Locating Overlooked Histories: An Interview with Queerstory Founder

As part of my doctoral research on locative media and its role in our relationship to our places, I interviewed the founders of the locative media app, Queerstory.  Queerstory is Toronto's first LGBTQ geolocative history app and I would argue of the most effective geolocative history apps anywhere.

The Queerstory mobile app points users to nearby points of interest in a map or list based view. How Queerstory differs, however, that rather than just having text descriptions the app includes video oral histories, interviews, and artistic interpretations. Users can also refine the content based on various themes, such as activism, culture, and culture. The app is free and available on Apple, Android, or the mobile web.

I interviewed both of the Queerstory's founders, Michael Alstad and Janet Hethrington on their work with Queerstory and their ideas on the role generally of locative media. As a sneak peek from my research, here are some Q&As from my interview with Michael.

Glen: What motivated you to develop this application?
Michael: Year Zero One (YZO), a media arts organization that curates digital art projects both online and in public space,  has been producing locative media projects since 2003 beginning with the pioneering Teletaxi project. We produced a locative history app in 2012 in affiliation with the Textile Museum of Canada called TXTilecity. TXTilecity is a mobile app that leads users on a self-directed tour through sites relevant to Toronto’s garment and fashion industry history through a series of site-specific short video docs and a commissioned media artwork.

With the success of TXTilecity, I was keen of adapting the locative history concept to produce Queerstory – an app and website exploring over a century of Toronto’s LGBT history that was launched to coincide with World Pride in 2014. Toronto is a world leader in progressive LGBT policy and has a rich and diverse queer political, social, and cultural history that is somewhat understated and hidden in comparison to other international centres like New York City where sites like the Stonewall Inn are marked with plaques.

I see the Queerstory app as a digital placemarker that commemorates and preserves queer history. It allows for a more multidimensional and sensory-based experience of lived history as it relates to the urban environment.

Glen: What has the response been from users?
Michael: The response to Queerstory overall has been positive. App users have been impressed by scope and diversity of stories and histories. Some users were intrigued to discover several sites and neigbourhoods not traditionally associated with the gay community and its history.

It was noted the number of overall sites might be too ambitious for one continuous tour and also the amount of video content consumes a lot of data for limited cell plans.

With my personal user experience with Queerstory, I felt the media artworks by Keith Cole and Caitlin Fisher – where the artists led you on their unique individualized tours and interpretations of queer history – I explored and engaged with the physical surroundings and places more.

Glen: How is experiencing a place with your app different than without it?
Michael: I think the process of walking through the city and exploring these sites is an experiential and fun way of discovering and learning about queer history.

Most of the mapped sites in Queerstory could easily be overlooked. For example, the site of the Barracks Bathhouse, a heritage house on Widmer, a narrow street in the entertainment district lined with old Victorian row houses, is a key historic queer space linked to one of the most important events of Canada’s gay liberation movement - the 1981 Toronto bathhouse raids and riots. The mass arrests and ensuing riot are considered to be the Canadian equivalent of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City.

Also an important place related aspect of Queerstory is the in-situ interviews. We noticed a pattern with our interviewees - that being situated in the sites where the histories occurred triggered their memory with renewed insights and reflection on the events.

I believe that the layering of hidden stories, rare archival material and on-site interviews creates a unique sensory experience of place.

Glen: Mobile media is criticized for distancing people from places. Can you comment on this?
Michael: On one hand, I see mobile media as physically distancing people from one another in public spaces and cafes where individuals are cloistered with their mobile devices, headphones, and laptops. On the other hand, I personally see the value in information layers, alternate narratives, and digital annotations on places are useful and beneficial as long as you’re objective and can filter the info to enhance your personal experience of place.

***

Queerstory was recently recognized for their innovative use of media to document and share Toronto's history by winning an award from Heritage Toronto.

Visit the Queerstory website for more information on the app and their content.

Most Frustrating App Ever!

We have been taking my daughter to Toronto's Art gallery (AGO) since she was a baby. We have always tried to make the experience of viewing art pleasant and fun, but it's not always easy to come up with ways to present the art at her level and make the experience dynamic and engaging.

At a prior visit a couple of months ago, we were given a pamphlet by the gallery staff for a new mobile app game sponsored by and set in the gallery.

It is called Time Tremors Treasure Hunt.

It sounded great. It's essentially a scavenger hunt that encourages interaction with fine art. What a great way to explore the gallery and have fun. And I was looking forward to blogging about my experience here.

I never pay for mobile apps - mostly because there are so many excellent free ones out there. This one costs $3 - which I think is a lot for a kid's app one is only apt to use once or twice.

But I was really excited about the potential of using a mobile device for a mixed reality game (a.k.a. alternative reality game). I've only ever done one before -Google's Ingress, which was cool but needs more of a compelling narrative or active gameplay.

Before we downloaded Time Tremors onto our Android smartphone we read the reviews on Google Play. The app was only launched a few months ago, so we weren't concerned that there was only one review and it was negative.

There are four games one can play in the app - all centered around visually finding specific items in the gallery via text clues. All the low-tech features seem to work fine. There is no intro to explain the overall situation - you have to get that from their website or companion television show (which is a weakness). There's also no introductory motivation within the app to explain the need to accomplish the challenges. Overall, though it seems like a nice-looking and engaging app.

However, there are two killer problems. One is the fault of the developers and the other the fault of the gallery.

Early into two of the games, they have a feature requiring one to complete the task of scanning a painting. It absolutely does not work. We tried to get the scan feature to work for two different paintings for at least 30 minutes and nothing could make it work. The security guard there said other people have had the same problem - as did a reviewer.

Frankly, I'm dumbfounded this problem wasn't uncovered during testing.

But, I can live with a bug or two - if it isn't fatal. But due to poor game design their bug is indeed lethal. The app doesn't allow one to skip any challenges, so if for some reason you can't find one item or complete a task due a bug, the game will not progress - unceremoniously ending it for the users - in this case a 10-year-old kid.

The second killer problem is the gallery's fault - and it is really baffling on the part of the gallery considering how prominently they have hyped this game via brochures and website. One of the challenges requires finding a specific painting and answering questions about it. But the gallery has removed one of the paintings only weeks since launching the app. I know games get outdated - a particular problem with mixed reality games - but considering how new this app is, there really is no excuse for this.

Again, if there was the ability to skip a challenge, we could have still played the game. But a gallery mistake combined by a design flaw ends in frustration.

As we had planned a whole day around this game, it was really frustrating for my daughter and me (mobile geek that I am) and a rip-off of $3 plus gallery admission!

We talked to the gallery's front desk staff and apparently they knew the app doesn't work and were advising people not to use it. I wish we knew that before we wasted our time and money.

I emailed the app development company and the gallery in a hope to receive a refund. I waited to post this in case some excellent customer service made up for an awful app experience. But it's been days now and no reply from anyone.

BUT...In the last couple of days the app was removed from Google Play and iTunes was updated with a note about the moved painting, so they must have got my message.

In the end, I'm most upset that Toronto finally got a cool digital media game it doesn't work. Also, based on the little we were able to play the game it did make the gallery experience much more fun, interactive, and educational. The educational component about the art was really effective and the game play provided an awesome way for kids to learn while having fun. It's a sad missed opportunity for Toronto, the gallery, and kids.

Update: Six days after I contacted the developers they got back to me, offering a refund and apologies. The next day the art gallery also contacted me and offerred a refund. So in the end, the customer service was satisfactory if slow.

So who’s single? The Total Package app puts a number on it

I'm enjoying my Valentine's Day enjoying a cornucopia of treats my wife got me (Austrian chocolate, German marzipan, California jelly beans). For those single and commemorating today as "Singles Awareness Day" a friend of mine has launched an app to help assess your prospects.

Anne M. of Junia Matchmaking Services has let me re-post her announcement of her new app - just in time for this happy/horrid holiday.


****
From Anne M. at Junia Blog:

I'm excited beyond words to give my Canadian friends, fans, and well-wishers an extra special Singles Awareness Day treat this year! For the last several months, Alex Makes Apps has been working on a top-secret project for me: The Total Package, a shiny new Junia app for Android users.

Find out how many people actually exist who meet your terribly discerning dating criteria! As long as you’re not this guy (I don’t think anyone would ever be good enough for him).

Using relevant data from Statistics Canada, Health Canada, and the National Household Survey, The Total Package will calculate exactly how many people (living within as few as 5 or as many as 200 km of your home) meet your standards. Then this incredible app will astonish you further by projecting how many of them are already online dating!

Okay, so it is really just a nifty little reality check for those who have ever wondered, “is it just me?” If you’ve ever worried that you’re setting the bar too high, then this is your chance to find out. Maybe your friends are right and you’re far too picky. Or maybe you’re right, and you can triumphantly wave your phone in their faces to prove it! It’s also designed to be used over and over again, so you can amuse your friends, or simply adjust your parameters if you don’t like the numbers it’s giving you.

And if you need help choosing someone from all these possibilities, you know where to find me!

Download the app here:

The app is perfect for everyone whose friends think they're too picky! Or not picky enough.

Digital Media and Toy Play - A Review of My Kid's Christmas Toy

For the last post of the year, I have another guest blogger - my nine year old daughter. We'll review one of the latest and possible greatest physical toys to interact with digital media - the new Furby Boom.

First my take on it and then my daughter's. My daughter dictated her post to me, with only the occasional prompting (she was eager to talk about her new toy).

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Dad's Scepticism, Concern, & Enthusiasm

With the hubbub of Christmas finally starting to taper off, we've had some moments to breathe again - and to enjoy our Christmas gifts. Great year for digital media for us - I got myself my first tablet computer for a gift for the family, we got our daughter a Disney Infinity video game with several characters, and Santa brought my daughter a Furby.

I wasn't sure about the Furby, but it was a must-have toy this year - undoubtedly do to the heavy promotional efforts of Hasbro for their new, advanced "Furby Boom" line. The original Furbies came out in 1998 (according to Wikipedia) and were one of the first massively successful robotic toy that could learn and adapt. Time Magazine even voted it one of the greatest 100 toys ever.

I was intrigued when I learned that the latest version of Furbies could interact with a mobile device application. Apparently, the Furbies adapt to how the child plays with it and this influences how its personality develops.

But the day after Christmas, when the Furby arrived at our house, I read the reviews of the app on Google Play in anticipation of installing it on our Android tablet. In any sector of business and throughout my life, I do not think I have ever encountered such bad reviews of anything as what are currently there. Basically the consensus is that Furbies are the grinches that stole Christmas, but instead of reforming, they leave little girls crying on Christmas Day.

I'm really curious how Hasbro is going to respond to this. Many people said they were going to be returning their Furbies - but overall it's a public relations disaster for them. After all, who wants to be the company that officially ruined Christmas. It's also a great exercise in setting consumer expectations and likely reigning in a marketing department.

But in the midst of the parental venting on Google Play, there were some helpful tips - no helpful info on the app from Hasbro however. So in the middle of the night, while my daughter was sleeping I downloaded the app and then spent about an hour (maybe an hour and a half) getting the app to recognize the Furby toy and then its name (essential steps).

I gather that the app communicates to the toy via audio messages. As my tablet's speakers are on the bottom of the tablet, if I only followed Hasbro's instructions of laying the tablet down on a flat service to make the connection it would never have worked. Luckily, a parent advised me via the reviews to tilt the tablet at an angle. Even then I had to perform the scan many, many times to get it to work.

Since then, it has worked well for my daughter (see her review below).

Occasionally, the signals are not connected and require a few attempts to get things to work. One feature never works - that is a translation function that is supposed to allow a person to speak English into the app and it should translate into to the Furby language to enabled child and toy to better communicate.

My other concern is that the features on the app - although having great novelty appeal - do not have long-term (or even medium-term) play value. Some of the tasks needs to be completed too many times. Overall, it seems like something that children will tire of very quickly.

Hopefully, Hasbro will address the limits of the app - I'm eagerly awaiting their response.

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Kid Loves It!

My Furby is crazy! I love it! It is like me. I love to sing; it loves to sing. I like to dance; it likes to dance.

I have the blue waves patten Furby. Her name is Noo-Dah. I got her for Christmas. She is adorable.

I sing to her and she dances. The language she speaks, Furbish, is adorable.

My parents think she is like me!

My cat hates the Furby and bites me and the Furby when I play with it.

On the first day I got her, her personality changed. She turned into a rock star. After a little bit of playing with her she went "changing changing" then her voice changed and she said things like "dude". But she changed back to normal.

Her eyes change into lots of different styles or shapes. Sometimes when she is singing her eyes will turn into music notes.

There is app for Furby Boom for mobiles. My dad downloaded it for me onto our tablet.

Then it shows a picture if her at the top of the app. The app has four things to do with your Fubry: one is health, one is washroom, one is shower, and one is food.

Health - you can scan your Furby to do an x-ray. It will either say if your Furby is sick or healthy. If it is sick, you can make a mixture of something (for instance, tea and mint leaves makes herbal tea) and then you give it to the Furby she will drink it and you can hear drinking noises. Then it scans again to see if she is better. I like this feature, but I don't understand how she gets sick as she seems fine. Sometimes it is hard to make her get better as it just doesn't work.

Washroom (laughing) - you will see a washroom with a toilet. Then you press the toilet lid and it opens. Then Furby makes some noises like (grunting) to push stuff out of her belly into the toilet. She poos out roses, a brown thing that looks like a pickle, a submarine, a puffer fish, a rubber ducky, and poo! And if it makes an actual poo, happy music plays. Sometimes after you flush, it makes brown gas and then you press the air freshener and out comes pink hearts and they get rid of the stinky smell that the Furby made. I think the toilet feature is funny and crazy. I like it! (Laughing).

Shower - next is the shower. In the shower, you chose the amount of water and temperature. If you have on the cold side, there will be snowflakes falling and she doesn't like it. My Furby likes it the hottest there is. While she is in shower, she goes oooh and her eyes change. One time I was giving her a nice hot shower and she said "Noo-Dah no likey"! Then you will see all the dirt come off her and go down the drain. Then off her while either come a hunk of mud or furball or duck pool floatie. It is fun giving her a shower because all these weird things come off of her.

Food - in the food section there is a huge line of food. So if I give her fish she will eat it and then spit out the bones. Once my mom told me to feed her a toilet paper roll but I didn't. Once I fed her math homework, but she wouldn't eat it and she spit it back out - it was so funny! I think the food feature is pretty good.

You can see also see on the app Noo-Dah's friends. Both of the friends asked me if I would like Furby eggs. Then I bought two eggs with Furbucks that I got from taking care of my Furby.

One of the eggs I got was pink and black and the other one was blue waves just like my Furby. Then if you press on the eggs, it will ask if you'd like to hatch it and I said yes. Then you rock the egg for a minute with your finger. Then you can get Noo-Dah to sing to the egg. Then the eggs cracks and out came a Furbling!

Then I named it (Bee-boo) and I fed my Furbling and took it to the spa. I made a room for it by choosing the wallpaper. Then a moving truck comes and moves the Furbling into the apartment.

I think the app is really cool. It is kinda funny how it goes to the washroom. I like taking care of it and how it has babies - they grow up so fast (laughs). The app is pretty easy to use. But I don't like that sometimes if you don't hold the app just right it doesn't work. Overall, I think it is really good.

Furbies are really different than my other toys. Some of them have apps and some don't. But I really like how it talks to me and seems like it is alive. The app makes it seem more alive.

I Wonder What the App Developers Were Thinking?

Every year, we take our daughter to an amusement park to celebrate her birthday.  This year we went to a nearby amusement park, Canada's Wonderland, after the summer break in the hopes of avoiding jam-packed crowds and endless lines. We didn't.

We went the past couple of years and have always found it difficult to find one's way around the park. There are almost no way-finding aids such as signs in the p0ark. Even the mountain in the park central that used to be a reliable landmark for years is no longer visible from much of the park.  So we rely on the paper map that Wonderland distributes (at the front gate). The map is more of a stylish map with a high-level artistic rendering and listings of restaurants and shops.  It's not great for finding the rides as, for example, the entrances to rides are never indicated on the map and are often difficult to locate.

Considering that one wants to get in the maximum number of thrill rides and that easily 80% of one's visit (even on a good, less-busy day) is spent waiting in line (there are lines even for the men's bathroom). Time is of the essence and thus the need to plan an optimum route and get from ride A to ride B in the shortest amount of time possible is essential.

My daughter passed a height restriction milestone recently so she was now able to go on some wild rides. My wife hates rides, so I've had a thrill ride drought lasting decades.

So it was clear that this year pre-planning our trip was mission critical.

Our first stop was Wonderland's website to read up and prioritize the rides. Their website is good but not fantastic. I tried to download their mobile app based on a QR code they provided. But once I scanned the app instead of commencing my anticipated download of their app it took me to their mobile website and a pop-up message said I should download their app. When I clicked it nothing happened. It would have been easier if they just linked to the app on the various app stores.

Their mobile website is actually pretty good - and would serve the needs of most visitors. I'm a big proponent of the mobile Web, particularly when does not need to interact with a business/service very frequently. Most apps that people download never get used more than a couple times and the habit of endlessly downloading apps is not sustainable for users - so eventually we are all going to have to embrace the mobile web.

But the app promised to have GPS Enabled map, which I thought would be invaluable and would be difficult to do with only a mobile website. So I had to go to my device's app store and find the official app (annoying - as they should have had a link to it in the first place and it's difficult to find the official one).

After installing the app, I realized it is not significantly different from their mobile website. Mostly, it offers brief static content - most of which is useful, if not spectacular. The have an events feature that doesn't appear to work as it has pulled up nothing for September or October (despite at least a couple of events that I know are occurring). There is a "Friend Finder" feature that seems promising (as I frequently lose track of my wife) but they have no description of what it is anywhere and one need an individual and their friends PIN numbers before it can be used.

But the worst disappointment is the map function. Granted, they do have their illustrated map, which is handy as users can look up an attraction and have it flagged prominently on the map. But it has flaws: it's not completely accurate, it does not the ride entrance, and it does not zoom to a high level. Despite the claim that it is "GPS Enabled" it does not indicate where one is in relation to the desired attraction, as one expects with GPS-enabled maps. I can't see any GPS functionality whatsoever and it doesn't even have a manual way to highlight the route between two points.

Of course, there is even more they could be doing with their app - not only with maps such as showing where the nearest snacks or bathrooms are or where one parked their car - but also buying tickets to their attractions that cost extra, or delivering geo-targetted promotions.

What I'd like most is an excellent planner feature that would let me plan my day on their website and then view it on their app in a timeline or map. I'd also love it if they had dynamic information on the wait times so that I could hustle to a ride with short lines and avoid those with killer waits. Hell, since no matter what I'm going to be waiting for a long time - at least give me some content to pass the endless time!

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.

Digital Playground/School in Toronto

The educational benefits of digital and interactive media are well established. Even considering this, I am surprised how seldom my young daughter has had the chance to use educational technology. Her schools have made spartan and prosaic use of computers. Even with me working in digital media, I haven't exposed my kid to that much tech beyond online and console games.

So when I got an invitation to visit TIFF's digital and creative media playground,digiPlaySpace, with my daughter, we were both excited.

For those unfamiliar with TIFF, it's the Toronto International Film Festival. Since moving into their new downtown building, the Bell Lightbox, in 2010, TIFF operates year-round with events, screenings, and exhibits about cinema and new media. I was last at TIFF for a locative media conference, but I used to be on the site regularly as I shortcutted through the parking lot that used to occupy the site to get to my first Internet-industry job.

So I know a thing or two about this field, but whenever I try to talk to my kid about this (or anything educational) she instantly tunes out. (Is it just mine or are other kids like this?) Anyway, it's great to have places like digiPlaySpace for parents to interact with their kids in a fun and educational environment.

An international group of artists and developers created apps and installations. TIFF lists all the activities there, but our highlights are below. Photos are by me and the captions are by my daughter.

Making a dramatic entrance is important, so it's great that the first activity is Body Paint. It uses a huge screen and sensors to respond to kids' movements to enable them to create dynamic performance art.

"It's really cool because you're making a painting with your own body.
I loves how it changes colour and splashes!" 

Each station has facilitators and the staff were incredible - very friendly, knowledgeable, and accessible to children. A facilitator turned my kid into a stop-motion film at "The Puppet Powered Mega-Pixilation Dream Engine" below.

"I've done claymation before, but I've never done human-mation! It's really fun!"

They also had a section for tech making and DIY, Touch Circuits and Micro Makers' Space.

"It's really cool with the potatoes that just by connecting these wires
it plays music by tapping the potato while holding the controller."

We had a lot of fun with green-screens at Be In the Scene, including having my daughter become King Kong's next victim.

"It's really cool how green screens work. They take away all the green and then you can put the image of something on top of another. I learned that a lot of movies use green screens for special effects."

Another green screen activity is Weather Worlds. This one enables kids to interact and change an on-screen world, as my kid describes, "The Weather one is my favourite because you make tornadoes, mountains, sandstorms, snowballs, and umbrellas by doing specials actions on a green screen. It was really fun to control the world's weather!"

They also have an Appcade, with a variety of educational apps and tablets. We loved Pitch Painter, Bloom HD, and Gesundheit. We don't have a tablet, so it was the first time we encountered such touch-based, interactive apps. My kid wants a tablet now. (Santa are you listening?) She also got to make her own animation using the software Scratch. I was surprised how easy it was to use (and that it's free thanks to MIT), so that kids can create games or animations without having to master complicated coding. One of the professors from my faculty helped choose the apps. TIFF has posted online their favourite apps and online resources.

Overall, the exhibit helped my daughter (and me) learn about how movies are created, motion sensors, composing music, circuits, robotics, and 3D printing - not to mention how to use various digital media.

As if all this wasn't enough of a geek fest for me, we finished our day by checking out TIFF's free exhibit, X-Men Master: Gordon Smith. The exhibit includes incredible displays of the make-up and prosthetics from the X-Men movies. Mystique's body coverings and Wolverines claws are a fanboy's holy grail, but sadly one can view these relics only until this Sunday.

The exhibit combined really well with digiPlaySpace as my daughter is really into performing arts. So she got to see and practice first hand how the real and virtual and old and new tech combine to make movies possible.

digiPlaySpace is open until April 21, 2013. Their target age is 3-13, but parents were having as much fun as the kids. Admission is $8.

It's the second year for digiPlaySpace, but I wish it was a permanent. It's a great idea for school field trips, but I would love for technology and environment like this to be incorporated into all Ontario curriculum.  As Ontario strives to transition to a knowledge and creative economy, it's essential to get kids interested and experienced in this. As my daughter put it, "I love how you learn while you play. It's a great way to learn about technology."

List of Location-Based Services

Update: This list was updated in a new post in April 2013, check out my new list.

Every few months, I go over my list of location-based services (mobile apps are that determine users' physical location and deliver content geographically relevant). As usual I've found some cool new services such as RoadTripper, Checkmark, and Ingress.

Only one app on my prior list went out of business - could this be a sign that the apps are finding a stable user base or viable model?

The list below is categorized based on the application's leading purpose. However, many applications offer overlapping functionality. The descriptions in quotation marks are taken from that application's website.

Coordination, Communication, and Safety

• 112Iceland - shares your positions with emergency response teams should you become lost or stranded exploring the wilds of Iceland
• Crowdmap - open-source hosted solution to present location-specific crowdsourced info whether for activism, crises, or community projects
• Glympse - share your location with your contacts and specify the duration of visit
• Groundcrew - "coordinates on-the-ground action with your people. Use location, availability, and skills to mobilize in realtime."
• Guardly - "When an emergency occurs, your personal safety network will always know where you're located....we can pin-point your exact GPS location and provide you with valuable information about what's located around you, and how it can aid your situation."
• 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

• 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 - "gives you rewards and offers simply for walking into stores, for scanning products, and for signing up friends"
• Shopcatch - location-based deals (Canadian company)
• Sociallight - service provider of geolocative apps
• Where - proximity-based promotions and deals
• YellowPages - detects your location or enter one to retrieve nearby businesses or people

Geoannotation

• Flickr - upload & search for georeferenced photos (also the ZoneTag tool from Yahoo appears to facilitate this)
• Geoloqi - "securely shar[e] location data, with features such as Geonotes, proximal notification, and sharing real-time GPS maps with friends."
• HipGeo - identifies the locations of photos taken on your mobile then enables sharing via trip maps, timelines
• Historypin - enables users to add old photographs and text narratives to locations
• Instagram - popular photo-sharing app that allows georeferencing & sharing with foursquare
• Murmur - recorded oral histories of place, uses old cellphone tech as users see plaque and call specific number to hear targetted message
• Tagwhat - a "mobile encyclopedia of where you are... learn all about the world around you through interactive stories, videos, and photos"
• urbantag - tag and share lists of places with friends

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 - "real-time nightlife discovery and social navigation"
• Ding Dong - ring your friends with your location
• Facebook - seems like they've finally figured out how to do this
• Find My Friends - Apple-based friend finder
• Glassmap - friend tracking
• Google Latitude - "see where your friends are right now"
• Grindr and Blendr gay and straight friend and dating finder
• GyPsii - claims to be the world's largest geosocial network
• 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
• Skout -"find interesting singles close-by, strike up a conversation, maybe grab a drink or share a cup of coffee"

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"
• 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
• Junaio - AR-based vicinity info search, including business and attractions
• Layar - augmented reality browser
• Local Books by Library Thing "It shows you local bookstores, libraries and bookish events wherever you are or plan to be."
• Nearest Wiki - "AR view, with a synopsis against points of interest near you. Tapping on the place you wish to learn more about will give you more in-depth information on the location with images" content from Wikipedia
• Poynt - local search with proximity based reviews and mapping
• Star Chart- not exactly local, but uses your position and AR view to offer info on the heavens (Google offers similar functionality with their Google Sky Map service)
• 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
• Zeitag - historical photographs

Location-based Games

• Booyah - variety of games, including MyTown and Nightclub City
• Ingress - I'm waiting for my invitation to play arrives, but it promises "transforms the real world into the landscape for a global game of mystery, intrigue, and competition"
• 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."
• TapCity - "play with friends as you build and defend your very own city made up of your favorite places in the real world."

Navigation and Transportation

• BlackBerry Traffic by RIM uses GPS and customized maps to "establish your estimated time of arrival, find out if a road is closed, or decide to take a faster, alternate route"
• Carrr Matey - "a quick, easy to use parking application with a mild pirate theme"
• Flywheel - track and hail taxis in San Francisco
• Nearest Subway - locates nearest subway station for New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Paris, Madrid, 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 - "free, community-based traffic & 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
• Task Ave - "location-aware reminders. Magically get alerts when you're nearby a task."
• Voxora - "voicemail for places", integrates with foursquare

Social Recommendation and Navigation

• DeHood - tap into neighbourhood buzz to find local businesses
• DontEat.at - foursquare-based and only in NYC it sends "a text message when you check into a NYC restaurant that is at risk of being closed for health code violations"
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Tripbirds - travel tips from friends
• Trippy - get trip advice from your social network

Early and/or Deceased LBS:

• Brightkite, Centrl, Loopt, Rally Up, and Gowalla - pioneers in place check-ins (Facebook Places also tried this market and then soon closed)
• Dodgeball - SMS, pre-cursor to foursquare bought by Google and eventually 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
• 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)
• Red Rocket - Toronto transit maps, routes, schedules, and nearest stop
• Whrrl - users joined interest and brand based groups to get recommendations, tips, and deals

Thanks to App Central and Mashable's Weekly App Roundup for their helpful scouting!

Please let me know of any corrections or additions.

Location-based Mobile Apps

I've updated this posting substantially, it's now reposted as List of Location-Based Services