Technology

As a programming exercise and proof of concept I whipped up I was Here the worlds simplest (and possibly ugliest) location aware micro blog. Think of it like twitter with geo tagging. No, its not a Twitter Killer just a proof of concept and something to play with and visualize to get the creative juices going.

Basically it is a small post/blog that also has geo coordinate information in it. It can be created by any client that has a location service and internet access (hint hint). The website accepts regular http posts, creates the blog article and puts a pin on a map.

What is it good for? I'm not sure yet. There is a lot of talk about location based services. Some of the use cases involve finding the nearest bar/restaurant/atm, finding the cheapest gas station near you and delivering coupons/deals to people near your store.

This simple application turns that around a bit. What if you could generate posts/articles about where you were at any given moment? How could that be used?

Perhaps you could:

• Generate reviews of the establishment where you currently are with out a need for an 'official' web page to comment on
• Read what others have said about "this place"
• Create a tour or narrative for others to learn from
• Report on conditions/status where you are

Two uses that seem interesting to me are engaging with people about a specific place over time and reporting on conditions where you are.

The latter can be particularly useful for people who are "out in the field" inspecting, collecting and reporting information. Something like this can be easily customized for any application. I understand
there are people who go out to check on potholes, graffiti, stock levels in stores, billboards, sidewalk cracks, etc. I'm sure there are many more much better ideas.

Do you know what they are? Let me know if you have an idea.