will route between up to 10 locations "dragged and dropped" form the find widget. (Live Locally to me.)map styles - You can change map colors between default (pastelly), bright (yikes!) and gray scale.share - you can capture (copy) or send the URL of a map via e-mail
Vote for articles fresher than 7 days!
Posted by Adena Schutzberg in ESRI at 16:12 Comments (5) Trackback (1)
-->
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
Lots of linksLots of links: I'm reading lots, but don't have time to say much yet... here are some of the interesting things others have said this week that may have slipped by among other events.......
Weblog: JD on [TBD]Tracked: Feb 03, 17:01
Comments
Display comments as (Linear Threaded)
I agree that it's more awkward to use than competing products (Where is the drag to pan??). The 'GIS' box is a clear sign ESRI is still writing GIS software, not consumer oriented mapping software. Still amazes me they aren't learning from what made their competitors so popular. Remember it is mostly just GIS and DTP (Desktop Publishing) software users that have any idea how to drag a box to zoom in to something. Then again as a GIS user I am frustrated by the inability to draw a box with google and microsoft. Maybe a 'novice' and 'expert' navigation mode to suit both user types.I found the speed on a par with google and microsoft when I tried - but I admit some days they seem fast and some they seem slow. Internet sites of any kind always suffer from unpredictable performance.I don't see a way to route myself with 'stops' on the way in google or microsoft so this feature is unique. The bulk geocoder is a good feature. Although microsoft and google don't have it - others have provided similar free services - one based on yahoo comes to mind.To me it's really a 'me too' with some extra stuff - nothing likely to be perceived as earth shattering or forcing a paradigm shift as when google maps was launced and the online mapping war re-started.
#1 Casual Reader on 2006-01-28 12:57 (Reply)
The GUI design is amazing, easily the best of any browser-based mapping app, but a big disappointment for me is the lack of map dragging like in Google Local. Dragging is like tabs in browsers -- once you have it, your habits change so quickly that its sudden absence just jars. Draggable maps in a browser has got to be the biggest innovation in that space for 2005, so why aren't all such maps draggable in 2006?
#2 Stefan Geens (Link) on 2006-01-28 17:13 (Reply)
The only way to have draggable maps is to pre-render everything at multiple scales. This imposes a fixed number of zoom levels. Not to mention that if you want to change the symbology of something you have to re-render everything again. Plus, disk space starts to become a problem. So that's one reason you don't see them outside of Google.
#2.1 Chris on 2006-01-30 09:27 (Reply)
...or it can be done as we at Idevio do it: with streaming vector data and a java applet. That way we can have draggable zoom too. Check it out at http://www.idevio.com/demo/DemoTA/
#2.1.1 Patric (Link) on 2006-02-04 12:32 (Reply)
Hey, where's the love! Why no mention of Yahoo Maps Beta! Check it out if you're not aware of it.
#3 peta b on 2006-02-03 23:36 (Reply)
Friday, February 03, 2006
Unstrung - Location Services Lost on Users - Wireless Networking News Analysis
Location based services (LBS) -- which deliver localized information directly to your mobile phone in real time -- have generated plenty of buzz in the wireless industry over the last couple of years, but it turns out these new cellular applications are largely lost on enterprise users.
Verizon Wireless this week announced its first location application, VZ Navigator, a downloadable tool that gives subscribers access to an array of location-based options, including mapping and verbal turn-by-turn navigation over the phone.
ADVERTISEMENT
The service follows Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - message board)'s new partnership with Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board) to offer localized ads and information over the phone. Both the Google and Verizon applications use GPS satellite positioning to track the user's location.
Though Verizon is selling the Navigator as perfect for "road warriors," many potential enterprise customers remain nonplussed.
"I only have a real high-level, fleeting knowledge that these services exist," admits Gary Goerke, information systems manager, at Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust. "I've been in conversations with Verizon about wireless broadband and a corporate phone service -- they didn't talk about this kind of service. It appears there isn't a whole lot of education going on."
Lewin Alleyne, VP of IT Operations and LAN services at investment bankers Ryan Beck & Co. is more direct about the flashy applications. "I'm probably not going to look at it, as I don't have the time," he tells Unstrung.
Excitement about the promise of location-based services has been high since vendors were first mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to install accurate location tracking on their networks, so that subscribers making a 911 call could be pinpointed to within a few meters. In the late 1990s the FCC laid out a schedule telling the carriers to start rolling out such systems in October 2001, completing the implementation by December 2005.
Making lemonade out of lemons, carriers talked up the wide arrray of location services that could be layered on top of this emergency architecture, from sales force applications to child-tracking services.
But such services, dogged by privacy concerns and other issues, have been slow to reach the market. And the enterprise side of the equation seems to have fallen behind general consumer applications, like keeping track of Junior at the mall.
Still, LBS could be useful for operations with a large, mobile workforce. "If you've got a lot of mobile salesforce people, I can definitely see an application for it," comments Doug Hampshire, IT operations manger for TRI-AD, an employee benefits consulting firm in Escondido, Calif.
Most of the location applications available for the enterprise today deal with larger-scale operations like fleet management -- tracking vehicles and things, rather than people.
Operators like Nextel have traditionally been stronger in this area than Verizon, and the combined Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S - message board) claims to have made strides on location services. The operator is working with a number of partners, including Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN - message board) and Motorola, to link location applications to the GPS capabilities in its phones.
Whether these alliances will help location-based services gain traction with enterprise users remains to be seen.
— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung
Location based services (LBS) -- which deliver localized information directly to your mobile phone in real time -- have generated plenty of buzz in the wireless industry over the last couple of years, but it turns out these new cellular applications are largely lost on enterprise users.
Verizon Wireless this week announced its first location application, VZ Navigator, a downloadable tool that gives subscribers access to an array of location-based options, including mapping and verbal turn-by-turn navigation over the phone.
ADVERTISEMENT
The service follows Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - message board)'s new partnership with Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board) to offer localized ads and information over the phone. Both the Google and Verizon applications use GPS satellite positioning to track the user's location.
Though Verizon is selling the Navigator as perfect for "road warriors," many potential enterprise customers remain nonplussed.
"I only have a real high-level, fleeting knowledge that these services exist," admits Gary Goerke, information systems manager, at Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust. "I've been in conversations with Verizon about wireless broadband and a corporate phone service -- they didn't talk about this kind of service. It appears there isn't a whole lot of education going on."
Lewin Alleyne, VP of IT Operations and LAN services at investment bankers Ryan Beck & Co. is more direct about the flashy applications. "I'm probably not going to look at it, as I don't have the time," he tells Unstrung.
Excitement about the promise of location-based services has been high since vendors were first mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to install accurate location tracking on their networks, so that subscribers making a 911 call could be pinpointed to within a few meters. In the late 1990s the FCC laid out a schedule telling the carriers to start rolling out such systems in October 2001, completing the implementation by December 2005.
Making lemonade out of lemons, carriers talked up the wide arrray of location services that could be layered on top of this emergency architecture, from sales force applications to child-tracking services.
But such services, dogged by privacy concerns and other issues, have been slow to reach the market. And the enterprise side of the equation seems to have fallen behind general consumer applications, like keeping track of Junior at the mall.
Still, LBS could be useful for operations with a large, mobile workforce. "If you've got a lot of mobile salesforce people, I can definitely see an application for it," comments Doug Hampshire, IT operations manger for TRI-AD, an employee benefits consulting firm in Escondido, Calif.
Most of the location applications available for the enterprise today deal with larger-scale operations like fleet management -- tracking vehicles and things, rather than people.
Operators like Nextel have traditionally been stronger in this area than Verizon, and the combined Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S - message board) claims to have made strides on location services. The operator is working with a number of partners, including Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN - message board) and Motorola, to link location applications to the GPS capabilities in its phones.
Whether these alliances will help location-based services gain traction with enterprise users remains to be seen.
— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung
Notes from the Bell Mobility/ESRI Location-Based Services Seminar, Part 2
Here's part 2 of my notes from the Bell Mobility/ESRI Location-Based Services Seminar. If you missed part 1, here it is.
The LBS Partner Programs"I need your help," began Bell Mobility's David Cheung during the "LBS Partner Programs" segment of the presentation. "I'm not here to be a hindrance." He pointed out that you don't have to be a Bell Mobility partner to get started. There are white papers and an SDK that anyone can download, and they can provide access to a sandbox with dummy phone numbers that your location-aware applications can locate.He then covered the three levels of partnership: Bronze, Gold and Business. I have no idea why Bell didn't go with the perfectly well-established convention of "bronze, silver, gold".
Bronze
Essentially a "sanity check"
The criteria for qualification is simple: can you build a location-aware application or not?
Your application gets featured at businessonthego.ca
Gold
At this level, you have an application that's ready for the market
You're trying to prove that you can launch, using 5 to 50 mobile devices as your testing ground
Qualification includes passing a tech assessment questionnaire
Business
At this level, there's a contractual obligation
Bell does a business assessment of your company
In return, you have access to Bell's national sales team
The types of partnership can vary -- it could be a marketing alliance or a revenue-sharing program. This seems to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Location ChargesThere is a charge associated with every "locate" -- that is, every time a phone is pinged for its location. The charges can be applied in one of two ways:
A "one-shot" locate costs 5 cents
Businesses can buy locates in packages, as shown in the table below
"Locates" per month
Approximate frequency
Package cost
20
Once every 1.5 days(in the presentation, they say "once every day")
$5
200
Once every 3.5 hours(in the presentation, they say "once every hour")
$10
500
Once every 1.5 hours(in the presentation, they say "once every half-hour")
$15
1000
Once every 45 minutes(in the presentation, they say "once every 15 minutes")
$20
2500
Once every 15 minutes(in the presentation, they say "once every 5 minutes")
$30
Note that these are "business" rates. They didn't show any rates for "consumers". When asked how the system differentiates between a "business" and "consumer" customer, the presenter replied that every application has a "feature code" attached to it which makes the differentiation possible.
Locates are billed directly to the person being located. Someone asked if there would be a way for the application developer to pay for locates, and the response was that it would probably have to be worked out on a case-by-case basis with Bell.There are volume discounts for locates -- they range from 2% to 30%.
Technical Considerations (and Annoyed Developers)
Ping Throttling and Caching
It's possible to ping a phone once every 35 seconds, but currently, pinging a phone more than once every 5 minutes tend to increase the number of location errors. Apparently, this is due to the limitations of the current hardware. Hence, pings are throttled.
Someone asked: "What if say 40 different apps are trying to locate the same device? Do you send 40 pings?" A Bell systems guy in the audience said that some caching was used to avoid this sort of problem, but didn't get into specifics.
Per-Locate Billing Directly to the User: Not Popular
Another guy in the audience balked at the 5 cents-a-locate rate, saying "even at 1 cent a locate, it's too pricey" and that he'd never get customers to use his service at that rate. A per-use charge billed directly to the user, he argued, would make it impossible for him to create a "consumer model". He pointed out that his phone from a rival telco, Telus, did locates for free, and the presenter pointed out that it could locate itself for free -- there would be a charge involved if an application not based within the phone had to get the location.
A handful of developers in the room echoed his concerns about the rates, also thinking that they'd discourage customers from using their applications. From the sound of it, they seemed to be writing applications targeting "consumers" rather than "businesses", and their annoyance was apparent.
"Customers are paying for location-based services right now," said one of the presenters, in an attempt to assure us that customers wouldn't balk at being billed for every locate.
Too Big a Window?
Someone else pointed out that a maximum locate rate of once every 35 seconds was too big a "window"; he was hoping to do locates once every 5 seconds. The presenter pointed out that this was beyong the current network's capabilities for reasons that would be explained in the next session, and that it would probably be a very big drain on a mobile phone's batteries. "Locates consume power," he reminded the audience, "and you have to take power consumption into consideration."
The presenter said that LBS was for making applications that were location-aware and not primarily for monitoring, navigation or geocoding -- in spite of the fact that the examples of LBS in action mentioned less than an hour prior were just that. "You could use it to track a missing child," he said; that sounds like a "monitoring" app to me. Perhaps what he should've said was that LBS wasn't for mission-critical monitoring, navigation or geocoding, but I'd be hard-pressed to convince a parent that locating a missing child wasn't mission-critical.
The PATRIOT Act Rears its Ugly Head
Someone pointed out that although developers working with ESRI would be signing agreements with a Canadian branch of a company, ESRI's servers are based in the U.S., meaning that ESRI-hosted information would be accessible to the U.S. government if they invoked search-and-seizure under the PATRIOT act. That's something to consider when dealing with the privacy issues of your application. Print Article
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Here's part 2 of my notes from the Bell Mobility/ESRI Location-Based Services Seminar. If you missed part 1, here it is.
The LBS Partner Programs"I need your help," began Bell Mobility's David Cheung during the "LBS Partner Programs" segment of the presentation. "I'm not here to be a hindrance." He pointed out that you don't have to be a Bell Mobility partner to get started. There are white papers and an SDK that anyone can download, and they can provide access to a sandbox with dummy phone numbers that your location-aware applications can locate.He then covered the three levels of partnership: Bronze, Gold and Business. I have no idea why Bell didn't go with the perfectly well-established convention of "bronze, silver, gold".
Bronze
Essentially a "sanity check"
The criteria for qualification is simple: can you build a location-aware application or not?
Your application gets featured at businessonthego.ca
Gold
At this level, you have an application that's ready for the market
You're trying to prove that you can launch, using 5 to 50 mobile devices as your testing ground
Qualification includes passing a tech assessment questionnaire
Business
At this level, there's a contractual obligation
Bell does a business assessment of your company
In return, you have access to Bell's national sales team
The types of partnership can vary -- it could be a marketing alliance or a revenue-sharing program. This seems to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Location ChargesThere is a charge associated with every "locate" -- that is, every time a phone is pinged for its location. The charges can be applied in one of two ways:
A "one-shot" locate costs 5 cents
Businesses can buy locates in packages, as shown in the table below
"Locates" per month
Approximate frequency
Package cost
20
Once every 1.5 days(in the presentation, they say "once every day")
$5
200
Once every 3.5 hours(in the presentation, they say "once every hour")
$10
500
Once every 1.5 hours(in the presentation, they say "once every half-hour")
$15
1000
Once every 45 minutes(in the presentation, they say "once every 15 minutes")
$20
2500
Once every 15 minutes(in the presentation, they say "once every 5 minutes")
$30
Note that these are "business" rates. They didn't show any rates for "consumers". When asked how the system differentiates between a "business" and "consumer" customer, the presenter replied that every application has a "feature code" attached to it which makes the differentiation possible.
Locates are billed directly to the person being located. Someone asked if there would be a way for the application developer to pay for locates, and the response was that it would probably have to be worked out on a case-by-case basis with Bell.There are volume discounts for locates -- they range from 2% to 30%.
Technical Considerations (and Annoyed Developers)
Ping Throttling and Caching
It's possible to ping a phone once every 35 seconds, but currently, pinging a phone more than once every 5 minutes tend to increase the number of location errors. Apparently, this is due to the limitations of the current hardware. Hence, pings are throttled.
Someone asked: "What if say 40 different apps are trying to locate the same device? Do you send 40 pings?" A Bell systems guy in the audience said that some caching was used to avoid this sort of problem, but didn't get into specifics.
Per-Locate Billing Directly to the User: Not Popular
Another guy in the audience balked at the 5 cents-a-locate rate, saying "even at 1 cent a locate, it's too pricey" and that he'd never get customers to use his service at that rate. A per-use charge billed directly to the user, he argued, would make it impossible for him to create a "consumer model". He pointed out that his phone from a rival telco, Telus, did locates for free, and the presenter pointed out that it could locate itself for free -- there would be a charge involved if an application not based within the phone had to get the location.
A handful of developers in the room echoed his concerns about the rates, also thinking that they'd discourage customers from using their applications. From the sound of it, they seemed to be writing applications targeting "consumers" rather than "businesses", and their annoyance was apparent.
"Customers are paying for location-based services right now," said one of the presenters, in an attempt to assure us that customers wouldn't balk at being billed for every locate.
Too Big a Window?
Someone else pointed out that a maximum locate rate of once every 35 seconds was too big a "window"; he was hoping to do locates once every 5 seconds. The presenter pointed out that this was beyong the current network's capabilities for reasons that would be explained in the next session, and that it would probably be a very big drain on a mobile phone's batteries. "Locates consume power," he reminded the audience, "and you have to take power consumption into consideration."
The presenter said that LBS was for making applications that were location-aware and not primarily for monitoring, navigation or geocoding -- in spite of the fact that the examples of LBS in action mentioned less than an hour prior were just that. "You could use it to track a missing child," he said; that sounds like a "monitoring" app to me. Perhaps what he should've said was that LBS wasn't for mission-critical monitoring, navigation or geocoding, but I'd be hard-pressed to convince a parent that locating a missing child wasn't mission-critical.
The PATRIOT Act Rears its Ugly Head
Someone pointed out that although developers working with ESRI would be signing agreements with a Canadian branch of a company, ESRI's servers are based in the U.S., meaning that ESRI-hosted information would be accessible to the U.S. government if they invoked search-and-seizure under the PATRIOT act. That's something to consider when dealing with the privacy issues of your application. Print Article
-->
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Mobile Industry Leaders Agree on Future of Mobile Web Content
W3C Invites Review of Guidelines for Improved Mobile Browsing
Contact Americas and Australia --
Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884
Contact Europe, Africa and Middle East --
Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94 or +33.6.76.86.33.41
Contact Asia --
Yasuyuki Hirakawa, <chibao@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170
(also available in French and Japanese; see also translations in other languages)
http://www.w3.org/ -- 31 January 2006 -- Key players in the mobile industry have reached a preliminary agreement on best practices for mobile Web content, an important step in W3C's project to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 provides guidelines for creating a consistent and positive user experience across the rapidly growing number of Web-enabled mobile devices. The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group invites review from the broader community of this Last Call Working Draft; see the draft for details about sending review comments before 17 February 2006.
W3C urges all attendees of the upcoming 3GSM World Congress (in Barcelona, 13-16 February 2006) to visit the W3C booth at 3GSM06, located in Hall 2, stand G78, to learn more about the latest mobile Web advances from W3C.
Mobile Web Design Guidelines Capture Experience, Common Sense
"Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0" condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating content that will work well on mobile devices. Authors and other content producers will value the shared experience of how to create content that makes browsing convenient on mobile devices and to avoid known pitfalls on those devices (such as pop-ups and page-scrolling).
Broad Industry Support
"Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0" was developed by a Working Group that included representatives from 30 organizations: Afilias Limited, America Online, Inc. (AOL), ANEC European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation, Argo Interactive Ltd, AT&T, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), elmundo.es, ERICSSON, France Telecom, Fundación CTIC (Centro Tecnológico para el Desarrollo en Asturias de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación), Fundación ONCE, Go Daddy.com, Google, Inc., Indus Net Technologies, International Webmasters Association / HTML Writers Guild (IWA-HWG), Internet Content Rating Association, mTLD Top Level Domain Limited, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Openwave Systems Inc., Opera Software, Segala, Sevenval AG, T-Online International AG, The Boeing Company, TIM Italia SpA, University of Helsinki, Vodafone and Volantis Systems Ltd.
This work is part of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, which is supported by nineteen MWI Sponsors, including key players in the mobile production chain: Afilias, Argogroup, Bango.net, Drutt Corporation, ERICSSON, France Telecom, HP, Jataayu Software, mTLD, MobileAware, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Opera Software, TIM Italia, RuleSpace, Segala M Test, Sevenval, Vodafone, and Volantis.
MWI Sponsors enjoy unique benefits, including a seat on the MWI Steering Committee, the group that sets the direction of the MWI. For example, the MWI Steering Committee is considering such opportunities as test suite development and training programs. W3C invites new MWI Sponsors to help shape current and future W3C activities in the mobile area.
About W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (W3C-MWI)
The mission of W3C’s Mobile Web Initiative (W3C MWI) is to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Through the MWI Sponsorship Program, key players in the mobile production chain, including authoring tool vendors, content providers, adaptation providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators lead the Initiative. MWI participants develop authoring guidelines, checklists and best practices, as well as a database of descriptions that can be used by content authors to adapt their content to a particular device. For more information see http://www.w3.org/Mobile/
About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. Over 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France, Keio University in Japan, and has additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org/
W3C Invites Review of Guidelines for Improved Mobile Browsing
Contact Americas and Australia --
Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884
Contact Europe, Africa and Middle East --
Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94 or +33.6.76.86.33.41
Contact Asia --
Yasuyuki Hirakawa, <chibao@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170
(also available in French and Japanese; see also translations in other languages)
http://www.w3.org/ -- 31 January 2006 -- Key players in the mobile industry have reached a preliminary agreement on best practices for mobile Web content, an important step in W3C's project to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 provides guidelines for creating a consistent and positive user experience across the rapidly growing number of Web-enabled mobile devices. The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group invites review from the broader community of this Last Call Working Draft; see the draft for details about sending review comments before 17 February 2006.
W3C urges all attendees of the upcoming 3GSM World Congress (in Barcelona, 13-16 February 2006) to visit the W3C booth at 3GSM06, located in Hall 2, stand G78, to learn more about the latest mobile Web advances from W3C.
Mobile Web Design Guidelines Capture Experience, Common Sense
"Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0" condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating content that will work well on mobile devices. Authors and other content producers will value the shared experience of how to create content that makes browsing convenient on mobile devices and to avoid known pitfalls on those devices (such as pop-ups and page-scrolling).
Broad Industry Support
"Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0" was developed by a Working Group that included representatives from 30 organizations: Afilias Limited, America Online, Inc. (AOL), ANEC European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation, Argo Interactive Ltd, AT&T, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), elmundo.es, ERICSSON, France Telecom, Fundación CTIC (Centro Tecnológico para el Desarrollo en Asturias de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación), Fundación ONCE, Go Daddy.com, Google, Inc., Indus Net Technologies, International Webmasters Association / HTML Writers Guild (IWA-HWG), Internet Content Rating Association, mTLD Top Level Domain Limited, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Openwave Systems Inc., Opera Software, Segala, Sevenval AG, T-Online International AG, The Boeing Company, TIM Italia SpA, University of Helsinki, Vodafone and Volantis Systems Ltd.
This work is part of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, which is supported by nineteen MWI Sponsors, including key players in the mobile production chain: Afilias, Argogroup, Bango.net, Drutt Corporation, ERICSSON, France Telecom, HP, Jataayu Software, mTLD, MobileAware, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Opera Software, TIM Italia, RuleSpace, Segala M Test, Sevenval, Vodafone, and Volantis.
MWI Sponsors enjoy unique benefits, including a seat on the MWI Steering Committee, the group that sets the direction of the MWI. For example, the MWI Steering Committee is considering such opportunities as test suite development and training programs. W3C invites new MWI Sponsors to help shape current and future W3C activities in the mobile area.
About W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (W3C-MWI)
The mission of W3C’s Mobile Web Initiative (W3C MWI) is to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Through the MWI Sponsorship Program, key players in the mobile production chain, including authoring tool vendors, content providers, adaptation providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators lead the Initiative. MWI participants develop authoring guidelines, checklists and best practices, as well as a database of descriptions that can be used by content authors to adapt their content to a particular device. For more information see http://www.w3.org/Mobile/
About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. Over 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France, Keio University in Japan, and has additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org/
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