Building a new location-aware infrastructure
for calendaring and scheduling
Peter Batty, Spatial Networking
GeoWeb 2009
Where and when
will you be close to
your friends?
whereyougonnabe.com!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Jason, Erin, Paula
Sacré-Coeur
Paris
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Sean, Moira, Paula
La Coupole Restaurant
Paris
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

How many friends do
you just miss in airports? http://www.flickr.com/photos/plasticbystander/879496227/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

current location
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

future location
current location
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Benefits
• Meet friends / business contacts more often
and more easily
• Make better use of time
• Save travel costs
• Environmental benefits
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Key Challenges
• Modeling (fine grained) future space-time
• Obtaining data on future plans
• Notification & Visualization
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Coarse grained! Fine grained!
Space! City! Co-ordinate!
Time! Day! Minute!
Query! ??! Precise!
Accuracy!
Space-time models!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Coarse grained future location
Where is “close” to
San Jose in Dopplr?
Novato
75 miles, 2+ hours in traffic
= “CLOSE”
“Proximity” is based
on closest “big” city
Los Gatos
10 miles, 15 minutes
= “NOT CLOSE”
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Fine grained
future location
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Overlapping activities!
Lunch (Bella Mia Drinks (Splash Bar
Restaurant)! & Grill)!
Time!
Repeating activities!
Work!
Time!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Maybe? Probably? Either ... or? Uncertainty and
alternatives
Linear activities
Road trips
Train journeys
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Obtaining data on future plans
Direct input Calendar
Other location
systems
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Obtaining data on future plans
Travel bookings Restaurant Invitations &
reservations Events
Tickets
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Outlook add-in
Email whereyougonnabe
Calendar
Full automation
The implicit web
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Multiple
data sources
Departing at Denver Airport
Jul 22, 9:06am to 11:06am
Flying Denver to Vancouver
Jul 22, 11:06am to 1:15pm
Arriving Vancouver Airport
Jul 22, 1:15pm to 2:15pm
Driving Vancouver to Whistler
Jul 22, 2:15pm to 4:30pm
Mountain biking vacation at Fairmont
Whistler
Jul 22 4:30pm to Jul 25 10:51am
Driving Whistler to Vancouver
Jul 25 10:51am to 1:06pm
Departing at Vancouver Airport
Jul 25 1:06pm to 3:06pm
Flying Vancouver to Denver
Jul 25 3:06pm to 6:55pm
Arriving at Denver Airport
Jul 25, 6:55pm to 7:55pm
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

What is “interesting”? Who is “close”?
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Factors in
“interestingness”
Geographical
Distance apart
Temporal
Distance
Length of activity
from home
Distance Availability
from home Nature of activity
Adjacent activities
Distance between homes Personal
Preferences re this person
When did you last meet?
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Visualization!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Visualization!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Visualization!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Third party applications
Kids’ activities
Yoga
Concerts Cruises / Tours
Future Location API
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

http://www.flickr.com/photos/intangible/2632963377/
whereyougonnadig?
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Events
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

whereyougonnabe
+ +
a new location-aware infrastructure
for calendaring and scheduling
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Key perspectives
507 336/
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w.fl ickr.
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Network Effect
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Social network source
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

flickr.com/photos/grafixer/3600198988/
Automation
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Not just about travel ...
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

It’s about your calendar
+ +
a new location-aware infrastructure
for calendaring and scheduling
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Business model
• Free
• Professional (individual)
• Enterprise
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Nerdy stuff
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sloth_rider/392367929/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Technology stack
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Future technology?
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Hosting options
Running in the cloud
Physical hosting
Virtual hosting
Elastic hosting (Amazon)
Application hosting (Google App Engine)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennharper/36001149/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Running your company
in the cloud
Source control (cvsdude.com)
Documentation (various wikis)
Development management (e.g. rallydev.com)
Project management (e.g. basecamp)
Email, calendar etc (Google apps)
Finances (QuickBooks online, vcfo)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennharper/36001149/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Performance
Testing
210,245 users
(5 per zip code)
21MB data, 17MB index
33,579,939
friend relationships
(30-300 per user)
1286MB data, 631MB index
1,198,639 activities
(5-10 per user, 1 week period)
111MB data, 95MB index
Used free zip code data to generate database
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Performance findings
• Very impressed with PostGIS
• 2D or 3D indexing? 2D for now
• Partition tables by time? No
• Segment geographically? No
• Specific SQL can have a big impact
• Mix of explicit storage and dynamic calculation
Confident we can scale to millions of users
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Status
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

(looking for money)
flickr.com/photos/yomanimus/102798907/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

http://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/3550268287/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Nobody has funded us yet!!
flickr.com/photos/seedingchaos/178821720/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

flickr.com/photos/yngvar/3337971092/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Graphic on “freezing”
flickr.com/photos/jeremybarwick/3536348957/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

We will bounce back!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timusan/507493823/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Summary
• Continue to believe there is a big
opportunity in the future location space
• Location aware calendar
• People
• Events
• Looking at options going forward
Wednesday, July 29, 2009