LOJOCONNECT.COM
location-based technology + journalism

By Satta Sarmah

For many locative journalists, maps are the most efficient tool to tell a location-based story. Over the past 10 weeks, Team LoJo has relied on maps, GPS devices and other tools to tell our Chicago 2016 locative story.

We followed the lead of other news organizations, such as the Bakersfield Californian and The New York Times, which mostly rely on Google Maps for locative stories.

While that mapping platform has great capabilities, a quick Web search revealed other mapping tools that multimedia journalists should know about.

MapsAlive, an application used to create interactive maps and floor plans, gives journalists, real estate professionals and tourism businesses the ability to make any ordinary map interactive. It’s been used in various ways, from creating interactive directories of stores in a mall to virtual tours of national parks and as an interactive illustration of a crime scene.

Vermont-based company AvantLogic created MapsAlive in 2007 and says it wants the technology to be “the premier tool for creating online interactive map tours.” Interactive map tours are basically multimedia presentations containing information, images and text associated with particular locations.

AvantLogic says anyone with basic computer skills can create an interactive map tour on its Web site. Users must upload their own photos and maps (such as scans of print maps or maps found online). Then, they drag markers onto certain points within the map. Hit the publish button and MapsAlive will create an interactive map tour to your liking.

The cost to create these maps is free. However, MapsAlive charges $39 a year for a premium membership, which allows members to download the interactive maps to their computers or servers.

It seems much easier than creating an interactive map in a program like Adobe Flash, which requires some programming skills in order to write ActionScript.

MapsAlive has also made itself more competitive with other mapping platforms by releasing a second version, which allows users to input video and Flash movies , display data from an information database in real time, and create a categorized directory of locations on their interactive map tours.

By Ki Mae Heussner

Those who tout Asia as a leader in mobile telephony should note that not all kinds of mobile applications are gaining traction in the region. While it’s true that some parts of Asia-Pacific are expected to lead the mobile market over the next few years, that growth may not necessarily contribute to the acceptance of certain applications, such as (unfortunately) location-based services.

A recent TNS Global Telecoms Insight study on mobile device usage in the Asia-Pacific region found that, while mobile operators have started to offer a number of GPS and location-based services (LBS), they’re only catching on in a few markets.

Although 53 percent of respondents said they had access to location-based services, only 3 percent said they had used the service. In Japan, location-based services reached 13 percent and in Taiwan LBS reached 10 percent.

The top four features in the Asia-Pacific region were SMS (used by 88 percent of respondents), games (71 percent), cameras (61 percent) and multimedia messaging services (48 percent).

A 2007 report released by research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, however, suggested that location-based services in Asia would grow alongside the introduction of mash-up services and an increase in mobile advertising.

The report indicated that the market across 13 Asia-Pacific economies was worth $291.7 million in 2006 and would reach $447 million by the end of 2009.

Japan and Korea, the report said, were the most developed LBS markets, accounting for 92 percent of total revenues in the region.

Demand in other parts of Asia-Pacific has been stifled by privacy concerns, the lack of advanced GPS-enabled handsets, and a lack of an encouraging mobile eco-system and user interest.

Worldwide, though, some analysts project that 2008 will be the year mobile location-based services take off. Research giant Gartner says global subscriptions in LBS are expected to rise by nearly 168 percent this year, driven by increasing numbers of GPS-enabled phones and substantial investments in navigation technologies by heavyweights such as Nokia. Revenue is predicted to jump from $485.1 million in 2007 to $1.3 billion in 2008.

Annette Zimmerman, a research analyst at Gartner, said, “Growth [in location-based services] now will be stimulated by the arrival of mobile phones with built-in, precise location-sensing and the arrival of new service providers, like Google and Nokia, with [their] service offerings, keen to exploit geographic and positioning strategies.”

By Joyce Chang

A report released this week at a meeting of the World Association of Newspapers said that the digital platforms of newspaper companies are growing at “double-digit rates worldwide, in both usage and revenue production.”

The World Digital Media Trends report, compiled from studies by 71 research partners and covering 232 countries, said worldwide digital and mobile advertising revenues are projected to increase 12-fold from 2002 to 2011, to $150 billion.

An Associated Press article said one study in the report concluded that in some countries, “the Internet will become the primary news and information source within five years, while newspapers will lose the dominating position they have held for more than a century.”

While the report concluded that newspapers can’t depend solely on their print editions to keep them alive, experts cautioned that media companies should not rush unprepared into new mobile and Internet markets at the expense of their traditional print publications, the Associated Press wrote.

In the AP article, World Association of Newspapers President Gavin O’Reilly said about 60 percent of the new revenues goes to two companies, Google and Yahoo.

“The Net is a wonderful place if you know what you are looking for,” he said at a panel debate about digital media’s impact on newspaper revenues. “But we run the risk that running headlong into digital will turn our dollars into pennies.”

 

Newspaper companies must also continue to invest in the medium they know best — printed editions — since there are few accurate overviews of the impact of Internet revenues on newspapers, he said.

Other worldwide results from the report include:
–Wireless subscriptions are expected to grow more than three-fold, from $1.1 billion in 2002 to a projected $3.4 billion in 2011
–The number of homes with broadband is expected to grow more than ten-fold, from more than 51 million households in 2002 to nearly 540 million households in 2011
–The mobile telephone customer base has grown from 945 million in 2001 to 2.6 billion in 2006

Some interesting worldwide statistics from the report and meeting include:
–Online consumption of newspapers has risen by 20 percent in the last year and by 100 percent over the last three years.
–Slightly more than half of readers who view newspaper Web sites spend the same amount of time reading newspapers, while 35 percent say the time they spend with either print or online newspapers has increased.
–Print circulation in China, India and Latin America grew.

Additional information about the research data and the World Digital Media Trends full report is available for purchase or for download by WAN members. Another report, “Trends in Newsrooms 2008,” was also released at the meeting.

By Hope Needles

There has been much hype surrounding the release of the new 3G version of the iPhone later this month. It is expected that the latest version will not only run faster than the 2G device, but also come equipped with GPS technology.

According to several reports, iPhone access to GPS will be provided by Broadcom, a fairly new entrant into the GPS market. Broadcom Corporation, a company that specializes in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, announced in June of 2007 that it had acquired Global Locate, a privately-held provider of GPS chips, software and network services.

As a result, powerful synergies have evolved between the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and mobile technologies of Broadcom, and the GPS technology of Global Locate. These are already deeply impacting the wireless and mobile device industries.

The prospect of a GPS-enabled iPhone is indeed exciting because it could potentially leverage GPS functionality better than any other mobile device to come before it. If you look at the iPhone in its current form, you will see that it already lends itself extremely well to GPS use. The iPhone’s large touchscreen interface, external speakers and uncluttered Google Maps display only require a suction cup windshield bracket to become a fully-functional and portable car navigation device. With this in mind, the ease of use that a built-in GPS navigation system could provide consumers may significantly drive up demand for iPhones.

Here are some additional upgrades that are expected to be unveiled for the 3G version at the WWDC keynote, according to Engadget:

– The phone will no longer be metal. It will come in a glossy black color from top to bottom and the buttons will be chrome.

– Overall, the phone will be slightly thicker and have a sleeker design, with fewer angular edges

– The headphone jack will no longer be recessed

By Hilary Powell

The year 2008 could see the development of more gadgets and gizmos equipped with GPS.

At Asia’s largest technology trade show, Computex 2008, Mio Technology recently unveiled a new spin on digital cameras: the PND, or portable navigation device camera.

The hybrid camera integrates a GPS radio into a digital camera.

A GPS Business News article states the device will feature a 3.5-inch touch screen and, with the two integrated technologies, the camera will be able to geotag your photos.

On the Miss Direction blog, GPS blogger Bonnie Cha said Mio hopes users will be able to put away the cumbersome cords and accessories necessary to run GPS modules, such as the Pharos Trips & Pics and the Sony GPS-CS1KA.

No word yet on when those Mia models will hit store shelves, but some GPS-enabled devices already on store shelves look like they’ll be even more useful to travelers. Among those attractive options: devices that feature built-in cheap fuel price finders.

According to an article by Donna Goodison on BostonHearld.com, “Several Garmin GPS models are compatible with MSN Direct, a subscription service for personal navigation devices that includes a location-based search feature for gas prices.”

After searching for prices of regular unleaded gasoline and listing them in order of their distances, the device will spit out directions to the station of choice.

While Googling to uncover even more of the hottest geographic gadgets, I started to squirm when I came across an article on NewScientistTech revealing that Microsoft researchers are developing ways to track patterns of travel and modes of transportation using GPS technology.

A team of technology experts in Beijing recorded the movements of 45 people who carried GPS-enabled devices for more than 6 months. The scientists tracked variations in speed to predict each test subject’s mode of transportation: walking, driving, or biking.

Though Microsoft’s experiment is more concept than gadget, it raises a pertinent point about what Michael Peterson, Chair of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Maps and the Internet, calls “location privacy.”

As it becomes easier to track and share our movements, the concept of “locational privacy” – controlling who can access our location records – becomes more important, he says, adding that Microsoft and others should make sure their products are designed to protect users.

By Amy Lee

Fellow LoJo Team member Satta Sarmah on Saturday blogged about our recent trial of our Chicago Olympic 2016 Mediascape tour in Washington Park, and noted that while it wasn’t without a hitch (who knew balloons marking a path would prove confusing?), overall we judge the event as a success because of the largely positive feedback on both our reporting and on the use of GPS technology for storytelling. Our participants were kind enough to fill out a fairly lengthy and in-depth questionnaire we’d developed to gauge what worked, what didn’t and offer suggestions on how this technology might be applied to other subject matter to create a thorough and engaging storytelling experience.

One idea for other story ideas that could work with GPS-based devices that repeatedly surfaced from our “guinea pigs” this past Saturday was the idea that this technology could be used to create neighborhood historical tours, especially in a town like Chicago, which is known for its diverse and long-established neighborhoods. This struck me as pretty genius, so I decided to sit down and see what’s out there for Chicago residents looking for a mobile storytelling experience, even if it isn’t based on GPS technology (since there’s very little of that out there right now).

Turns out, the Chicago History Museum is a gold mine for location-based tours – and I don’t mean just audio tours of indoor museum exhibits.
I mean location-based storytelling by land, by elevated train and by boat, including self-propelled (kayak) and tours on the sightseeing boats on the Chicago River. They offer a variety of tours, some with an audio companion and some with real-life guides. They go into gritty neighborhoods and upper-crust neighborhoods. They go to pubs. They have not one but five elevated train tours in a series they call “Life Along the ‘L’.” They have a series of cemetery tours and a 25-mile bike tour – in fact, unfortunately, all three of their summer bike tours are already booked solid.

So, for those looking to delve deeper into Chicago’s history and get out and experience location-based storytelling this summer, check out their website – and if the bike tours are any indication, do it quickly, before the tour you’re looking for is sold out!

By Hilary Powell

Could you do it?

It’s a newsworthy challenge, and a new report says it could hurt your company financially.

An article recently topping a Yahoo! Tech news page details a study that found that banning personal use of tech tools in the office is costing British businesses billions.

A new study is claiming that by banning personal Internet use in the office (including video games, social networking, dating, shopping, personal email, or other non-work-related activities), British businesses are losing 4 billion pounds every year due to decreased productivity.

A psychologist at Goldsmiths University surveyed 1,700 people. He suggests giving workers 10-minute e-breaks. The breaks would show a sense of trust in the worker/boss relationship in the office, and might even help people focus, he said.

Imagine, a boss who understands needing your Facebook fix.

Back here in the states, the British study could have relevance for those who may be logging on, on the job. According to a 2007 survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a project that collects data on the impacts of the Internet, 70 percent of adults are online daily or several times a day.

Even outside the working world, young people are testing their need for technology.

In a Spring 2008 issue of Atemeisia magazine, a publication of the University of Nevada, writer Guia del Prado recounts the fear of going a day without technology.

As the primary means of communication in such a vast world, I couldn’t think about the dark screen of my phone or my laptop without panic.

By Hilary Powell

It seems more lawmakers and safety officials are getting creative in trying to curb criminal activity.

A bill that would allow the use of satellite technology to track people who violate an order of protection in domestic violence cases may soon be in place in Illinois.

The Cindy Bischof Act, which recently passed by a House vote of 111-0 and is now headed to the governor’s desk, would allow courts to require that these violators wear a Global Positioning System monitoring device as a condition of bail.

The legislation could be a sign of the times, as more states are considering how technology can help keep locals safe. State lawmakers in Oklahoma and Hawaii passed legislation to track offenders earlier this year as well.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that since late 2006, some registered sex offenders serving probation have been required to wear GPS ankle bracelets that track where they are 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Probation officers can download data whenever they want to check where a defendant has been and whether they’re keeping to their pre-approved schedules. Or, the officers can sit at a computer screen to watch a probationer move from place to place in real-time, said David Sanders, Pima County’s chief probation officer.

Officials from the American Civil Liberties Union have raised questions about who should have the authority to enforce GPS monitoring.

“This should be done by independent judicial officials, not by police officers whose job is to investigate, not to mete out justice,” said Barry Steinhardt, head of the ACLU technology program.

Either way, tracking systems, like most technology, are not always foolproof. New Orleans station WDSU reported that one man under house arrest was able to commit a crime while wearing his GPS device.

Also, rather than deterring crime, GPS technology has sometimes been used to outwit the system. For people who might violate speeding laws, Trapster is a Web site that allows drivers to have a text message sent to their phone when they approach a speed trap tagged online by other users.

When you see a trap, report it by pressing a button on your phone, or calling a toll free number. Other user’s phones will alert them as they approach the trap.

“Think of it as Facebook meets radar detectors, and throw in a little bit of eBay ratings,” Trapster programmer Pete Tenereillo said.