Update: Following up on three PRs

Update 3/10/09: Cimex’s rep responded. The company funded the research on UK crime mapping sites itself:

The answer to your question is that Cimex funded the research themselves.  The agency believes it is very important that the Usability Team is given the time to explore current industry issues and contribute to industry standards.  Sometimes this is carried out for internal knowledge development but occasionally Cimex’s findings are put out as a release to stimulate debate.

—- original post 3/9/09——-

Three press releases crossed my electronic desk in the past few weeks that gave me pause. Each one left out what I considered “the rest of the story” (goodbye Paul Harvey!). So, instead of forgetting about those omissions, I followed up with companies’ PR folks. I’ve yet to receive a reply from Cimex.

First up, was the announcement from Networks in Motion (NIM) that it acquired TrafficGuage, a traffic information company. In the PR I found this language: “The acquisition will enhance NIM’s existing services and does not mark a departure from the company’s focus on location-based services for mobile phones, Antone noted. NIM has no plans to enter the merchant traffic data business; the acquisition did not include TrafficGauge’s hardware devices business, customer base, service contracts or Web properties.” So what was acquired? I queried NIM and learned:

TG spun off the hardware business before we closed the deal.  We got all other assets (IP, Software, Servers, offices, equipment, etc.) and the key people, who are the experts in understanding, acquiring, and processing all forms of traffic information (and “feeds”); so we now have a Seattle office.  The focus of the Traffic Services Business Unit will be to help NIM deliver best in class LBS services.

Next up, the announcement of Navigon’s new GPS navigation products that “Learn From Individual Driving Habits.” In reading the release and exploring the company website I could not decipher what individual driving habits the company would use to offer up routes. To my rescue came Navigon’s PR manager with answers.

...The personal data that the new NAVIGON MyRoutes feature puts into account when recommending a route includes how fast the user usually drives on different road types. Out of the three routes the feature displays to the user, it can then calculate which one fits best to the personal driving style of the user. When you buy the device, there are average values saved on the device that will be adopted to your driving style as you are using the device.
Future recommended routes are based on your driving behavior in the past (how fast the user usually drives on different road types), the weekday and the time of the day. The MyRoutes feature saves how fast you drive on certain road types and based on that it can tell you which out of the three routes will be the best for you. This does not necessarily need to be the route that is the quickest. This depends on your personal settings. If you want, you can always get the quickest or the shortest route recommended. But the standard setting is NAVIGON’s “Optimal Route” which is a combination between the shortest and quickest route.
An example for putting into account the time you are travelling would be a route that has a big city between you and your destination. If you drive at night, MyRoutes would probably recommend a route that goes through the city. But if you drive in the afternoon, it will recommend a route that goes around the city because based on average driving data, it takes long in the afternoon to take roads within a city.
There is of course the option of switching MyRoutes off at any time and navigating as normal on the route proposed by NAVIGON, without individual driving style being taken into account. However, there is no option for not saving driving behavior on the device or for erasing your passed trips.  Resetting the device does not erase this data, but if someone else took your device it would adapt to their driving over time and forget yours. The device always adjusts to your driving behavior and can recognize changes. If you change your driving behavior for a while, the device will adopt to this and older data about your driving style will not be put into account anymore.

The third PR about which I had a question was from Cimex, a company not known in the U.S. but apparently big in the UK. It produces “award winning interactive solutions for mobile and the web.” The company reported on a study of the recently mandated online crime maps in that country. The conclusion: they are perhaps not achieving their intended goal. I wondered who might fund such a study, or if the company itself did. Despite two e-mails, I’ve not yet received a reply.