Monday, January 5. 2009

DC Gov Drops Daily Crime E-mail, Users Unhappy with alternative, a Map

The daily crime e-mail had been sent out by the D.C. police to the public via e-mail. It included all crimes in each of the department's districts, broken down by Police Service Area. The e-mails have been dropped per Assistant Police Chief Diane Groomes because they often included information that may have jeopardized police work. Instead, the DC police offer a map built on the acclaimed DC Atlas.

That app is quite complex, allowing search near an address, searching on a specific crime, etc. GIS may love it but some, like the Georgetown Metropolitan Blog (GMT) finds it wanting compared to the sleek text listing. (Full review from the blog including what are suggested as better alternatives: below is a summary.)

...it’s terrible. It’s based on inferior mapping software, it’s difficult to use, and it doesn’t allow you to actually find out any information on each crime. For crime maps, there are better options out there. But a crime map is not a satisfactory replacement for a daily list. MPD has offered the crime map for years, why does it all of the sudden think that it’s a better option than daily blotters?

The response of both NBC and GMT sounds rational: find a way not to include the information that shouldn't be included and keep the e-mails coming!

- NBC Washington

2009: "GPS as feature"

That's one of the predications from the folks at Buzz Out Loud for 2009. Sorry don't recall who said it...

The intro was on the order of "stand alone GPS" will begin going away, but in device and in-car will thrive. GPS will be like a camera in a cell phone - a "required feature." I think that's right on and highlights a few things:

(1) GPS is short for "locating technologies" - it could be cell tower, wi-fi, whatever. The feature is simply that the device (car, phone, etc.) can automatically know where it is. While not every knows (or needs to know) how location is determined, I think there's a real comfort level, interest and demand for the feature.

(2) That feature is useless without apps that can access it (hopefully with permission of the device owner). Carriers are figuring this part out now. How open should we make our location API? Should we have to "approve" of apps? This the 2009 LBS discussion. 2008 ended with two carriers tending toward "open."

(3) The E-911 emergency response that prompted the need for location determination seems to be overshadowed in the press by the LBS apps. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

(4) Are there any other electronics (or non-electronics) outside mobile devices and cars that will soon have GPS as a feature?

Patent Watch: Tracking People Via Cell without Compromising Privacy

I received an e-mail from Jeremy Wood that shared his patent pending method "for tracking cellphones to generate useful demographically-keyed data on the movement of people, without compromising anyone's privacy." The patent application will be public in April, but Wood shared it and some slides with me and is interested in feedback.

Below I'll do my best to explain the method try to think through the value of the data collected. To me that's the real make or break of the method: does it create data that will be in demand?

Continue reading "Patent Watch: Tracking People Via Cell without Compromising Privacy"