GIS, Maps, Geo and Location Technology by @gletham
Some interesting poll results… NPolls made a survey among iPhone/iPod and iPad users worldwide and got to the conclusion that 84% use normally a PC computer (Only 28% have an Apple computer). But if price was not an issue 67% would choose a Mac! See details of the survey here
How about you? Are you a MAC [user] or a PC??
Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m liking Groupon, SwarmJam, and other email-driven and mobile local coupon deals.. heck, what’s not to like about the service? Indeed, I’ve been pretty skeptical about the insane valuations being thrown around about Groupon, although Google and their recent announcement to jump into this lucrative space may derail the huge valuation of Groupon… wait and see I guess. So how popular has Groupon, Living Social and other services become?? Check this out, recently there was a promotion from Amazon offering $20 Amazon Gift Card for $10… there were more than 1.3 million of the deals sold!
I’ve recently purchased several deals, mostly half off food and drink although I’ve yet to actually turn in one of my coupons… I’m pretty much paperless so I do hate the idea of having to actually print out the coupon and take it with me – why can’t I simply show the receipt using my smartphone?? So there’s one way to make these services better, but what about more Geo? I can’t help but think that there’s some opportunity here for skilled, mobile, Geo savvy application developers to jump in here and come up with some very cool ways to make these services even better. With foursquare, GoWalla, and other social checkin services being so popular, perhaps some Groupon-like integration with checkins would be a great idea. This could be huge for foursquare and others and maybe help offer something valuable and useful as a reward for checking in… addressing the topic of user burn-out due to lack of benefit for checking in. And then there’s the idea of geo fencing and notifications being sent to mobile (opt-in) users based on their location. I for one be open to some notifications from select merchants based on my location. Perhaps I didn’t see today’s Groupon or SwarmJam offer. But, what if I get within blocks of a pub serving up a Groupon today… why not automatically message me when I enter a “hot” zone? Since I travel a fair bit I’d also like an app or service that will detect that I’m in a new region, then based on that position, Groupon and other services that I elect to use will update me with deals from that city rather than me having to physically login to my account and update which city deals I receive. There’s lots of ways that coupon services and mobile advertising can evolve, I just hope some of you mobile, Geo, and LBS app developers jump on this and score a nice win!
See Also the following:
Groupon Announces Continued Expansion in Asia
Groupon 2.0 With Groupon Stores – Launch Your Own Deal for Business
Not on Groupon Yet? Get it here for free
As previously mentioned in my post about the N8 Direct and Project competition, one film was selected best of the night, that was a film by Josephine Anderson, a film maker from Vancouver (See @josephinemash). Check out her winning entry, filmed entirely on the Nokia N8 enjoy “Normal Design” by Josephine.
Normal Design from Josephine Anderson on Vimeo.
I just returned from a quick trip to YVR where Nokia, along with Nokia Canada hosted an interesting mobile entertainment / film event at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Billed as the Nokia N8 Direct and Project the event was designed to introduce people to the N8 and more important, to the fantastic video camera, its capabilities, and the idea that terrific, fun, interesting films can be created entirely using the Nokia N8 smartphone. The event, the first of it’s kind in Vancouver, was essentially a small film festival, bringing together about 30 invited videographers to show, discuss, and share their works. One video was selected by a panel of 3 expert judges as the overall winner, taking home the hardware which was jokingly named “Teemu”.
Some details… I had the please this week to attend an interesting event put on by Nokia. The event, billed as the N8 Direct and Project was a competition for techies and film artists who were provided with a challenge – create a 60 second film and tell your story, all done with the new, Nokia N8 smybian smartphone. Indeed there was no “Geo” component to this, although there could have been, however, the art of capturing digital (mobile) media, repackaging it and telling a meaningful, memorable story was no small challenge and I managed to get some great ideas and tips from the producers. I’m looking forward to applying much of what I learned to my daily workflow and I’m sure there’s some tips that can be had from these films that many of you could apply to your business, particularly as we move to a more mobile and connected world and video is indeed playing a huge role in our business. For more on this check out this summary article and you can also follow the #N8directandproject hashtag on Twitter (see winning film here). And for those of you interested in creating more videos, some valuable tips I picked up on: It’s not just the video but audio is equally important, make it memorable, tell a story, keep it short, and don’t be afraid to experiment and push the envelope!
