Garry Golden

Things are shifting again on the ‘internet’ – the first area deals with the emergence of the ‘geo web’ and location based delivery of information/services; the second shift is the rapid rise of video (which is a mixture of forms of broadcast, user generated content, and using video as a social space itself…) (More on that here - from April 27th entry) Entrepreneurs are pushing the relevance of physical location and the ability to conduct ‘local search’ through mobile devices or geo-web browsers (searchable, taggable, digital replications of the worlds around us… i.e. Google Earth). There are many components to this ‘geo web’ and local search future - just a few notes…

Hardware –
Mobile phones will have to evolve. Apple does what Apple does – generate media hype around product releases. The iPhone is great- but the truth is that cell phone companies have been working at these types of intuitive interfaces for years. They have been studying the ’social’ applications of cell phones and I suspect Apple will find it difficult to simultaneously battle the Media industry and Telecommunications world at the same time. Without major partnerships with service providers- I don’t expect people to make many phone calls from their iPhone – it might just end up as a PDA for digital media.

Wireless broadband –
Cellular providers are preparing for a real battle against mesh networks of WiFi nodes (keep your eye on Meraki)– and the broadband promise of WiMax. Clearwire, a Craig McCaw company, is coming off its IPO – and hopes to launch this age of wireless broadband. Without wireless broadband- we’ll struggle to evolve geo based web services.

Software –
There are a dozens of geo-social web 2.0 start ups all trying to be the next ‘MySpace’ of the mobile world. But I suspect the new incumbents of MySpace and Facebook (and possibly virtual world/gaming brands) will be migrating their connectivity from desktops to mobile phones;

For the desktop ‘geo’ experience- we want to watch the battle between Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth. I say forget about the battle over office apps and OS – the geo-browser is where all the action is…! Google is hitting the ground running— I walk around MIT and see ‘Design your\nOwn Campus’ ads hyping Google’s 3D tool Sketch-up.

There is a lot to say here—Google is essentially getting its users to build a virtual mirror of the real world. And then Google will allow you to tag these locations and ’search’ real worlds via Google Earth. Google is adding local photos to enhance local search –

The other potential ‘geo’ search players are virtual worlds… Second Life is busy building up its commerce sites – and the big news this week was Sony’s new PS3 virtual world ‘Home’. Right now I can’t say whether we’ll surf the web through virtual worlds - or if the mainstream geobrowsers will dominate… [Enter virtual worlds through your mobile phone – Link from VentureBeat]

User Behavior -
Most people cannot imagine the benefits of location based services and some cringe at the idea of being part of a transparent ‘map making’ culture. There is a host of identity, security issues- and questions of place based marketing. But only a decade ago - most people could not conceive of ‘web surfing’ or having an email account. We’re still a few years away from real mainstream interest and engagement in local search and the ‘geo web’…. So I’m being patient…

The second shift is around video…

Web based video means many things and can be dissected across several layers. The first is close to home – major broadcast brands are migrating their content onto the web. The second layer is video as broadcast media but in the hands of amateurs. The big hit word is ‘user generated content’ made popular by YouTube. There are dozens of other video distribution sites– but I think YouTube has the strongest community of producers.

I am interested in this evolution of video – and am now keeping my eyes are now on free web-based video creation and production tools.

[Somewhat related…new buzz around View3 – another 3D authoring tool – similar to Microsoft’s Photosynth which allows you to create 3D worlds around real world images.]

The third layer relates to using video as a social space. (i.e. not as a broadcast media, but an interactive format)

Artists have been dealing with this concept for years- ‘how do you create visual layers of human interactions over video so that we can share a 2D display based space.’ (I’ll have to go out and find links to various projects… but Microsoft demonstrated a shared drawing application at their recent TechDemo fest - video) (This is a difficult interface to explain in words- so I’ll have to come back with some sample links…!!) (Here they are)

[Added: Check out the layer of: http://web.media.mit.edu/~stefan/reflection/]

Video vs Virtual Worlds?

This notion of video as a social space is intriguing – and my head is spinning with potential futures… What happens if high definition teleconferencing hits kitchens around the world… flashing images of Grandmom standing by her stove as you wash the dishes in your home?

Among uber geeks and futurists - there is an on-going conversation of virtual worlds as social spaces. Virtual worlds and the simulation culture are good for many, many, many things… and I don’t want to sell that idea short here!

But after those teenage/college years of social exploration, we settle down and spend more time talking to friends then to strangers. The market for virtual world based social spaces will continue to explode for the next decade… but for the real long term market growth - I am looking at the evolution of video as a social space. (Real time interaction -not just communities of content creators…) Why would I want to see my mother’s avatar when I can see her real face…? Why would a Grandmother want to see her grandchild’s avatar instead of their real face..?

Other news from the net:

· Big news in the Geek Blogosphere world was the announcement of Freebase – and the ambitious strategy of building a semantic web… (Sameday coverage by NY Times, Wall Street Journal..!) Check out the O’Reilly review

· Cisco/IBM to collaborate on open standards for combined voice, data and video – and ‘collaboration’ tools (which is the next wave preparing for the ‘drowning’ of video over the web!! (Link from EETimes)

· Intel’s ‘flash killer’ – PRAM memory – Link from Arstechnica

· Everything you need to know about IPV6 - Link