More SXSW Notes
Now sitting in a panel on geospatial data on the Web. Slightly less interesting in that we seem to be celebrating what has been done (particularly with Google Earth). Well yeah – but where is the talk about where this is all going? Frankly, what about the possibilities for mobile applications of location and use of geospatial data? Ok — some good stuff from Dan Dubno of “Blowing Things Up” (great name for a company). He’s talking about using personal agents to use spatial data and external data to negotiate with vendors as you walk down the street to get you the best price on, say, a cup of coffee. Interesting twist on the age-old “mobile marketing” standby of getting a Starbucks coupon as you walk down the street: turning around to the use of agents that use location and proximity data on the user’s behalf. This meshes with my view of how digital identity (of which location is a facet), privacy and security will evolve along Web 2.0 lines. Clearly, this is an important use case for the burgeoning effort on the Ubiquitous Web within W3C.
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Ok, but is the ability to get the cheapest cup of coffee really worth companies and agencies being able to track you and what you buy every day? I’ve been reading this blog on privacy http://www.globalpov.com and it’s got me thinking a lot about this sort of question, as I think that when you combine information collection and data mining, there’s a lot of troubling possibilities.