Toronto team “Kid On The Moon” Wins at Global NASA Space Apps Challenge

I have been working with Tanya Oleksuik, who works for a local arts organization in my neighbourhood, on my PhD dissertation research on mobile, locative media. Tanya was part of a team at East End Arts that developed an online, participatory oral history and arts project for Toronto's East End (read more about the project on my blog post Inspired By...Map) .

While working with Tanya, I learned about an exciting project she did as part of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) global challenge "to create mobile apps and technologies that aid in space exploration and help improve life here on Earth". I was thrilled to learn recently that her team had won for their category. It's an amazing accomplishment and showcases the innovation and talent happening in mobile media here in Toronto.

Here is the press release for this project announcing their NASA win:

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May 28, 2016, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Toronto team Kid On The Moon is on a mission – to inspire the next generation of space explorers. They were announced this week as the global winner of the NASA Space Apps Challenge for Most Inspirational project.

Over the weekend of April 22–24, 2016, developers, makers, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs took on NASA-designed challenges, creating a diverse range of solutions. Over 15,000 people worldwide took part in the 5th annual NASA Space Apps Challenge, with over 1,200 projects developed.

A part of NASA's International Space Apps Challenge, the NASA Space Apps Toronto hackathon challenged participants to think critically about technology and its effect on the world around us. The NASA Space Apps Toronto challenge took place at Symbility Intersect, at which the judges awarded Kid On The Moon as one of the winning projects, propelling them into the global competition.

"This event brings together the STEM community in a unique way to collaboratively tackle complex problems," said James Costa, lead organizer of NASA's Space Apps Toronto. "With SpaceX's recent Falcon 9 tests and NASA's ongoing achievement in space exploration, this is a great time to get kids excited and thinking about careers in space again."

Kid On The Moon is an interactive app that is dedicated to inspire children 4-8 years old become passionate about space travel through self-guided exploration of the moon both on and offline.
The Kid On The Moon team members and app creators are: Tanya Oleksuik, Huanning Wang, Allard Schipper, Katrina Shiu, Mohammad Zubayer, Nippun Goyal, James Chiu, and Sophia He. This diverse group brought together their ideas, wide range of skills, and imaginations to create the Kid On The Moon project at the NASA Space Apps Toronto hackathon in response to NASA's "Book It To The Moon" challenge.

"Toronto is a city full of creative people actively contributing to science, technology, and innovations around the world," stated City of Toronto Mayor John Tory. "I'm proud to see a Toronto team recognized by NASA and representing Toronto-made innovation on the global stage."
The winning team members will be invited to attend an upcoming NASA launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The NASA Space Apps Toronto event was supported by Lead Sponsors: City of Toronto, StartUp HERE Toronto, and XE; Host Sponsors: Phuse, Symbility Intersect, and HackerYou; and Community Supporter: Ace Hill.

RELATED LINKS:

• Kid On The Moon project page
• Kid On The Moon app 
• Top 25 Space Apps 2016 Global Finalists Announced  
• NASA Space Apps Toronto 
• Twitter: @KidOnTheMoonApp #KidOnTheMoon

Motive to Make Locative Media Better

If you've read more than one post here you would quickly come to the the conclusion that I love locative media (a.k.a. location-based services).

However, you'd be a bit wrong. I love the potential of these apps, but too often it is just potential. Existing apps are scratching the surface of possible interactions and experiences that mobile media can facilitate between people and their physical world. To give a cinematic analogy - if locative media were films, it would still be the silent era.

There are a lot of elements that need to be in place to build a killer locative media app. In addition to the standard user experience and technical proficiency factors, locative media developers need to be able to create interactions with a device's geopositioning abilities, incorporate online maps, and access or create a library of geocoded content. In my experience and in talking to developers, they spend a lot of development time working on getting these last elements working.

Having worked in digital media for many years now, I have found that when technical development is difficult or overly laborious, it often results in an organization's energies being focused on that - opposed to front-end elements such as creating an intuitive and pleasing user experience, offering sophisticated narrative or informational structures, promoting organizational or branding goals effectively, or differentiating itself from similar services, among other issues. Alternatively, technical hurdles can scare people off and prevent people from even trying their ideas.

I was contacted this summer by a company, RocketChicken Interactive, that is addressing the challenges locative media developers face. Naturally, my interest was instantly piqued. All the more so when I learned the company is based on Canada. Over the past couple months, I have had the chance to talk to company founder and president Ryan Chapman and senior executive Peter Wittig.

Their company has created several location-based games, such as the popular Code Runner. The game was a hit. But it was during their lengthy development process that the founders realized that there could be an easier way to do this. So they created Motive.

Motive offers a platform service for people to build and launch locative media applications from games to guides - without needing to know much code. This offers organizations the new ability to not only launch products more quickly, but ideally to focus their energies on innovating, differentiating themselves, and making killer new apps.

As Ryan states:

People are reinventing the wheel in the development of locative apps. They are struggling with the same technical obstacles and having to build everything from scratch. Motive gives you the programming mechanics so that you can focus on the story and the user experience. You can create a compelling experience without writing a lot of code. 

Through a web-based, authoring tool, Motive allows people to choose the types of interactions desired to build an app. You plug into an existing dataset of geocoded content, such as OpenStreetMaps or Foursquare, or use your own. Then, through Motive's visual interface, you choose from menu items to enable interactions with specific places or types of places in proximity to a user. So one could choose a piece of content to display when a user is near a specific restaurant, any restaurant, or a type of restaurant (Indian vs. Italian). Scenarios can be prioritized with conditional responses added in accordingly. Developers can also choose whether to make their app online or offline (and thereby avoid incurring roaming costs).

Another challenge that Motive addresses for organizations is that it can help reduce the silos between back-end and front-end. Ryan summarizes the problem:

Content producers are still kept at arm's length. For example, it could take a week to update a few words, but with Motive, the writers or graphic designers can work in parallel to the developers. We are injecting content into the pipeline using Motive's tools - content can be updated on the fly and be live instantly. 

As with a content management system, Motive can enable one's apps to be updated via their hosted web-based tool. Clients can upload their digital assets (e.g., design elements, images, music, videos) and content and update it as they wish without having to request a programmer to do it for them.

Although Motive was developed based on a location-based game, the notion of interacting with place is not confined to gamers. Museums, historic sites, tourist attractions, theme parks, and schools, among other businesses, may want to offer an app to direct, guide, or encourage play between their customers and their places.

Currently, the service does require some programming effort to launch an application, but Ryan notes,

The vision of Motive is for someone to be able to sit down and launch a locative app without writing a single line of code. If you are creative, then you won't be hamstrung by all that - you don't have to solve the problems over again and over again. Just take this and run with it. With that, I think there will be an explosion of apps. 

It is this vision that is so engaging. By opening up the sphere to those otherwise unable to code and overcoming herculean tech hurdles, more people and a more diverse variety of people will be able to try something out. To make this vision more of a reality, the company is working on offering a series of templates targeted to various types of businesses with associated interactions further facilitated.

Through their beta and alpha testing with Motive, Ryan has been surprised by some of the new things people are doing, as their testers have built options into their apps that he hadn't envisioned. The initial crop of locative media apps offered a lot of novelty, but check-ins, friend finding, and place reviews are rather limited forms of interacting with our world. I am excited at the possibility of seeing really sophisticated and innovative projects in this area. As Blogger did for blogs, I think Motive has the possibility to facilitate and spur some amazing developments in the locative media field.

Kids Doodle App

My young daughter just got her first ever mobile device earlier this month. Any advice on how to manage this is greatly appreciated. So far she's only been using it at home and hasn't connected with any of her friends with it (I wish it could stay this way for a few years.)

We promised her a mobile device for her birthday last month. Many of her classmates already had a device a grade or two before her, so we figured it was time. I got my new smartphone at the same time (a LG G3, which I LOVE) so we got a great deal.

Along with my kid getting the new mobile, we got her some apps. She's particularly fond of playing various games, texting (me and family members only so far) and YouTube. She also loves a digital art app called Kids Doodle.

My daughter wrote a review of Kids Doodle for her own blog, so I wanted to post it here (the picture explains why).


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When I got my new smartphone, I wanted to make a nice picture for my dad. My mom found an app for me to make pictures with.

She heard of the app from an online list of best free apps for kids. The app is called Kids Doodle.

The app lets pick colours and effects to make pictures. You can choose different colour backgrounds. You can add in images of fireworks, hearts, bubbles, and stars.

 Here's one I made for my dad:

Digital Help for Visitors to Toronto

With the Pan Am & Parapan Games officially starting tomorrow, a large number of tourists have already begun arriving in Toronto.  As one a specialist in mobile apps with a focus on apps that help people find their way around and learn more about their places, I  put together a list of my favourite Toronto mobile websites and apps.

All the the apps and websites below offer crucial information for getting around Toronto and most include geolocative maps that pinpoint your mobile location to offer customized help and directions. There are sources below to help you find your way to and around Toronto whether by public transit, car, foot, or bike. I have also included some of my favourite sources for finding out more about our city - from restaurants and restrooms to history and hijinks.

Note: I have tested all the desktop and mobile websites but not all the apps.

Pan & Parapan Am Games - Official Source

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Pan Am Games official website is comprehensive and has all info on the games and cultural events. You can also buy tickets and merchandise. (including Pachi stuffies) Key Info: * Sports, schedules, venues, countries participating, events, transportation, and news Pointing Your Way: * Interactive map of sporting & cultural venues * Venue pages have maps and links to directions * Interactive trip planner provides driving or public transit directions	The app appears to have all info and features of desktop website. It has interactive, locative maps of sporting and cultural venues. Available on: Android and Apple.	Mobile website is similar to desktop website and has been mostly optimized for viewing on a mobile. Key info and functionality present, including their trip planner. But no links found to interactive maps - instead links to Travelinx for transit directions.

Transportation

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Regional Public Transit
Triplinx - combines info on transit systems for Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas - specifically Brampton, Milton, Burlington, Mississauga, Oakville, York Region, and the regional GO Transit services. Key Info: * Schedules by route, fares, maps, and paratransit services Pointing Your Way: * Stop Finder - get nearest transit system by entering address * Interactive Trip Planner - enter address or venue for directions for transit, car, or bike	No app appears to exist (but none needed as mobile website works well - see note to right)	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
Toronto Public Transit
Toronto Transit Commission (known as TTC) is Toronto's only public transit system. TTC serves downtown Toronto as well as Scarborough, North York, East York, and Etobicoke. Key Info: * Fares, alerts, schedules, day passes, airport routes, maps,etc. * You can now buy day passes online! Pointing Your Way: * Interactive Trip Planner - enter starting and ending points for routes	TTC's official app just launched this July. TTCconnect is only for buying tickets via Android or Apple I use TTC Tracker. It's easy to use and hasn't let me down. TTC Tracker gives schedules for buses & streetcars (subways come about every 6-8 minutes) by route or stop.	Mobile website is fully optimized. It has all essential info, including maps and interactive Trip Planner.
Airport
Pearson Airport is the airport most visitors to Toronto use. (There's a little airport on Toronto Island mostly for small flights). Pearson is in nearby Mississauga. Key Info: * Arrival and departure updates, parking guide, and free wifi info. Pointing Your Way: * Interactive terminal maps showing gates and showing amenities, food, and services	The app appears to have all info and maps of website. Available on:Android, Apple, and BlackBerry.	Mobile website is fully optimized. It has all essential info, including interactive terminal maps and customized directions to airport.
Parking
Green P Parking is owned by City of Toronto. They provide many of the parking spots here (160 lots containing about 20K spaces). Prices are reasonable (not cheap) and they don't jack up rates during special events (as some lots will). Key Info: * Rates per lot, monthly permits, pay tickets online Pointing Your Way: * Find Parking function map out nearest lots by address, venue, or intersection entered or by browsing a map - sort by distance or price * Each lot has a webpage with its location plotted on Google Maps and rates	The app has same features as desktop website, but with additional functionality of paying via your device, setting expiry reminders, and extending meter time. Note: The app just launched and paying via app is not yet possible at all locations. Available on: Android and Apple	Only partially available via mobile browser. In a near-sighted decision, the mobile website only promotes the app. The helpful info provided on desktop website is not available, nor is their parking finder. But payment functionality is available to members via a browser or text messaging.
Taxis
Gata Hub - Now that Hailo is gone from North America, a local company offers service to hail official taxis via mobiles. Rather than having to know the specific name of a cab company, this service allows you to request a taxi pick-up in Toronto. Note: * I haven't used this service * You can't hail a cab from website	GataHub's app allows one to request a taxi pick-up, estimate a fare, track taxi locations, and get arrival times. Available on: Android and Apple	Mobile website is optimized, but one cannot hail or view taxis from website.
Uber Toronto - links riders with private (unofficial) cars. Taxis in Toronto are regulated but Uber drivers aren't, which can result in cheaper rates than taxis. However, Uber rates can fluctuate based on demand (unlike official Toronto taxis). Note: * I haven't used this service * UberX service is in legal disputes here * You can't hail a cab from website.	Uber's app allows one to estimate a fare, split bills with friends, view driver profiles, pay with your mobile, and order a pick-up even if you don't know your address. Available on: Android, Windows Phone, and Apple	Mobile website is optimized, but one cannot hail or view cars from website. Mobile website does have a Fare Estimator.
Bicycling
BikeShare - Toronto has various bicycles stationed in docks in the downtown of the city to rent for short term travel and return it to any of the stations. Key Info: * Info on signing up, rates, and overall program Pointing Your Way: * Station Map plots the location of bike depots on a map with real-time updates on bikes and docks available Note: * I haven't used this service * There are also a few other places to rent bikes in Toronto, but here's a list.	No official app, but various third party apps - search your app store for "bike share Toronto"	Mobile website is optimized and offers same functionality as desktop website.
Bike Parking - Toronto is not a bike-friendly city in various ways. One way is that there aren't many (official) places to lock them. The City has some bike parking spots, but they are not always easy to find. A Toronto developer has built a service to address this. Key Info: * Find the address of spots or suggest a location for one Pointing Your Way: * Enter an address or browse a map of Toronto to see nearest bike parking spots	No app	Website works well on mobile browser, but it isn't fully optimized. Mobile website appears to have full content and functionality as desktop website.

Services and Amenities

Business Directories
Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Yellow Pages is the leader in local businesses listings across Canada. They have extensive listing for Ontario including Toronto Key Info: * Search for contact information and addresses of a specific business / organization or browse categories via directories. * Filter results by rating, neighbourhood, etc Pointing Your Way: * View businesses by category on a map or view a specific business' address on a map with directions	The app has same features as website, but with additional ability to search for individuals and well as businesses. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android, BlackBerry, Windows, and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. It allows one to search for businesses or individuals and view results plotted on a map.
Bathrooms
SitOrSquat Restroom Finder - addresses persistent problems of finding available (let alone decent) washrooms when you need one. Listings aren't the most up-to-date or comprehensive, but if you're a newcomer and you gotta go, it's better than the alternatives! Key Info: * Search for washrooms and filter results by accessibility, changing tables, family bathrooms, * Add a life-saver to the list and rate as good (sit) or bad (squat) and attach a photo (of the washroom, no selfies please) Pointing Your Way: * See the nearest bathroom to you on a map or enter a location	The app has same features as desktop website. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple	Does not work on mobile browser.
Shopping
Finding your way around Toronto's many malls (we love to shop in climate-controlled comfort here) can be difficult. Rather than download various apps, a leading owner of malls here built one app for all theirs. No website available for content, but here's a useful article of the Top 10 shopping malls in Toronto.	CF SHOP app has directories, maps, events, and promos. They have an interactive map feature "mark your location in the mall, get directions to your favourite store and even pinpoint your parking spot". Note: I haven't tested this. App includes local malls Eaton Centre, Sherway Gardens, Shops at Don Mills, Promenade Centre, Fairview Mall, Markville Shopping Centre and others. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website only promotes the app.

City Guides and Tourist Info

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
See Toronto Now is Toronto's official tourist office website with everything visitors needs to know (although the design could be better). It includes info for the Greater Toronto Area. Key Info: * Sites, shopping, events, food, lodging, and promotions * Onscreen and PDF maps Pointing Your Way: * Choose type of attraction or point of interest you are seeking and filter by neighbourhood * Attractions, events, food, and hotel search result pages list address and plot location on a map	The app has all key content of website, but also allows one to find sites by proximity and locative maps. Also gives distance to sites and directions. Available On: Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
TripAdvisor - likely the best source of user reviews of hotels, restaurants, and attractions (although some reviews are clearly fake) all ranked by users. Key Info: * User reviews, guides, and a Q&A forum * Search for sights, nature, shopping, hotels, museums, food and drink, etc. Pointing Your Way: * Maps of every location	TripAdvisor's app Toronto City Guide app offers city content from desktop website but works in offline mode. Offers maps, directions, and itineraries. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website. It also offers directions to sites from device's location.
Bloor St. Culture Corridor - Bloor Street from Yonge Street to Spadina (comprising neighbourhoods of Yorkville and The Annex) is a main area for museums, shopping, bars, and restaurants. Key Info: * Find out about area stores, cultural sites, restaurants & bars, and hotels with descriptions and contact details * Lists of cultural events Pointing Your Way: * View map of locations by type and click on items to find out more	The app has same features as desktop website. In addition, one can search locations by proximity and view results in a list or by map. Available On: Android and Apple	The mobile website is usable and has all the same info as desktop website, but is not fully optimized and using the full map is difficult but possible (just click on it a few times to view entire map).

Food and Drink

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Toronto Patio Guide - summers are too brief here, but we make up for it by celebrating the good times with gusto and patios are the best way to do so. Key Info: * Definitive guide with reviews of patios including contact info, opening hours, type of patio (rooftop, side walk, backyard, etc.) * Search for bars, restaurants, or nightclubs by name or location (but not cafes stupidly!) Pointing Your Way: * Find patios on a map or search by neighbourhood	The app has the same features as website, but in addition one can search by proximity, view results in a list or by map, and get a recommendation by shaking your device. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
Toronto Food Trucks - portable and convenient food and in increasing diversity. Info Available: * Guide of food offerings and truck locations with schedules Pointing Your Way: * View food trucks on a map	The app has the same features as desktop website, but in addition one can view trucks in a list or by map. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
Foursquare Toronto - It is not as much fun as it used to be, but it does do well in recommending nearby and trending restaurants, clubs, and bars. Foursquare has content on most cities in Ontario. Key Info: * Members see visits and recommendations from friends * Filter results by price, specials, open now, etc. Pointing Your Way: * Search for food, nightlife, shopping, or"fun" and refine search by address, neighbourhood, or your location	The app has same features as desktop website. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Apple	Does not allow one to load their website on a mobile.

Historical Information

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Toronto in Time - offers more than 150 site histories are told through text and images. Key Info: * View items by theme (e.g., sport & leisure, law & order, industry, roots, arts & entertainment, fighting, etc.), neighbourhood, suggested routes * Search sites by keywords (try "Rolling Stones") Pointing Your Way: * See points of interest on a map	The app has same features as desktop website. In addition, one can search locations by proximity and view results in a list or by map. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple.	Mobile website is not optimized and is so hard to use on a mobile that it is essentially inoperable.
First Story - chronicles history of Toronto's First Nations people. Key Info: * Blog of history and events related to indigenous people in Toronto The website does not offer locative or map features. The app is essential for this.	First Story app let's one view aboriginal history points of interest via map or by proximity. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple.	Not optimized for mobiles and does not offer mapped content. App is essential.
Queerstory - chronicles history of Toronto's LGBTQ people. Key Info: * Multimedia (text, photos, or videos) histories tied to 37 locations in downtown Toronto. Pointing Your Way: * View location history by category or by map	The app offers same functionality as desktop website. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple.	Mobile website is optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
Findery - offers people's stories and perspectives on their places. Users upload notes and photos about locations. The result is eclectic and personal glimpses into places as other people experience it. Key Info: * Populated by user-generated content so notes are on any and every topic * Add a note about your experience here Pointing Your Way: * View notes by map, satellite, or grid view * Search for notes about or near address, neighbourhood, or business name	The app offers same functionality as desktop website. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website is optimized, but does not offer mapped content or search function. Get the app!

Did I miss one of your favourites? Please let me know of other great sources.

Lost Forever - Remembering Location Based Services Now Gone

In preparing for my prior blog post listing location based services and mobile apps with a prominent locative functionality, I noticed that many of the apps from my prior list (in 2013) were out of business. An even greater number of apps were still "live," but had been abandoned by their creators and not updated in a year, or two, or four.

But I think it's important to remember these apps. Not only are they part of our social and technological history, but many of these apps created new directions and charted paths for future technological innovations. So this post is in honour of the trailblazers now lost forever.

List of deceased location based services:

• Benefon - released in 1999, possibly the first friend finder feature
• Brightkite - place check-ins and geosocial networking
• Booyah - make of location based games MyTown and Nightclub City
• Carrr Matey - pirate-themed parking finder
• Centrl - geosocial networking
• CheckIn+ - augmented reality check-in app
• Citysense - nightlife discovery and social navigation
• DeHood - tap into neighbourhood buzz to find local businesses
• Ding Dong - ring your friends with your location
• Dodgeball - SMS, pre-cursor to foursquare bought by Google and shut down (see CNET eulogy)
• Dopplr - social travel planning (bought by Nokia and withered)
• EveryTrail - user-generated trip recommendations
• Fire Eagle and Friends on Fire - location sharing platform and API, by Yahoo
• Flook - user-generated geolocated information
• Glancee - friend finder based on proximity and social and personal commonalities (started in 2010, bought by Facebook and shut down)
• Geoloqi - bought by Esri and shut down, their apps including DinoDeals - proximal alerts of deals, Geotracks - real-time friend tracking, and Geonotes - leave geotagged notes or subscribe to location-based info 
• Geopedia - geotargetted Wikipedia entries - as also offered by WikiMe
• GeoSpot - started in 2005, offered location-based information and search products
• Google Latitude - real-time friend tracking (merged into Google+)
• Google Local - proximal recommendations (merged into Google Maps)
• Google Sky Map - identify the stars near you (open sourced & mothballed)
• Glassmap - friend tracking app by Groupon (merged into Groupon Now)
• Goby - suggested fun activities based on your location 
• Gowalla -  place check-ins and geosocial networking
• Groundcrew - place centered coordination and mobilization
• GyPsii - European company that claimed to have the world's largest geosocial network
• Hidden Park - location based game where fantasy creatures are found in the parks around you
• HipGeo - geosocial networking and user generated place recommendations
• Historypin - enabled users to add old photographs and text narratives to locations (website still running, but apps mothballed)
• Hurricane Party - helps friends find, share, and create spontaneous parties
• Junaio - augmented reality vicinity info search
• Local Books - proximal search for book stores and literary events
• Localmind - get answers about a specific place & real-time events by people who are there
• Locatio - by Seiko, possibly world's first LBS, launched in 1999 it included locative mapping, wayfinding, geo-targetted weather forecasts, and proximal restaurants, hotels, and sights
• Loopt - geosocial networking
• Magitti - local recommendation, from PARC (see ReadWriteWeb article)
• Mscape - location-based gaming platform by HP
• Moby- family member tracking and coordination
• Nearest Subway - locates nearest subway station in various cities
• Nearest Wiki - content from Wikipedia overlaid on places via A.R.
• Neer -  geosocial networking
• Plazes - an early geo-social networking app, bought by Nokia (read eulogy)
• PinDrop
• Poynt - local search with proximity based reviews and mapping
• Rally Up - geosocial networking
• Red Rocket - pioneering Toronto-based transit app
• SCVNGR - pioneer in location based commerically oriented gaming
• Sitegeist - aggregator of locative info, including census data
• Sonar - ambient friend finding
• Task Ave - location-aware reminders
• Tripbirds- travel tips from friends
• Trippy - trip advice from your social network
• urbantag - tag and share lists of places with friends
• Voxora - voicemail for places
• Where - proximity-based promotions and deals, by PayPal
• Whrrl -  brand based groups for recommendations, tips, and deals
• Zeitag - historical photographs overlaid of users locations

Let me know if I missed one of your dearly departed. Also, if you're interested in location based services, I'm conducting a study soon on this topic and would love to hear from you. Check out my study at my research website.

List of Location Based Services

I'll soon be starting a study on location-based services. I'll be studying the field rather broadly - any mobile application or mobile website that deliver geotargetted content.

Over the years, I've maintained a list of location based services on this blog.  I had to stop updating the list as it was changing too quickly to keep up. More and more apps were offering a locative functionality as part of their features.  On the other side, other apps were going out of business with equal rapidity.

For my study, I'm open to talking to people who use any sort of locative functionality on their mobiles. This can take the form of:

• using Foursquare or Yelp for restaurant recommendations in your area
• reading nearby news or gossip with Yik Yak or Twitter
• playing location based games such as Ingress or geocaching
• finding someone to hooking up with via Grindr or Skout
• learning more about a place with Findery or Flickr

Below is a list of some of the popular mobile apps with locative elements categorized by their primary offering.

Art

• Flickr - upload and view georeferenced photos
• Instagram - upload and view georeferencing photos

Coordination, Communication, and Safety

• Glympse - share location with contacts and specify visit duration
• Guardly - personal emergency system, alerts authorities and close contacts with user’s location in an emergency
• Swim Guide - find nearby beaches, their safety status, and historical info
• Ushahidi -  crowdsourced mapping and place-based storytelling
• Yik Yak - anonymous, nearby gab and gossip
• YWCA Safety Siren - sends location to emergency contacts; maps of women's health clinics & resources

Commerce and Marketing

• Groupon - proximity based and general shopping deals
• Geotrigger - service provider for brands to create geolocative mobile apps by Esri
• Lovely - proximal apartment rental information (U.S. only)
• Placecast - service provider for location-based business intelligence and geotargetted ads
• Realtor.ca - search and receive info on properties for sale in your vicinity
• Shopkick - proximal promotions and customer loyalty programs
• YellowPages - uses location to identify and search for nearby businesses

Geosocial Networking

• Facebook - location sharing and encourages place commentary
• Swarm - check-ins and friend tracking by Foursquare
• Find My Friends - friend tracking by Apple
• Google+ - share your location with customized groups
• Grindr, Blendr, and Tinder - date finder apps
• Skout - reputedly the world's largest network for friend and date finding

Health and Fitness

• MapMyWalk - map and share your walking/cycling routes along with other fitness features - similar apps are Endomondo and Moves
• PulsePoint - apps to locate volunteers trained in CPR for emergencies and another for defibrillators
• 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
• Banjo - delivers trending news and events near you
• Field Trip - runs in background, when users get to interesting places (e.g. business, sight) a pop-up appears with details (I'm not sure how "interesting" is defined however)
• Findery - place annotations and photos to encourage exploration
• Google Maps -  comprehensive maps plus proximal business search and recommendations
• Star Chart - identifies user position to view astronomical information via augmented reality view
• Tagwhat - hyperlocal info about nearby places
• Twitter - tweet or search for tweets within a specified area or by hashtag
• Weather Channel - geotargetted weather forecasts

Location-based Games

• Friendly Fire - military themed game using own's hometown as battle headquarters
• Geocaching - use your mobile device to uncover hidden caches - c:geo is a free, open-source equivalent
• Ingress - physical world as site of collaborative science fiction competition
• Parallel Kingdom - massive multiplayer online game that uses real world as setting for fantasy game
• Tiny Tycoons - claim real places to compete for game riches/li>

Navigation and Transportation

• Gata Hub - taxi-hailing app; uses positioning to identify pick up location and near cabs - similar to Hailo
• SitOrSquat - find nearby bathrooms with user reviews of their cleanliness by Charmin (genius marketing effort and I must say the most useful apps!)
• Uber - find a private driver, arrange pick-up spot, and track the car's location
• Waze - community-based traffic and navigation app

Personal Efficiency and Organization

• Checkmark 2 - proximal task reminder service (Apple only)
• Matchbook - facilitates bookmarking and viewing businesses one wants to visit (Apple only)

Social Recommendation and Navigation

• Foursquare - proximal business recommendations & reviews from friends and others users (check-in feature now moved to Swarm)
• Yelp - user-generated local reviews combined with local search engine
• Zomato (formerly Urbanspoon) - location based restaurant recommendations

Travel and Place Guides

• Gogobot - travel tips from friends & other users
• TouristEye - travel planning, destination tips, and nearby search from Lonely Planet
• LiveTrekker - aggregate, share and map your digital media
• RoadTripper - a travel guide for off-the-beaten path explorers
• TimeOut - travel guide apps for major cities and tourist hot-spots with proximal recommendations
• Trover - geotagged travel photos and stories
• TripAdvisor - get the leading travel website's user generated content on your mobile with proximity search

Let me know if I missed one of your favourites. And consider helping me out with my study. Read more participating in the study on my research site.

No App Required!

I saw an ad today that had me puzzled at first. It was for a real estate agency, RE/MAX, with a simple non-descript illustration, but with a huge call out: NO APP REQUIRED.

I'm so used to seeing ads that hype mobile apps that I couldn't immediately conceive of what the ad was getting at. I thought they might be suggesting that their human, local agents are better than cold tech. But that wasn't the case (we all know tech is superior to humans - I don't want to offend our future robot overlords).

There was only other bit of text and it revealed the mystery. It was the URL Remax.ca.

Following up on the URL on my mobile device I found a really good mobile friendly website that had everything I would need from a realtor.

But to get this info, I didn't have to go to an app store, find, download, install, and then find again (within the clutter of my device's many apps).

Aside from the hassle of downloading apps (compared to the ease of locating a mobile website) studies have shown that users can only handle a few number of apps and only regularly use a small number of apps. Despite how developers sell companies on the need for an app and then companies hype their apps - we just don't need more apps.  

The World Wide Web would never have become as popular and powerful today if it had followed this app model. 

I think Remax going against the grain shows a genius level of knowledge of their customers' needs - even if the customers don't know they don't actually want an app for each company they do business with. Apps have been worshipped to such an extent and across sectors that recognizing the truth is no easy accomplishment. 

Google has recently been encouraging and now enforcing websites to be mobile friendly to rank well. (Read this article on this topic.) But otherwise I do not hear tech companies or design agencies insisting companies consider the mobile web first (as I have been for years).

So kudos to RE/MAX for figuring this out ahead of the curve. 

I'd like to know what prompted them to do this campaign so I will ask them and report back here. In the meantime, make your website mobile friendly and consider mothballing your app.

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.