edparsons.com

Sometimes you can’t beat a simple story..

On this side of the pond it is had to understand just how big a deal the Superbowl is in the US, it remains one of the few remaining occasions when most of the country sits down and watches the same rectangle of moving pixels at the same time.

So running an ad during the Superbowl is a big deal, from the legendary 1984 Macintosh add, through the dot com madness of the 1990’s it has always provided an interesting reflection of the IT industry. So for the first time yesterday Google’s first Superbowl ad has attracted much attention.

I get the impression that this particular ad first viewed last year on youTube, was so well liked (if not loved) that it was felt that it deserved the biggest audience possible.

For me the interesting thing, is just how embedded geography is to the story, how often geospatial technology is either used directly as in maps or is there behind the scenes – Paris the place not the celebrity…

Written and submitted from Heathrow Airport  (51.478N, 0.491W)

So Apple are banning location based advertising apps, as a result of their recent purchase of Quattro Wireless. Well that would seem to follow the usual Apple control freakery, well I’m not  so sure..

I think Apple is actually doing the right thing, setting best practice for developing apps that use location.

What they actually say is..

“If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”

In other words don’t just insert a location targeted ad into an application where is does not provide any benefit to the user. So you should not add a location targeted ad into your first person shooter game for pizza’s in Southampton, just because the user is in Southampton.

This is location ad spam.

On the other-hand if a user is looking for train times from their current location to Southampton, then ads from local business offering you food while you wait for the next train or offer alternative journey options via bus would be useful.

As with search ads this represents and example of advertising selection based on a users implicit intent, ignore these signals and as an app developer you would be spamming your users.

Written and submitted from my home (51.425N, 0.331W)

So its the iPad, a large iPod Touch and the blogosphere has spoken, it’s a fail.

Well that’s not quite the end of the story as I see it, the key point to understand in the importance of Apple’s new device is to recognise that computers and the web are no longer the preserve of the geeks that write blogs.

All the apparent failings of the iPad, the lack of USB, no multi-tasking, no HDMI and lack of Adobe’s Flash are actually all the reasons why it will be successful.

The choice to remove these features are a result of the laser focus of the design team to make this a simple device, not a computer as we recognise it today, but something that allows “normal people” access to information quickly and simply. Remember the similar criticism from the smart-phone experts when the original iPhone was introduced.

Just think of the contrast in terms of installing a simple application in Windows, compared to an application on the iPhone.  The idea of the computing appliance is a common goal with the ChromeOS, both the iPad and future ChromeOS devices aim to make the underlying operating system as simple and robust as possible, and allow users to get to a task hassle free.

For me I can see the iPad finding a home in my household as a “sofa computer” something to have in the living room, easy to pick up and use quickly to browse the web, read a book chapter or send an email.

You can also seen the potential of vertical applications particularly in education, imagine the interactive textbooks that can be created for such a device.

A longer shot perhaps could be GIS data capture applications making use of the 3G/GPS version of the iPad, ESRI are rumoured to be working on an iPhone app..

Such a class of device, a real “computer for the rest of us” has been a long time coming, Alan Kay a true giant in the history of computing, in 1968 introduced the dynabook concept, which was hugely   influential for many including Steve Jobs. The work of Alan Kay was also a influence to one Douglas Adams, who also saw the potential of a book like computer..

Maybe the iPad will be the most important product Apple has produced so far, if it can become the internet  appliance, that really brings computing to the mainstream, then again maybe it will not and some other device will become this long anticipated device.

I can’t wait to get one, I just wonder who is going to be first design a cover with “Don’t Panic” written on it !

Written and submitted from my home (51.425N, 0.331W)

So be honest how many of us every expected todays’s announcement would ever come?  a day when the very conservative civil service of the United Kingdom made available very comprehensive government data sets available for free.  OK there are a few notable exceptions (OS , Royal Mail and TfL spring to mind) but as a starting point to have nearly  2500 data sets available and a community of nearly the same number of application developers is a huge success.

How often is it that the UK government can demonstrate greater openness that the United States, this is a far more impressive launch than the much admired data.gov portal.

The data.gov.uk portal also represents a huge shift in mindset for government in the UK, I’m very proud of a letter which I received while working at the Ordnance Survey almost accusing me of sedition and threatening me with the official secrets act for blogging and suggesting the OS could make data more widely accessible.

Culture change is a term much branded about within the civil service, what we see with the data portal really is culture change.

From a technical perspective data.gov.uk also represents the publish first and sort out the quality / metadata later paradigm which governments must follow, an evolutionary approach is vital in the fast moving world of web today, achieving perfection and accounting for all potential uses of data is not feasible and can no longer be used as an excuse not release data “as is”

The role of Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt in this change cannot be over stated without the “star” factor of these two individuals todays announcement would not have been possible. I look forward to reading the inside story of their activities in the next edition of  Prospect Magazine which promises to be a major scoop.

Also influential with government has been the campaigning of  former innovation minister Tom Watson among others, has been edging towards this move by holding such events as Show Us a Better Way, a competition with cash prizes for government data mashups.

Today of course is not the end of the battle, we need to keep the pressure on for all public sector data holders to default to making their information available, and there is still time to express support for free access to Ordnance Survey data by taking part in the current consultation process. Evidence for why this is important is illustrated by this example, just one of many issues caused by the current licensing regime.

To paraphrase outrageously, for Open Access to Government data, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Written and submitted from the Google Offices, Copenhagen (55.683N, 12.571E)

We need helping selling, Google GEO solutions to Enterprise customers in the UK, if your are interested  and have the appropriate experience details are here, feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions.

Written and submitted from the Google Offices, London (51.495N, 0.146W)

Spent an interesting day making by way down to Southampton to give a talk to some 3rd year Computer Scientists, strange to be back near by old employers, I did not drop in however..

The drive down the M3 was particularly spectacular clear blue skies and a snow covered countryside is the positive spin of a country whose infrastructure struggles with a few cm of snow. However this winters snowfall is rather extensive e a fact brought home by a MODIS image acquired today from NASA’s Terra satellite.

Cool in both senses I think your agree !

UKSnow via Terra (click to enlarge)

Happy New Year BTW !

Written and submitted from my home (51.425N, 0.331W)