[Geowanking] Jon Udell: A conversation with Cyril Houri about annotating the planet using a GPS/WiFi/cellular hybrid

[Joe Germuska]

Shuffleplay just brought this John Udell podcast 
to my ears.  Thought folks here might be 
interested.  (I'm only a couple of minutes into 
it now...)

Below is the text of Udell's blog post introducing the podcast:

http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/09/22.html

<<  Friday, September 22, 2006  >>

A conversation with Cyril Houri about annotating 
the planet using a GPS/WiFi/cellular hybrid

Today's podcast with Cyril Houri, founder and CEO 
of Mexens Technologies, advances a story I began 
telling in early 2005 about annotating the 
planet. The problem was, and still is, that there 
aren't very many people with GPS devices. Cyril's 
system, Navizon, aims to bootstrap us out of that 
situation. The idea is to incent people carrying 
the fairly small number of GPS-equipped mobile 
devices (PocketPCs, cellphones) to map the 
locations of both WiFi access points and cell 
towers. Then people using vast numbers of devices 
on WiFi or cellular networks can use 
location-aware applications without having to own 
GPS gear.

There are two incentives to contribute to the 
mapping effort. First, the Navizon software is 
free to users of compatible GPS-equipped devices. 
(Otherwise it's a one-time $20 license.) Second, 
you earn points for contributing the locations of 
WiFi access points and cell towers to the Navizon 
database.

With or without onboard GPS, the software 
provides a few basic applications: location-based 
search, geotagging, buddy tracking. But Houri 
says that an API that's due to be revised on 
Monday enables developers to write their own 
applications that presume a GPS. If there isn't a 
physical one present, and if your region has been 
mapped by the Navizon collective, these 
applications will use a virtual GPS instead.

What if your area isn't covered yet? You've gotta 
love this bit of advice from the Navizon FAQ:

     You can either:

     - wait for someone else to map your area

     Or

     - map your area yourself by getting a GPS 
device. You can even get one for a few days, 
drive around with Navizon running with this GPS 
and then return it. This way, you will have built 
your own virtual GPS in your area.

Funnily enough, that's just what I did back in 
early 2005 when I made my original GPS-enhanced 
mashup. The low-end GPS gadget I'd bought wasn't 
very useful, so after I collected my waypoints I 
returned it.

This time around, it might be worth hanging onto 
one, at least while the alternate location 
networks are being bootstrapped. Beyond that I'm 
not sure what's going to happen, but I am sure 
it's going to be interesting.

On a related note, I'm continuing to find reports 
about successful use of GPS receivers on 
airplanes. But maybe not for long?

-- 
Joe Germuska
Joe at Germuska.com * http://blog.germuska.com    

"The truth is that we learned from João forever to be out of tune."
	-- Caetano Veloso