A few weeks ago I read about the Mobile Connections thing happening at Supernova 2008. Although I read about it after the deadline, I decided to put together a concept anyway. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to submit it in time, but, as part of my No Photoshop File Left Behind™ Program, I’m going to go ahead and describe the idea, as well as share the Photoshop file, anyway.
I live in the Marina. On more than one occasion, I have gone out for a run along Chrissy field and have been startled to find a jazz festival, charity run, farmer’s market or some other big event going on that I had no idea about. It’s strange that I seem to know more about what’s going on in a place like Darfur, than I do about what’s going on a few blocks away.
The idea is to create a hyperlocal mobile application that aggregates Events, News, Reviews, etc., based on your location. The application would pull information from currently available data sources (Upcoming, Yelp, Outside.in, AP Local News Feeds, CrimeMaps, Craigslist) to create a compelling, high-utility experience. Although the application defaults to the current time and place, it would also allow the user access data in the recent past or near future for any location, by dragging the timeline at the bottom.
A few extensions of this idea that aren’t represented in this mockup are:
- Zoning, real estate, and other property info as show on EveryBlock
- Being able to read reviews of restaurants around you (or the one you’re sitting at)
- Accessing instant promotions or coupons in the area
- Accessing historical information from Wikipedia if you’re on a walking tour or something similar
I’m going to assume this has already been done or is being done somewhere, somehow, even though I can’t seem to find it. It’s just so dead simple, isn’t it? It’s also pretty similar to a hack I did while at Yahoo! over a year ago. There are undoubtedly way more creative uses of location-aware mobile devices, but I would definitely use something like this.
- » Download the Photoshop file.
- » User Interface (UI) Library for Safari development on iPhone
- » Jinho Jung’s iPhone UI stencil
June 5th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
[...] Sarah created an interesting post today on Hyperlocal iPhone AppHere’s a short outlineA few weeks ago I read about the Mobile Connections thing happening at Supernova 2008. Although I read about it after the deadline, I decided to put together a concept anyway. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to submit it in time, but, … [...]
June 5th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Rocking blog! Go GT… … …!
Did I mention that I married a UGA grad?
w00t!
June 8th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Something like this will come hopefully sooner than later. It is definitely gonna be extremely useful.
p.s. youre really hot