Podcast: Do We Need Maps in our Location-based Apps?

A reader posed the question that we articulate this way: “Why are data taken for granted in LBS hype? What happens when you remove the map?” Our editors think that is a great question and explore it in the context of navigation apps, weather and traffic apps, social apps and augmented reality.

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Waze Partner Program: Q & A with CEO

The PR is quite vague, but the basics seem to be:

The partnership program forms a mutually beneficial relationship in which waze and its users are provided with a base map for accelerating community growth, while the partner benefits include turning their map from a static and costly-to-update resource, into a real-time, navigable asset with significantly lower operational costs. Partners also expand their data set to include real-time traffic, community updates and reports.

The official announcement will be at the Navigation & Location USA event today and tomorrow.

Here’s a Q & A with answers from CEO Noam Bardin.

What type of partners is waze looking for? Those with data? Those with apps running on other datasets?

The partner program is aimed at data providers - primarily map providers. It is open to map providers of different levels (display, navigable, out-of-date, governmental) and, at its core, will take this data and return it updated and expanded.  Updated to navigable information, new segments, missing data (such as street names or missing streets) fixes to geometry etc and expanded to include real time traffic and community alerts.

Are there any monetary benefits for partners?

This partnerships is a partnership and not a data buy.  By sharing together data, the partner gets the benefit of crowdsourcing and the community gets the benefit of a more mature map.  Both parties can share in the revenue from selling the data, regardless of who sells it (the partner or Waze) so it is a win-win for both sides of the partnership. 

Are there restrictions on data use? What’s the license for partners using waze data?

This is confidential but beneficial to both parties.  Fundamentally - the program is geared towards licensed data providers.

Is there an API to use to access the waze data?

There are a variety of client and server side API’s being released to enable the data to be easily integrated into applications and web sites.

Will partners be providing data in raw form to waze? How will that work? What’s the time frame to add a new dataset from a local provider?

The data is provided in raw form and made available back in the same format or in processed format through API’s/

Is this part of the move to add OSM data to waze’s dataset? [Background: Di-Ann Eisnor, Waze’s community geographer, explained at the Location Intelligence Conference that the company was interested in using OSM data and was waiting for that project to have a license that would allow that.]

This is not OSM related as we are partnering with data providers who own there own data set and can license it accordingly for commercial use.  OSM data restricts from commercializing the data and so would not be part of the partner program.  We think what they are doing is great for the industry as a whole but for this specific program, it isn’t relevant.

My Black Friday Shopping Map

Yesterday, I took a look at the Walmart maps being offered to shoppers for Black Friday by the Massachusetts store cited in our APB post today. Looking like every other Walmart floor plan that the retailer stamps into the landscape around the country, I got to thinking about how I’d want my "shopping map" to look like. If I were to be lured to the 4:00 a.m. low, low prices, obsequious to the will of the mega-retailers on that fateful day after Thanksgiving, this is how I would want to start my hunt for the ultimate door-busting bargains.

First, I’d want my car navigation system (let’s go with a Garmin…I’m partial to their PNDs) equipped with the locations of every retailer and their hours of operation on BF (yes, Black Friday).

Next, I’d map out the route to each store allowing just enough time to scarf-up the best sale items at each.

However, this is predicated by having a map of each floor plan for each retailer loaded onto my Blackberry (sorry, I’m a business guy…don’t do iPhone schtick). Perhaps we could get the good folks at uLocate to work on this for the Where application.

Next, the retailers would have to allow the floor plans to be tagged with the location of the best sale items. This might be similar to what the rather crude Walmart map provides, but please, we are a bit more sophisticated in our geospatial awareness these days, so let’s have better precision, right? I’m thinking that there should be some RFID device for each item and a shopping cart that synch’s via Bluetooth to my Blackberry to navigate around the store. Whenever the cart passes along the isle with the most sought-after gadgets, my Blackberry provides the alert and I’m directed appropriately.

Having snagged the item from the shelf, I’m then provided with a traffic map of the store floor, whisking my buggy to route around the bulging crowds to the nearest cash register with the fewest in line. This is micro-geography at its finest.

My items are scanned as I zoom past the counter, swipe my credit card, and I’m out the door…on to the next BF adventure.

I’m headed to the parking lot where I’m met with a swarm of hungry, sleep-deprived shoppers, goodness knows where I parked my car. But in the perfect geospatial world, I am directly by voice commands by my PND to the location of my space and my car is automatically unlocked as I approach with a cart-load of gifts, recognizing of course that my bio sensor-equipped vehicle knows my proximal location.

Safely inside, I rev the engine and I’m off to the next store, real-time traffic and weather guiding my every move. And because I’ve integrated my PND with geo-located Twitter feeds, I’m getting updates on new bargains in the vicinity. I’m re-routed as necessary…my Christmas shopping list consulted and advised.

In a perfect world…Have a great Thanksgiving.

Skyhook Tracking CNN Correspondents on the Magic Wall

A note from Skyhook’s Rich Sutton pointed me to the video of John King below showing off not just “live locating” but also running correspondents’ locations back in time and showing their recent “routes” which look just like airline routing maps found in the airline magazines.

What’s unfortunate is that the CNN crew states that the app uses GPS.

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Podcast: PNDs vs. Smartphones

deCarta announced its connected navigation platform last week. At the same time the expectations for portable navigation devices is looking dim as for-fee smartphone solutions for navigation appear to grow. What is the future for these devices and what about the connected car of the future? Our editors look at what the experts say and share their own predictions.

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