Geo-mapping our associative city - pt 1

I don’t own a smart phone yet so you can understand my surprise when my friend naveen showed me his smart phone pointing out that it could show a route to any destination by car, train or walking. Now Mumbai is not a grid layout, it’s organic and has many very narrow confusing lanes at several places. When we were at the station, and we checked for the next train, it actually showed us the next train timing down to minute of arrival and even the walking route before that.

I understand doing this in the US where all this data has been assembled and has more or less been in the digital format (and online) for a while now, (including so many live cameras working overtime everywhere). But here in Mumbai, well…. I know that there are fixed timings for trains, which do not fluctuate at all unless there is some problem. But what this got me thinking whether the data showed on the phone was live data or pre-established data. The question is roads, walking routes! how does that work, is it an algorithm fed into the computer?

Such large amount of information! How is google doing this? How does it get this kind of man-power or even resources? Having said that, what I want to really know is why they are doing it. I know there are innumerable applications but why precisely did they start this. It can’t be only because its cool. Because so much of this information is free.

It seems one can view the whole Manhattan in 3D, This baffles me. Of course the most direct application is gaming, esp with the VBOX already in the market, but I don’t know if people have begun to use it or not.

The movie on facebook was definitely something that inspired me to jot this thought down thinking it may have potential. So facebook, as said in the movie was created to take the social experience of college life onto the virtual world. However think now in terms of the city and the way we live it, experience it and share with the people around us. Don’t we always ask each other, which restaurant is good in such and such place, or which is the best ice-cream joint in the city or places to hang out? I understand numerous websites offer comments and rating by users on places visited or restaurants eaten in etc such as BURP.com… but coming from strangers, it has very little credibility, compared to a suggestion by a person you know. What about special places, which people cherish, their happy places, where you take your lover and so on.

So what if we construct a map, assembled through inputs by individual users? Lets say person X, so one day you decide to visit his/her city and of course you want to know from her/him whats worth visiting/ best eating joints etc. So this platform will allow you to view her profile just like FB and perhaps through FB and then route you to ‘her city map’.

Each person can develop their own city, defining within it which information is public and which is private. Thus, while at one level, it will go on to develop ones own personal archive of the city spaces and the users continual experiences. At the same time it will also contribute to a larger map of the city with this shared data.

Now, this information can be used in various ways –

So I take again the same example of restaurants. If you are in a certain place and want to find restaurants nearby, you can go on this platform which will not only show you restaurants that your friends have visited earlier but also what they may have rated them. Now if you extend that idea – if the receipt you get is printed with a code that you feed onto ur profile through ur phone.

While on one hand you will be able to instantly rate the dishes you have just had for further ref. (like a diary), or see ratings of a particular dish before you order it. See what your friends think of it or Mumbai thinks of it, or say Shahrukh thinks of it? Or Tarla Dalal thinks of it (provided they visit that restaurant ofcourse). Perhaps, the internal programme can swoop the internet to scoop up photographs of it and attach it automatically to it. As mentioned earlier, the public and private rule still applies.

            A restaurant owner may know which dish is getting the boos and which the woohooo.

Or what is working for his competition and not for him or the socio-economic profiles of people visiting the restaurant etc.

Another very useful application is for cities like Mumbai and Bangalore that have a constant inflow of migrants/visitors. The one thing everybody faces is the problem to find a cheap and convenient place to live in. They have to hire brokers who eat up 1-2 months of rent, and even then you can never know if that’s the best bet. Each broker only knows about certain houses and the process is forever tiresome and irritating.

            Creation of this map will allow anyone who wants to put a space up for rent, to be able to first tag it as rentable and then mark it on the map, put snaps up, or a plan, details anything. Looking at it from a larger view, on viewing the public map, anyone will be able to see all possible rentable spaces in the city and their rates etc. When combined with the info made available of nearby amenities around such as railway stations, auto stands, main roads etc, (already marked or marked by the owner to highlight sellable aspects of the flat) anyone will know exactly how good/bad a space is for renting. This will not only make it easy for ppl to find places to rent but may be even bring changes in the rent structure, presently in place. House ignored, missed or over priced will receive as much attention as anyone else. No brokers, no middlemen.
             
             I understand that on wikimapia/ google earth there are hotels already get listed when click on the hotel icon, which further gives you details of the hotel, along with reviews and photos. My point is, in this age of plentiful information, unless we can trust it, associate with its source, it won’t make sense. That is also how branding probably works, when you rope in big stars to add the touch.

           

             Now, websites like – makemytrip.com give you price ranges/ locations/ distance filters to choose the best flight option. This platform can have a side menu doing the same, all the time, refreshing you options on the map as well.