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January 18, 2006
Introductory Class
A good first ubiquitous class. It's run by Dennis Crowley, the guy from dodgeball but like most everything else at ITP, it's a collaboration. With the technology in question, this class seems more like a collective, keeping up with all of the new developers. If I get into this, it'd be neat to see if there are any local SIG type organizations involved in cell phone applications. The one in Boston I went to was too geeky and not enough forward thinking.
The class is about using available cell phone technologies to build mobile application. The tools and implementation will depend on the audience, the more people one wants to reach the more one has to build things for the lowest common denominator. This limits possibilities and requires a developer to think creatively within a small tool-space. As in building for the web, the most important thing is to know your audience. Building for a corporate intranet with a standard mobile platform gives us a much more extensive tool base than building a viral application where the mobile platform isn't predictable.
As an aside, when building a viral application, wider adoption is more likely when both ends of the spectrum are considered. On one hand, an easy to use application will be more likely to spread but if it has "tech friendly tools" (i.e. downloadable local java thick client on the phone) it is more likely to be evangelized by the tech community.
The other thing to think of is which technology is being used relative to the type of interaction. Single player games (tetris) versus a multi user application (dodgeball or a massive multi player game that uses bluetooth, see mogi).
Quotes / Things
"Build stuff that people can use. Build stuff your friends can use." -Dennis
"Iterative Design. Build early, build often." --Dennis
Providers lock down the location APIs because they want to control the content. It can be done with integrated gps, triangulation or tower signal strength.
"I am interested in connecting people who have with people who need." --Gilad
Acronyms
MVNO - Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Boost is one example. You buy space on a network, possibly Sprint is the only one who sells space. Many small carriers for people with poor credit etc. are MVNOs.
BREW - Proprietary, expensive platform that only verizon uses. The basis for 'get it now'.
Links
ProxyDate - Bluetooth aware dating. Can't find link
All other links are consolidated under a delicious tag.
Ideas
I love the sub alerts project but at the same time cell phones don't work underground. sub alerts has a social component, people can mail everyone else if there was a problem with the train. first responders can fan out data. there might be an accountability issue with this. I would love to work with trains, feet or bikes.
I like the idea of google maps having a bullseye. All the stuff near where you are. What's interesting in the bullseye rings? What content is valuable.
Think of the google pedometer. How can you do an interactive back and forth within a single session as you gradually send more and more data back to the server? The idea of a session. The idea of an audio tour except (as in localprojects) users make their own audio tours. Currently, with these projects, the data is the atomic level and then a 'session' is created with the back and forth with the users. The users are throwing data back and forth creating a session.
Also think about what you have learned in pcomp. Sense/react except think in terms of context. Who, What, When and Where. Contextual Triggers (!!)
Posted by mb2811 at January 18, 2006 03:17 AM