The document discusses the evolution and implications of geolocation technologies, focusing on various applications from early innovations like Active Badge and Dodgeball to modern platforms like Foursquare and Facebook Places. It highlights the significance of location as a context for user engagement and the associated privacy concerns regarding location sharing. Key themes include user intent behind location sharing, the importance of contextual data, and potential dangers tied to location privacy.

1. Users and geo
R a f f i K r i k o r i a n
@ r a f f i

2. Talk ing about user s and geo with
@t hinkvitamin in t he Geolocation
Onlin e Conference!
13 Jan via Twitter for iPhone
from Twitter Headquarters
795 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA
View Tweets at this place

3. Who am I?
Engineering Manager of the Twitter Platform Services team
Built the original geo services on the @twitterapi
Coordinate support for Tweets
Built initial implementation of Rockdove at Twitter - our
locations database

4. What are we going to talk
about?
Take a look at some geo enabled applications
Try to understand the implicit “here”
What is location privacy? How does sharing work?
What are some opportunities in the geo space?

5. What are we going to talk
about?
Take a look at some geo enabled applications
Try to understand the implicit “here”
What is location privacy? How does sharing work?
What are some opportunities in the geo space?
PLEASE INTERRUPT ME WITH
QUESTIONS!!!!

6. People want to talk
about where they are

7. People want to
discover what’s
around them

8. Location is...

9. Location is context
and Relevancy

10. Location is globally
applicable, but
locally relevant

11. Walking down memory
lane

12. Active Badge (1989-1992)
Way to locate people within a
building
Transmits a unique code every 10
seconds
Building sensors can then pick up
people and allow other applications
to be built on top of it

13. Dodgeball (2000-2005-2009)
Users use SMS to indicate location
(pre-cursor to “check-in”)
Dodgeball would notify of crushes
and friends who were nearby
Closed in February of 2009 but
ideas clearly live on in Google
Latitude

14. PacManhattan (2004)
Urban game recreating Pac-man in
NYC by NYU ITP students
Player dressed as Pac-man would
run around Washington Square
Park collecting dots while Ghosts
tried to catch him/her
Used cell phone contact to
controllers back at NYU

15. Serendipity (2004)
Centralized server stores profiles
Mobile phones broadcast
BlueTooth IDs
nearby phones query the server
for the IDs they receive
server does a profile match
Used to augment physical reality

16. Loopt (2005-)
GPS sharing system to see where
your friends/contacts are
Background application that
updates location
Has the ability to turn location on
and off on a friend by friend basis
Has social aspects of seeing and
messaging friends; Loopt Mix for
more non-friend social networking

17. Flickr Geo Tagging (2006-)
Adding context
Location is a “first class” object, but
not the point
On modern devices, this can be
automatic; provides functionality so
items can be dragged and dropped

18. Brightkite (2007-)
First mass usage of “check in”
Based on check-in, who is nearby,
who has been someplace before,
posted notes and photos
check.in was Brightkite’s attempt at
a “universal check in” service

19. Foursquare (2009-)
Real popular-ization of “check in”
due to embedded game dynamics -
made LBS fun
Game dynamics cause people to
change their behavior
Real business awareness with deals,
tips, and rewards for mayorship

20. Search with my Location
(2009-)
Location is just context
Turn on location for Mobile Safari
in iOS on www.google.com, and
search results are re-ranked using
that context

21. Facebook Places (2010-)
“Check-in” becomes a verb in
Facebook
Most notable because of juggernaut
which is Facebook
Facebook Deals is a loyalty card
mechanism built upon Places

27. Location in the @twitterapi
user object
1st attempt at geo on the {
...
@twitterapi "display_url":null,
"profile_text_color":"333333",
"followers_count":5997,
Expose a text field in the user "expanded_url":null,
object called “location” "is_translator":false,
"following":false,
"verified":false,
"profile_sidebar_fill_color":"DDEEF6",
Free form text "location":"San Francisco, California",
"profile_background_tile":false,
"time_zone":"Pacific Time (US & Canada)",
If geo-codeable, then include it in ...
search }

28. @twitterapi’s Geotagging API
Attach coordinates to a Tweet
Expose the “point” in timelines
Allow radius searches

29. @twitterapi’s Geoplace API
Attach a named place to a Tweet
Have entire model for how to
expose and describe a place
Richer data for users

30. Location is about
context

35. Location is really
dangerous

36. Location is really
dangerous
Context can be hard to infer - mistaken assumptions can be
dangerous and problematic
Who is storing the data?
How is the history managed?
Who has control over the data?
How is that data shared?
Is the application provider a subpoena target?

37. A lot of data already out
there
Clipper card (transit card for subway system)
FastPass (electronic toll pass device)
Cellphone data
Google searches made from my phone

38. What makes a place?

39. 37o46’56.5”N,
122o24’1.7”W

40. 37o46’56.5”N, 122o24’1.7”W

41. 37.78215,-122.40040
!=
37.78,-122.40

42. Dropping precision

43. “SoMA”

44. SoMA

45. Roma or Rome /
or Tokyo

46. 5a110d312052166f or
2487956

47. Sharing Location

48. Understanding the user’s
“intent”
Why are we sharing the location?
Are we trying to actually share current / real location?
Rarely (but there are examples) do people share location for
location’s sake

49. Public models
Complete publication of
locational information
Controlled “fuzziness” of
shared data

50. Private/Public models
Foursquare / Gowalla / etc. have public private
models
Public - ability to shout out and Tweet
Private - ability to just share with mutual
confirmed friends

52. Temporary shares
Granting access to account
No concerns about user
“forgetting” who has access
to this data

53. Who/What has the ability to
share your location?
What applications can share your location?
You may be extremely careful, but are the people you are with
careful?
A user’s locational privacy may not be in control of that user

57. What do your users
want to do?

58. What do your users want to
do?
You have to evaluate this for yourself, obviously
Trends towards
location as a pervasive context / find cool things near by /
alerts
need more location contextual data out there to do this
more attempts to crack the mythical “social networking” one
data mining

59. Twitter Local Trends
Discovery of local conversations
Use a multitude of signals to bucket
content

60. SVNGR
Even more game dynamics than Foursquare
Better incentive for businesses - moving towards
more of an engagement and broadcast model

61. Groupon
Finding deals near by
Great example of “location as a substrate” or
“location as context”
Both web and native mobile applications are geo-
location enabled

62. Yelp’s Monocle
“Augmented reality” to search the world
nearby
Interface is clearly problematic, and is
unclear why it benefits users - but the
concepts are intriguing

63. @emergency_in_sf
“Follow some of the larger emergencies in
San Francisco as they happen!”
Could be seriously enhanced to only do
delivery to those people who are actually
affected (or are strangely interested in
emergencies)

64. Questions? Follow me!
twitter.com/raffi