Online Portfolios

Last week, I was approached about two job opportunities. Considering I'm still doing my PhD and not actively looking for side work that's not bad.  Since returning to school, I haven't kept up my career prospects efforts by fostering my online presence and building contacts. 

I've got the basics covered, but one needs to constantly update and finesse one's efforts, such as:

• LinkedIn - updating your profile with new skills and positions and adding new (genuine) contacts 
• Google - owning the first page of your name results 
• Social media - having a presence on the latest new thing and a strong focus on the main, applicable social media sites

This blog has generated some attention over the years from industry and academic leads. Blogging is a great way to build online presence and demonstrate expertise. I could blog more strategically for my career, but as I only blog for enjoyment that would take the fun out of blogging.

One of the most important tasks for creating an online presence is having an online portfolio. I've had it on my to do list for years, but I never found the right conditions to actually do it.  

I was once asked in job interviews about my lack of an online portfolio. I replied "Those who have a great portfolio have a lot of time on their hands while those who have a busy career don't have time to build and finesse a beautiful portfolio".  Although not completely true, it did satisfy my interviewer.

The main reason, I didn't have an online portfolio is that I did not have the time or inclination to design and code something from scratch. Nor did I have the budget to hire someone to build one for me (and that also feels like cheating to me anyway).

But with these recent job inquiries, I decided it was time to launch a portfolio.  After research and viewing samples, I decided to use WordPress.com for the templates and hosting.  The price is great - free all around and no ads - and it's easy to use. The main problem, however, is it is not as customizable as I'd like.

I know it's not great (I go back to my prior quotation for justification), but it covers all the facets and info I want to convey.

Take a look at it and let me know if you have any feedback on what it needs or suggestions for better online portfolio solutions that meet my budget (i.e. free) and time (i.e. next to none) needs.

Glen Farrelly Portfolio - Digital Media Consultant and Researcher

Convergence

I've been enjoying, and blogging about, Wired Magazine's 20-year anniversary issue. One of their topics to represent the  technological landscape of the past 20 years is Convergence - of smartphones with a huge variety of other stuff.

An infographic demonstrates "How over 40 gadgets converge into the tiny device in your pocket". The image isn't ideal as it comes off as a devotional item to the cult of Apple, but it effectively (and amusingly) demonstrates the various technologies that most current smartphones have subsumed.

Wired has the graphic on their website, but briefly here is the list of old tech now found on smartphones:

1. Email
2. Camera
3. Barcode Scanner
4. Alarm Clock
5. Music Player
6. Handheld Gaming
7. Video Capture
8. GPS Navigation
9. Personal Trainer
10. SMS

Wired includes "more functions smartphones consumed":

1. Radio
2. Video Chat
3. Bubble Level
4. Boarding Pass 
5. Weather (forecaster)
6. Instrument Tuner
7. Vuvuzela
8. Credit Card Scanner
9. Remote Control
10. Whoopie Cushion
11. Check Deposits
12. Lighter for arena power ballads
13. Car Keys

Any that Wired missed?

Wired Magazine Turns 20

By the time I started my career in digital media in 1998, Wired Magazine was already firmly established as the leading chronicle of "new media" and high technology and its impact on our culture, economy, and everyday lives.  Both the print edition and website have remained my favourite publications.

The current issue of Wired features an A-Z of prominent topics covered during their 20-year history. In a rare instance most of the material from the print magazine is available on their website. They've even built a cool online interface to access their A-Z list,  that I highly recommend.

I thought I'd share most of the list here. The list is an excellent showcase of the huge number of changes and trends of digital media and technology. It's also a nostalgic trip and test of one's wired cred. How many do you know?

• Angry Birds
• Apps
• Arab Spring
• Banner Ad
• Beta
• Big Data
• Blogger
• Carpal Tunnel
• Code
• Comics
• Convergence
• Crowdsourcing
• Darpa
• Design
• Dreams
• Electric Car
• Emoji
• Etsy
• Facebook
• Failure
• Faking It
• Flickr
• Friendster
• GIFs
• Geek
• Gmail
• Goatse
• HTTP
• Hacker
• Higgs Boson
• Hypertext
• IPO
• Instagram
• Jargon
• Kickstarter
• Kottke.org
• Kozmo
• Maker Movement
• Memes
• Microsoft
• Napster
• Neurodiversity
• Nintendo
• Onion, The
• Online Dating
• Porn
• Printing
• QR Code
• Reddit
• Science
• Screen Names
• Share Economy
• Silicon Valley
• Silk Road
• Snark
• Sony
• Storage
• Stuxnet
• TED Talks
• Titans
• Trolling
• Turing
• Tweet
• UX
• Viral
• Virtual Communities
• WIRED 01.01
• Wikileaks
• Yelp
• ZeuS
• xkcd

I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't know six of the above items at all (a couple of which I'm glad I never heard of), and I forgot the names of two.

I omitted their list of people, as did Wired for their online version as the print edition includes many luminaries' profiles. But I believe that although some individuals have contributed greatly to the development to key companies and technologies, it has been all of us that really made these concepts a reality.

I'm looking forward to Wired's next 20 years and hopefully by then I'll have an e-Reader or tablet to read it on and won't be needing print editions finally. 

Typology of Contextual Awareness

The ability for mobile devices to detect and respond to users' context is one of the most powerful features of mobile technology.

My research focuses on location-awareness in mobile apps, but this is one type of contextual awareness. As I love typologies so much, I thought it would be useful to list the types of contextual awareness related to mobiles.

Environmental Context:

• Location (using positioning technology, such as GPS)
• Proximity to points of interest
• Direction facing (using compass)
• Weather and visibility of resources (using weather forecasts)
• Country or state/province (via IP address )
• Light conditions
• Ambient noise

Temporal Context:

• Time of day and date
• Temporal proximity (travel time)

User Motion Context:

• Contact with other devices (via bumping)
• Speed (using accelerometer)
• Orientation and tilting (using gyroscope)

User Behaviour Context:

• Most visited/downloaded sites/apps
• When use apps/sites
• Language of user

User Profile (if user supplies:

• Demographics (age, gender, education, etc.)
• Display preferences
• Content and interests preferences

Social Context:

• Friends' proximity (via they sharing their location on their mobiles)
• Friends' names (via contacts list or social networks)

System/Device:

• Device type, version, operation system
• Proximity to networks or wired resources

The way these various contextual awareness factors can be combined can result in incredible abilities for mobile devices to become more responsive to our conditions and needs.

This isn't my area of speciality, so I'd really like for some feedback on my classification scheme or any additions or corrections.

List of Location-Based Services

Every few months, I update my list of location-based services (LBS). This update is the most extensive since I started the list!

I've changed the categorization to reflect the growing use of locative technology into more areas of our life,  such as healthcare and art.  I've also expanded the history section of the list, based on my research as I previously blogged about.

This update has 30 additions. Six apps on my prior list went out of business  - that's the most I've noticed. I'm not surprised, as the market is over saturated, poorly differentiated, and not necessarily financially viable. Despite this, many new LBS apps continue to launch or attract attention, such as Findery, Red Bull Playgrounds, Endomondo, Field Trip, Sitegeist, and Grafetee.

The list is categorized based on the application's leading purpose. However, many apps have overlapping locative functionalities. Descriptions focus only on an app's locative elements. Passage in quotation marks are taken from that app website.

Art

• Flickr - upload, share, and search for georeferenced photos (also ZoneTag from Yahoo appears to facilitate this)
• Instagram -  upload and share georeferencing photos (view Instagram photos on a map via Instamap)

Coordination, Communication, and Safety

• 112Iceland - shares users’ position with emergency response teams should one become lost or stranded while exploring Iceland
• Crowdmap - open-source hosted solution for location-specific crowdsourced info for activism, crises, or community projects
• Glympse - share location with contacts and specify visit duration 
• Groundcrew - "coordinates on-the-ground action with your people. Use location, availability, and skills to mobilize in realtime."
• Guardly - personal emergency system, alerts authorities and close contacts with user’s location in an emergency (similar is Checkon.me)
• Swim Guide - find nearby beaches, their safety status, and historical info
• YWCA Safety Siren - sends geolocation to emergency contacts, maps and directions to women's health clinics & resources, etc.

Commerce and Marketing

• DinoDeals - proximal alerts of deals (by Geoloqi)
• Grafetee - service provider for locative marketing & customer relations (e.g. mapping special events)
• Groupon Now - proximity based deals 
• MapDing- hyperlocal classifieds
• Placecast - service provider for brands to create geolocative mobile apps
• Priority Moments - proximity-based promotions & deals (only in London, UK)
• Realtor.ca - allows a user to search and receive info and pix on properties for sale in their vicinity or across Canada. Also offers proximity-based new listings and open houses (similar ones include Rightmove and Lovely)
• Shopkick - proximal promotions and customer loyalty programs
• Shopcatch - location-based deals (Canadian company)
• Sociallight - service provider of geolocative apps
• Where - proximity-based promotions and deals, by PayPal
• YellowPages - uses location to identify and search for nearby businesses

Geosocial Networking

• Banjo - geosocial discovery - helps you find friends and people with similar interests near you
• BuzzE - proximity friend finding and networking
• CheckIn+ - "all-in-one check-in app with augmented reality"
• Citysense - nightlife discovery and social navigation
• Ding Dong - ring your friends with your location
• Echo Echo - share location with friends and coordinate friends' meet-ups
• Facebook - location sharing and encourages place commentary
• Find My Friends - Apple-based friend finder
• Geotracks - real-time friend tracking
• Google Latitude - real-time friend tracking
• Grindr and Blendr gay and straight friend and dating finder
• GyPsii - claims to be the world's largest geosocial network
• Here I Am - send a link of your location on a map to friends
• Highlight - "if your friends are nearby, it will notify you. If someone interesting crosses your path, it will tell you more about them"
• Locle - geo-based friend finder
• Red Bull Playgrounds - "for outdoor sports enthusiasts, music lovers, and fun seekers. Share where you play, connect with Red Bull Pro athletes and like-minded people, and discover new spots wherever you go"
• Skout -"find interesting singles close-by, strike up a conversation, maybe grab a drink or share a cup of coffee"
• Sonar - ambient friend finding

Health

• DontEat.at - alerts users when they check into restaurants with health-code violations (only via Foursquare in NYC)
• Endomondo and Moves - tracking running, cycling routes to improve fitness
• PulsePoint - locates volunteers trained in CPR in emergencies
• Quench - stay hydrated by locating nearest water fountain or tap (also great for the environment)
• WebMD Allergy App - geotargetted allergy forecasts, tips,and customizable alerts

Local Discovery and Hyperlocal Information

• Around Me - find business near your location by biz type (similar for gas is GasBuddy)
• EveryTrail - "find and follow trips from other travelers"
• Field Trip - runs in background, when users get to an interesting place (e.g. business, sight) a pop-up appears with details (I'm not sure how "interesting" is defined however)
• Findery - enables user to annotate their world to share with fiends and public to encourage place exploration
• Geonotes - leave geotagged notes or subscribe to location-based info 
• Geopedia - geotargetted Wikipedia entries - as also offered by WikiMe
• Google+ Local - combines Google's old Places listings with Zagat content and their Google+ social network features
• Grafetee -placemarking and local discovery & info
• Historypin - enables users to add old photographs and text narratives to locations
• Junaio - AR-based vicinity info search, including business and attractions
• Layar - augmented reality browser
• Local Books - proximal search for book stores and literary events
• Murmur - recorded oral histories of place, uses old cellphone tech as users see plaque and call specific number to hear targetted message
• Nearest Wiki - content from Wikipedia overlaid on places via augmented reality 
• Sitegeist -  aggregator of locative info, including census data
• Star Chart - identifies user position to view astronomical information via augmented reality view (Google offers similar functionality with their Google Sky Map service)
• Tagwhat - a "mobile encyclopedia of where you are... learn all about the world around you through interactive stories, videos, and photos"
• Trover - "log remarkable places and things by snapping a photo and adding a quick note. When your friends and others pass by in the future they, too, can experience your discovery. Track the paths of friends and other interesting folks using our "follow" mode"
• Twitter Places - search for tweets within a specified area or tag places in your tweets
• Weather Channel - geotargetted weather forecasts, possibly the most popular LBS ever
• Zeitag - historical photographs

Location-based Games

• Booyah - variety of games, including MyTown and Nightclub City
• Geocaching - use your mobile device to uncover hidden caches 
• Ingress - uses physical world as site of collaborative science fiction competition, players explore, document, and interact with their world as part of game play
• My Town - "built around your local shops, restaurants, and hangouts. Level-up, unlock items, and earn cash to buy your favorite real-life locations."
• SCVNGR - "share where you are & what you're up to with your friends. Do challenges to earn points and unlock badges & real-world rewards."
• Tiny Tycoons - "the first location-based tycoon game on the App Store. Build your fortune, travel the globe and claim your favorite real-world places "

Navigation and Transportation

• BlackBerry Traffic - uses real-time traffic info and user location to identify travel time, closed roads, and alternative routes 
• Carrr Matey - "a quick, easy to use parking application with a mild pirate theme"
• Hailo -  taxi-hailing app; uses positioning to identify your pick up location and nearby cabs
• Flywheel - track and hail taxis in San Francisco
• Nearest Subway - locates nearest subway station for New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Paris, etc.
• SitOrSquat - find nearby bathrooms with user reviews of their cleanliness by Charmin (genius marketing effort and I must say the most useful LBS to come along in ages!)
• Waze - community-based traffic and navigation app

Personal Efficiency and Organization

• Checkmark - proximal task reminder service
• Siri's Location Services - directions, recommendations, and personal efficiency services based on your location
• Matchbook - "an app to save places", facilitates saving and viewing places & businesses to visit
• Voxora - "voicemail for places", integrates with Foursquare

Social Recommendation and Navigation

• DeHood - tap into neighbourhood buzz to find local businesses
• Goby - suggests "fun things to do" based on your location or category (US only)
• Localmind - get answers about a specific place & real-time events by people who are there
• Urbanspoon - location and shaking based restaurant recommendations
• Urbantag - customize a list of favourite places and share with friends
• Wikitude - offers A.R., map, or list view of various types of proximal content (reviews, deals, and Wikipedia entries)
• Yelp and Citysearch - user-generated local reviews combined with local search engine

Travel and Place Guides

• Ask a Nomad - answered on your travel questions from fellow travellers
• City Maps and Walks - "walking route maps and turn-by-turn walking directions are available to guide you to all the major city attractions"
• Compass by Lonely Planet - "plot itineraries on dynamic, GPS-enabled map. Grab practical information and useful tips using our augmented reality camera view"
• Gogobot - travel tips from friends & other users
• HipGeo - "automatically groups photos, comments, places, tags, likes, and dates together in interesting ways... Besides seeing what your friends or family are doing while out and about, you can also access this user generated information to help plan a trip or discover something interesting."
• MobilyTrip - social networking travel diary app
• mTrip - "automatically customizes your trip itinerary...guides you to each tourist attraction with directions, uses augmented reality to display tourist attractions in your area, and allows you to share your trip with personalized e-postcards"
• RoadTripper - a travel guide for off-the-beaten path explorers to help find "eccentric roadside attractions, breathtaking natural wonders, or mouthwatering foodie feasts"
• Ski & Snow Report - detailed ski info snow amounts, traffic volume, weather, lift times, etc)
• Ski Tracks - a GPS-enabled ski log of your routes, velocity, etc. with ability to geotag your pix
• TimeOut - travel guide apps for various tourist hot-spots
• TripAdvisor - get TripAdvisor's content on your mobile with proximity search option
• Trippy - get trip advice from your social network

Early and/or Deceased LBS:

• Benefon - released in 1999, possibly the first friend finder feature 
• Brightkite, Centrl, Loopt, Facebook Places, Rally Up, Neer, and Gowalla -  place check-ins & geosocial networking
• Dodgeball - SMS, pre-cursor to foursquare bought by Google and shut down (see CNET eulogy)
• Dopplr - social travel planning (bought by Nokia and withered)
• Flook - offered user-generated geolocated information
• Glancee - friend finder based on proximity and social and personal commonalities (started in 2010, bought by Facebook and shut down)
• GeoSpot - started in 2005 and offered location-based information and search products
• Glassmap - friend tracking app, bought by Groupon, shut down but used for Groupon Now service
• Hidden Park - "iPhone adventure game created especially for young families...lead(s) children into a fantasy world of trolls, fairies and tree genies - right in their local park"
• Hurricane Party - helps friends find, share, and create spontaneous parties
• Fire Eagle and Friends on Fire - location sharing platform and API, by Yahoo
• Magitti - local recommendation, from PARC (see ReadWriteWeb article)
• Mscape - location-based gaming platform by HP
• Moby - family member tracking and coordination
• Plazes - an early geo-social networking app, bought by Nokia (read eulogy)
• Poynt - local search with proximity based reviews and mapping
• Red Rocket - Toronto transit maps, routes, schedules, and nearest stop
• Seiko' s Locatio - possibly world's first LBS, launched in 1999 it included locative mapping & wayfinding, geo-targetted weather forecasts, and proximal restaurants, hotels, & sights
• Task Ave- "location-aware reminders. Magically get alerts when you're nearby a task."
• Tripbirds- travel tips from friends
• urbantag - tag and share lists of places with friends
• Whrrl - users joined interest and brand based groups to get recommendations, tips, and deals

Thanks to App Central for their helpful scouting!

In case you're wondering why the app "GPS for the Soul" that Arianna Huffington is hyping isn't on here, it's  not on as not only does it not have any locative elements it has nothing to do with place/places. It's just using the term GPS to be catchy. (Nonetheless, it sounds like very useful app for me.)

As usual, let me know of any corrections or additions.

Typology of Location-Based Services & Locative Media

Over the past couple years, I have compiled a list of location-based services and locative media (see my prior post for how I define these).

Based on this ongoing monitoring, I have found they break down into the categories below.

Typology of Locative Services:

• Art (e.g. showcasing art, encouraging artistic production, or fostering art experiences)
• Coordination, Communication, and Safety 
• Commerce and Marketing
• Geosocial Networking (e.g. social networking centred around places visited)
• Health
• Local Discovery (e.g. encouraging exploration of places or discovering new info about places)
• Location-based Games (e.g. using one's physical location as element of game play)
• Hyperlocal News and Information (e.g. news based on a small area, neighbourhood)
• Navigation and Transportation
• Personal Efficiency and Organization (e.g. place based reminders, lists)
• Social Recommendation and Navigation (e.g. business' reviews)
• Travel and Place Guides

More and more applications are offering a variety of locative features along with a suite of functionalities, so there are only few instances of apps that fit into just one category.

If I missed a category, let me know.

Defining Location-Based Services and Locative Media

In writing a paper on locative technologies, I found that the definitions of the key terms locative media (LM) and location-based services (LBS) out there are poor. Both academic and trade sources are either nebulously vague or miss the defining criteria and instead focus on the resulting effects. Wikipedia, for once, is useless.  I also believe definitions should be as parsimonious as possible (something academics do very poorly).

I've taken a shot at trying to define these terms before. But I think I'm getting closer to a useful definition:

Locative media and location-based services are digital media applications,
normally delivered via a mobile device connected to the Internet,
that use the geographic position of the device to
deliver geographically relevant content back to the user.

Considering common usage, I am tempted to remove the word "normally" from the above definition as the terms are almost used exclusively for Internet-connected mobile devices.

Caveats:

• Automatic positioning is not a necessity - users can select their location themselves, for example via scanning a coded image, selecting from a list, or entering a specific number, or a combination of methods (as Foursquare does)
• Graphical user interface, multimedia, and user interaction - bare-bones, single modality applications can be quite effective, for example SMS-based info, audio-only guides
• Content form is open - it can be information, news, social media, personal communication, entertainment, gaming, maps, directions, reviews, etc.

What's the difference between LM and LBS?
Great question - and there's no exact answer. I have never seen any one attempt to draw a clear distinction. In fact, the two terms are used so interchangeable within the past few years that they are almost synonymous in common usage. 

There are some slight differences, however, that can be seen in the words themselves. Location-based services imply a service framework that is consistent with computer science and thus used more by developers and industry. Whereas, locative media focus on the media and its role and is used more by communication and media scholars. Earlier in the two terms history, LBS was also used to include GPS navigation devices, such as TomTom. Locative media was adopted by new media artists and thus the terms often carries with it the association of offering artistic experiences rather than the "service" type info (e.g. directions, contact details) of LBS.  Also, locative media is used by some people to include any medium that exclusively delivers place-based information, such in-store digital signage and interactive kiosks in malls and museums.

The need for consistent terminology
As can be seen that new terms often change their meaning and that meanings can be in flux for many years. But, I think it is important to have consistent terminology for developers, marketers, scholars, and particularly and users. So I'm not sure it's helpful now for some people to still call paper maps and graffiti as locative media (even though they are relevant to our understanding of new media forms).  This is my attempt to clarify the terms, but I'd love to hear how other people define the terms.