Podcast: Any Game Changers in LBS Yet?
By Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
April 06, 2009
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Take advantage of a special year-end sale on SPOTMaps, the 2.5 meter, seamless, color mosaic made to fit your area of interest. Save 25% off all SPOTMaps through November 10th, when you mention this ad! Click here for detailsMany announcements related to location-based services came out of the CTIA show last week, including winners of the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge. Were any truly game changing? Our editors look at the current state of LBS and what may be ahead.
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Show Notes
ESRI’s Managing Infrastructure Projects with GIS seminar will be held Thursday, April 23rd at GITA’s 2009 Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference in Tampa, Florida. Visit ESRI’s booth #513 during the Conference, April 19-22. For more information visit the ESRI at GITA webpage.
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| Yet? How about ever? LBS will grow as an incremental add-in; a stand-alone 'killer app' is an LBS marketeers dream. The carriers have been trying LBS apps for a decade - and haven't found a killer app yet. That's not for trying...just ask Joe Astroth. So after 10 years of trying to find a "big app" and failing, the carriers have learned it's more useful to add pieces and parts of applications into the handset to hold ARPU steady in a crowded market. Something else to remember - most people know right where they are, thank you very much. When folks are going someplace, the GPS in the car handles the directions. LBS isn't a market or an app, it's a non-monetized enabler inside every handset. |
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| If you agree with the "killer app" (double entrendre intended) that Joe mentioned? That's a definite starting point. Adena |
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| Joe spoke about the potential for an app that alerted folks to an incoming tornado...or some other outside agent with an equally immediate effect (noxious gas release from a train wreck, anyone?). This exists for radio networks, but not for 'modern devices'. Some years ago, a group of Feds developed the Common Alerting Protocol to broadcast alerts when disasters strike. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Alerting_Protocol It's part of that annoying "braaah-braaaah-braaaahh this is a test. This is a test of the emergency broadcast system." message you hear on your local radio station (does XM/Sirius do this??!?!?) every once and a while. FEMA is now embarking on the successor program to this, in combination with FCC. there's more info here: http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/ IPAWS will allow The PRESIDENT to send a message directly to the people, using the technology mix Joe spoke of (Phones, BBerrys, PDAs, etc.). Of course, this is worthless for most day to day uses (Can't see the Big Guy telling Joe his Scout troop is about to get blown away, but maybe that's about to Change...) If past is prologue, I'd say it'll take FEMA another 5-7 years to get IPAWS working. You know, sorta-kinda, like most everything else they do. One might ask why NOAA doesn't cut collaborative deals with carriers to 'push' this sort of information? Liability comes to mind pretty quickly, but that can probably be overcome with a few years of legal discussion between NWS (likely open to the idea) and the carrier (whose lawyers are shuddering at the thought) Nice idea. |
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| August: we have been covering this issues with regard to IPAWS (see http://apb.directionsmag.com/archives/3925-Killer-Tornadoes,-Geospatial-Warnings,-and-Personal-Navigation.html) and the WARN act (See also http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2348) for some time and my understanding is some of the provisions of the legislation are working their way into common practice. My information is based on my recent conversation with TeleCommunications Systems VP Mark Titus (see http://apb.directionsmag.com/archives/5604-Location-based-SMS.html) about using commercial mobile alerts through SMS for these kinds of alerts. |
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| WARN is invoked in a *national* emergency. Nationalization of an event occurs *after* a fast-acting event like an ice storm, tornado or dirty bomb has already happened, or the day before a major hurricane. If it's the former, the "alert" is worthless, if the latter, meaningless - since there's ample information already flooding the electronosphere. The difficulty with the cycle on these things is carriers are likely (always, in the case of CAP and IPAWS protocols) to wait until 'official' word is sent. By that time, you're in the same boat as Dorothy's uncle. Call me a cynic (go ahead, everyone else does) but if you're waiting for messages from FEMA for disasters, you're waiting for the last responder to get in gear. It's not in their DNA, or their legislation, to talk to the public sooner. I'd posit the better choice would be a commercial/civil partnership between NOAA-NWS and the carriers...but this will take a strong commitment from the carrier to shoulder the responsibility. Joe, as you had alluded there might be a 'fear/uncertainty/doubt' business offering around this capability. I'd rather see this as a public service, paid for by an FCC-mandated tax of .0001cent per minute rider on everyone's minutes. Local and rural e911 systems were paid for this way, we should advocate for the same model for alerts. So bottom line, Joe- you're on to something. But the Carriers are unlikely to get it done without some federal help; and we sure shouldn't think that FEMA will be there to get his done. It's 'not in their mission' - but it IS in the mission for FCC. |
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| Great podcast! I love the suite of business solutions idea and the serious weather warning. The NAVTEQ US Challenge limited entries to applications running on Nokia, Sony Ericcson and Samsung phones. This may have skewed entries towards consumer away from business-type applications. For instance my app was a winner at Andrew Seybold's Innovation Rally Awards (all apps, not just LBS applications) last week but I was not able to enter it into the LBS challenge as it runs on BlackBerry, the obvious business platform. I understand the Challenge will be universal next year. Julian Bourne, CEO and Founder, Proxpro Inc. Prompt v1.0 - The road warrior's traffic early warning system Winner of Andrew Seybold's Innovation Rally Winner of SiRF's Location 2.0 Award |
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