Plazes, Geoclue and the rest miss the point, for the most part.

If we don't think in terms of bringing web content to people, but rather what a bunch of people with GPS and mobile internet devices can do, we end up with not a program, but a protocol.

Think of something like TeamSpeak/RogerWilco/name your user-hosted chat service here but with GPS:

You actively connect to a server using a standard protocol (encryption is optional for servers, but mandatory for clients), and the service's job is to share information about you (GPS location primarily, secondarily a profile) to those on the server, and facilitate client-to-group and client-to-individual text, image, voice and POI transmissions.

The frequency and features that you make available depend on the application. For a "21st-century CB Radio" application, for example, you might have each client send a GPS update every minute, POIs used for hazards (e.g., dangerous laser and radar emitters), and voice channels on location and direction. Imagine a massive search-and-rescue operation, where someone in a control center could see instantly where every group was, and could call up imagery, and all this with technology that costs a fraction of existing systems. Or for any number of other applications, including the ones in the blog post.

Right on!

Roger

I'd all forgotten about this thread, and now there's - wow. Thumbtribes. This is it. Please get this over to Mameo! Its really great.

BTW, as I'm writing a wish list: Location aware alarms should be the next thing. They wouldnt depend on an online framework or community. When I come home and for the third day in a row forgot to buy toilet paper, I pull out my N810 (noooo!) and write a note: "Next time I'm near Acme Store, remind me to buy toilet paper there." - This is available for some cell phones AFAIK, so its a must for the N810.
Imagine! You dont have to set date&time or such. You just say: "Next time I'm there, dont let me forget to...." And it will beep and remind you.

A single application may not be an answer for a "where are you" scenario and rightly it should not try to do everything too.

A location aware calender which currently triggers only on a "when" in the time, can now be triggered on a "where"(gps) or "what" (a wifi or bluetooth mac id was discovered) and show a info or alarm or send a d-bus message

A location aware job daemon, can now run scripts or launch applications based on not only the time, but when a location is reached in or going out of a location. e.g. If my bluetooth phone with a mac id, is out of range play a sound.

A location aware IM client can give the status of whether you are in motion or stopped. Or for someone who wants to be tracked(!) the street or city or country, of course with an option to say "In office" and not "In bar" or somewhere your are not supposed to be.
I would personally not use it for a day to day basis, other than to show it can do it.

I am sure there will be lots of proof of concept applications with which we can play around, that will in turn pave for a mature location aware applications.

~m~
Varghese

Hi guys.....

I will paste in a post I made to an Openmoko list about Thumbtribes [1]. I now own a N810 and I am interested in working on some location-aware solutions for the tablet. I wanted to get some feedback also from this community.

[1] http://thumbtribes.mobi/

----

Hi. I have been working on a D-Bus location-oriented service. I would
like to get some feedback to help direct the development and possibly
get some others involved. There are also some important non-technical
issues I would like to address.

Firstly, the D-Bus service is a server type process to look-up the
distance of other users of the system. It has a simple interface which
has been designed to be self-clocking. What this means is you need to
"ping" in location to update your local database of distance
information. One of the ideas behind this was to encourage updates
rather than be dominated by look-ups. A key feature of updating the
database in this system is that transferring the data required is done
in a very efficient manor. It actually "bit packs" the data. This
makes no assumptions about the quality or cost of the underlying
network.

So how would this be used? Well, I need some help with ideas and
clients. A simple use case would be to match users to your contacts
list and alert when they are within a certain distance. There are
other D-Bus location-oriented projects which could be integrated or
used in some way.

Are there any students working on GSOC projects in this area?

It is my intention to release all code including server. This brings
me to the non-technical issues. Although I don't have any problems
running server processes on my own hardware etc I think there are some
issues which need to be addressed. I understand the privacy concerns
of using these types of services and want to make this as open as
possible. Releasing the server code is fine but it does not actually
mean the "real" server is some other code doing something evil and
logging your data etc. This is where a trusted third party needs to be
involved. If these server processes were run from such a source it
would be a step in the right direction. How do others feel about this?
I know some people will never use these types of services full stop.
That is fine. I know others are interested in using them. I personally
am not interested in plotting on a map where I am. I don't mind
knowing that I am approximately close to something or someone and
vice-versa.

Anyway, I think D-Bus provides us with a good opportunity to develop
some cool applications in this mobile space. Interested in your
thoughts?