Lash-Up’s (Location Aware Mash-Ups…)

Today, virtually all first-generation location applications are variants on the “thing-finder” theme: find a restaurant, find a pub, etc. Even the navigation systems in cars are really “thing-finders”: find a highway, find a street address yada yada.

Though interesting, these applications are just the first steps on a longer journey: to bring a broader array of device types, and a broader array of applications beyond “thing-finder” and make them location-aware.

In my last post I discussed how context aware applications really enhance the mobile experience for a user. If you bought that concept and agree that convergence of a number of technologies such as EVDO, cellular triangulation, GPS and WiMaX can now really be applied in meaningful ways in consumer applications on mobile devices - then the next big leap is to think in Location Aware mode.

When Amit and I started grokkr we thought about how to break away from “thing-finder” mode and how to provide context for the various applications that a user interacts with and to enable them (the applications…) to choose from a set of location aware content types, ie. each application has a repository of location aware? bots that it can access when the context is pertinent. For ex. a lash-up (location aware mash up) to enable a map of the closest Starbucks is triggered and available when the user comes out of her house in the morning. While entering the closest grocery store a lash-up of coupons is made available to the user to access and utilize.

The move away from “thing-finder” apps to apps that grok is a philosophical shift that comes from understanding usage patterns on handheld devices. Handheld Users are accustomed to push based information delivery - think sms, a regular phone call, a voice mail - they’re all pushed onto you whether you like it or not. Many practitioners (a relative minority… o ye of little faith!) are vehemently opposed to the over use of push and I am of the opinion that the use of lash-up generated content delivered in push mode in a non-intrusive manner will be an effective enabler for making mobile devices more useful. An overuse of anything is by nature a nuisance and this is the same of push based content delivery.

So as not to dilute the power of the Lash-Up concept by talking only of push based apps it is important to understand that the pull-based concept is equally valid in certain scenarios - i.e. when the user wants to be in “thing-finder” mode and it is the most effective way to get to certain information, then pull-based interaction makes absolute sense. For ex. When I am trying to find 651 W Washington I am really in “thing-finder” mode and I would want apps to facilitate that better using lash-up content.

Lash-Ups provide an interesting way to deliver higher levels of functionality to users at a relatively low development cost since the primary data exists either in external API’s or is user generated in the first place. I believe you can never build everything that a user or a subset of users want - the 80-20 rule applies in almost every direct to consumer application and hence to enable a “killer ecology” of many small applications rather than a few large applications makes it possible to satisfy the 20 that have traditionaly been left out while still focusing on the 80 that are your primary users.