Geopepper Blog

There’s Web 2.0, Info 2.0, Me 2.0, You 2.0.. but where is LBS 2.0? (pun intended)

Let’s see what constitutes 2.0.

Here’s a nice exposition on what constitutes Web 2.0 from the man who coined the term, Tim O’Reilly:

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Trusting users as co-developers
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
• Software above the level of a single device
• Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

1 + 1 = 2
(user participation in almost all aspects) + (software as an open service / platform) = Web 2.0
Simple.

So what is LBS 2.0?

All of the above, clearly. They are all as good and useful as motherhood and Wikipedia. That is, geoblogging, geo social networking (e.g., Loopt, geopepper), LBS applications that talk to other applications and not just humans and satellites.

But more. LBS needs to go beyond just navigation, or asking 411 queries using a map (tell me where the nearest Starbucks is. Oh wait, everyone knows the answer to that: right in front of me!). Unlike the comforts of a desktop browser, it’s not easy to interact with a phone client. So, I want that application to be smarter.. I want it to tell me when there is something relevant to me around me, rather than me repeatedly starting the client and checking it and killing my time, patience, and battery. The content could be friends-near-me-alerts or post-it notes or geoblogs or starbucks coupons.

So, we want LBS 2.0 to be more intelligent.. pushy.. proactive.. smart.

In summary, LBS 2.0 = LBS 1.0 + Geoblogging + Applications as services + Smart Push.

Just the right information at the right time in the right place.

Simple as ordering a cup of house blend at Starbucks.

Vishy Poosala
Founder and CTO, Geopepper Venture
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures

“This is the year of LBS, finally!”

That was the over all sentiment I perceived in San Francisco. Just based on dollars-per-plate the sponsors were spending on conference dinners, this must be the year, one can say.

So, why is this not just dejavu?

Answer: A combination of Nokia-Navteq deal, success of VZ Navigator, online social networking aura rubbing off on LBS, user plane GPS, more autonomous GPS phones in the market, Google maps, and PNDs getting betters / smaller / cheaper.

Some quick highlights, all in IMHO.

+ Nokia purchasing Navteq for some $8.1B definitely was a boost in the morale of all map makers and app developers. It’s interesting to see a phone vendor finally offering a bold alternative to carrier-sanctioned applications. We @geopepper hope that we can continue using free mapping services… forever.

+ Many more LBS application developers.

- Many more LBS applications with almost nothing to distinguish App X from App Y.

+ Ergo, there is a golden opportunity for innovators to offer something new and different to stand out of the pack. Of course, keep it useful and relevant for the world today.

+ More alternatives to AGPS are popping up - autonomous GPS from Nokia/Blackberry phones, Wifi locations from Skyhook Wireless, war driving efforts like Navizon. Their coverage is still far from what AGPS can give us. If I was offering an application today (hmm we are..) I would support as many location feeds as I can hack in. Geopepper supports J2ME/BREW/SUPL/CPL/MLP/@SMS today. We’ll be adding more.

Over all, it was great to see huge crowds of passionate GPS-heads at the conferences. It makes me believe that this ‘08 might just be the year of LBS, finally.

Vishy Poosala
Founder and CTO, Geopepper Venture
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures

So, why the name Geopepper?

Geo: obvious, it is a location-based service. Geographic messaging service. and so on.

Pepper: This is lot more fun -  let’s count the reasons.

1. 3-pepper chicken at Cathay-22 on Route 22; Our team’s favorite spicy szechuan food. Right around the table at Cathay-22 on a warm east coast kind of day we proposed that the best service we can do to humanity is by telling them to try 3-pepper chicken if they’re in that vicinity during lunch time. (solution: GMS)
2. pepper [ˈpepə] verb
   (with with) to throw, fire etc many, usually small, objects at (someone): Geopepper allows all of to pepper the world with interesting, small (must fit an SMS!) tidbits.
3. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles. ’nuff said.
4. It’s hot!
5. Lot of phonetic research went in to confirm that Geo + Pepper makes a perfect combination of syllables for people to remember. Ok, that is if you consider “a bunch of LBS-junkies arguing passionately about spacemonkey vs. geopepper” as Research (on the other hand, it happened inside Bell Labs, so that must be deep. )

The rest, as they say, is mystery.

By the way, geomessage.com is another name for geopepper.com.  We just felt that geopepper was catchier. Hope you agree too!

Vishy Poosala
Founder and CTO, Geopepper Venture
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures

Home sweet home, homecoming, welcome home, we’re home, the cliches kept rolling -  all for announcing our brand new addition to the geopepper site: your home page!

Yes! The next time you login, you will be landing on a brand new homepage customized with latest updates that matter to you. You can see which channels have content waiting for you, how many of your messages were delivered, who are your most active buddies, etc.

My favorite place in the homepage, however, is our own version of “Where I’ve Been”.: it shows your recent locations on a map.  Now you can feel proud of all the globetrekking you’ve been doing.

Stay posted. We’re bringing yet another mind-blowing surprise feature to the homepage.

Vishy Poosala
Founder and CTO, Geopepper Venture
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures

Ok it’s a people’s encyclopedia editable by all (including us, who submitted the original GMS entry, in full disclosure), but it’s gotta mean something when GMS takes its place in the world’s most used encyclopedia and gets categorized under Mobility Standards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_Messaging_Service

Geographic Messaging Service

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Geographic Messaging Service, or GMS in short, is a new form of messaging for cell phones. It is a message associated with a geographic region that is delivered to a subscriber when they are in that region. This form of messaging extends traditional Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), by allowing subscribers to leave and receive SMS or MMS where they matter. Similar to SMS and MMS, GMS can be the vehicle for peer-to-peer communications—for example, someone leaving a shopping list around the store as a reminder—as well as for other content and marketing services. For example, a tourist organization can leave tidbits about interesting locations in New York City and have them delivered to visitors when they are nearby those locations. And, a store can send coupons over GMS just to those subscribers that are in the vicinity of the store.

The technology underlying GMS is called GeoFencing—detecting when a cellphone crosses a virtual geographic fence. The term GMS was coined by researchers at Bell Laboratories.

Vishy Poosala
Founder and CTO, Geopepper Venture
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures

The British-based Mobile Data Association dates text messaging to December 1992, when a British engineer sent the message “Merry Christmas” to a colleague from a computer to a mobile handset. And data from CTIA, the Wireless Association, show that texting is still in a growth spurt: 158.6 billion text messages were sent in the USA in 2006, up from 81 billion the year before.

WoW! All from a messaging mechanism that was more of an accident than an intended feature (SMS was originally intended for engineers to manage GSM networks).

We wish a long life for SMS, MMS, and now their new sibling GMS that is going places

PS: GMS = Geographic Messaging Service, the concept behind geopepper.com

Vishy Poosala
Founder and CTO, Geopepper Venture
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures

Thrilled to announce that our Beta release is now up in time for the long weekend! Here are some of the cool new additions:

• Cool Blue Shoes: Green was good, but Blue is better! Our site has a new logo and new colors. This is the sweet outcome of the hours of passionate discussions that went into why this shade of blue is better than that shade of green!
• Blackberry GPS client for download on BB8800. BB8830 coming soon.This is really cool - now you don’t have to SMS your location anymore! Our GPS client - when you want it - can automatically update the system with your current location. So, switch it on, stroll along, and get pepper’ed.
• Import your contacts from LinkedIn, Yahoo!, gmail, hotmail, and more coming: It takes a minute to invite your dozens of friends into Geopepper!
• And many more..

The gates are now open for you to invite your friends into this one-of-a-kind mobile social networking service!

Vishy Poosala
Founder and CTO, Geopepper Venture
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures

The big day when we launch the Beta for the public to use is still a week away, but Alpha is here today. (By the way, did you ever wonder how Alpha feels about always being run over like this? Well, we consider Alpha to be very important.)

What do we expect to achieve?

A few lucky users will be invited to register and use the system. We want them to test the features for usability, correctness, etc., and to give us feedback on any critical missing features. Ok, it’s too late to add even the most critical feature this week (that’s what PPSN thinks, but he adds them at midnights anyway!) but a new Beta is just around the corner in our perpetual Beta world.

So, if you are one of the Alpha users, please go ahead, register, and test the system. But, please only invite the other users in geopepper to join your network, and not others. We will incessantly remind you to do that when we enter the Beta phase on the 15th.

Vishy Poosala
Founder and CTO, Geopepper Venture
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures

Welcome to our Geopepper Blog. Here, you can see articles about our Geopepper service, the team behind it, and most importantly be able to interact with us on what you like and what you would like better.

Please stay tuned for the upcoming launch of Geopepper.com!

Vishy Poosala
Founder and CTO, Geopepper Venture
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures