Writing Messages In Empty Space With GPS

meiocyte writes: "This New Scientist story about leaving messages in empty space seems very cool. You upload a message (or perhaps a picture, audio clip, etc.), it gets tagged with your GPS coordinates, and then anyone else who goes there gets to see/hear it. Every GPS-resolvable parcel of empty space will have its own web site!" Combine this with user-forums, and restaurant ratings could take on a whole new dimension. Update: 01/20 23:28 GMT by T : Oops -- looks like I duped Michael. Sorry.

Comments

Pirates, or Couch Pirates?

[Transient0]

Here's another thought:

If the way that this works is that a "web page" is being created on HP(or whoever) servers for each spot the first time someone posts there. This "new" web is basically just an extension of the old web. Will we end up with a new .GPS top level domain? Will all of the these locational web sites be browsable through the web as we know it?

Basically, if i want to know what people are saying about my favorite restaurant/movie theatre/porno shop/whatever, do i have to actually go there or can i just plug the latitude and longitude into my web browser while sitting at home?

How this would work in the world

[maggard]

First of all folks seem to think this would somehow be embedded in GPS - it wouldn't be. Nor would there necessarily be a canonical database of these, rather folks would likely subscribe or otherwise get access to many databases.

Your phone company might offer one as a premie for use with the phone. Of course it would likely have all of the restrictions that a phone company would impose (basically no content but for hotlinks to merchants and a few public services websites.)

Your local mainstream and alternative papers might offer their own with reviews and schedules and of course links. Stand in front of a bus stop and see its schedule, wander in front of a theater and see the show times and buy them with a click. Walk into a store and you can look up their advert or just get dumped to their website (or whoever paid for those coordinates on that database.)

Business and schools would use these to tag their own space. There'd likely be an IS database with notes on the hardware closet one is next to, directions for following a cable run through the building. University students would doubtless have their own databases with tips for which corners are good for sex and that the pizza in that cafe is rumored to have rat bits.

Credit cards would likely love these. Use Amex and you'd have access to the Amex database listing only merchants who take their cards and likely a copy of the Zagats guide or something.

Sure lots of graffiti could be a problem in some public databases, as with intrusive or inappropriate advertising. That's why I expect to see multiple databases with some sort of pruning or content enforcement mechanism (heck, /. moderation for tags.) The same as the web the useful ones would flourish, the others wither away, and need to find a funding source.

We've already seen something like this for the web. I've lost track of their names but a few years ago there was a spate of plugins that would allow folks to annotate webpages. If you had BrandA plugin when you went to a webpage with a note "attached" it could appear superimposed. They weren't actually on the webpage but served from the plugin's host database and left by other visitors. There was much outcry but what really killed the whole thing was the graffiti.

However I expect that there are ways around the graffiti problem (paying folks to keep the database clean or even moderation, and of course commercial ones) and we could see space tagging work be a breakthrough product for phones.

My own list of dream apps:

• Restaurant reviews from the local papers
• Traffic news relevant to my location
• Public transit schedules from where I'm standing or the nearest station/stop with estimated times & delay notification
• Find the nearest ATM on my network
• Browse the website of the store I'm in and easily jump to their competition down the street's website
• Advertise my need for a cab to my location and see who shows up first
• Maintain a list of personal notes attached to places: Where we first kissed, the salesperson I liked here was "Sue" etc.
• Share notes with my friends & family: The chocolate mousse in this place is gelatinous...
• Stand outside a bar or sit on a train and look up if anyone I like has listed themselves as being nearby (by their choice on our circle-of-friends tagsite.)

Again, these wouldn't all be in big public databases but in a variety, some general public others subscription and some private.

to prevent spammage

[redhotchil]

why not implement a system like everything2 + gps?