how to create the killer location aware social networking application
TRANSCRIPT
HOW TO CREATE THE KILLER LOCATION AWARE SOCIAL NETWORKING APPLICATIONMr. Yogev Triki
VP Business Development, AtlasCT Ltd.
What will we talk about?
Topics
1. Introduction
2. Features set
3. Common issuesa) Reaching critical mass
b) Building trust
c) Bringing it to life
d) Dealing with fragmentation
e) Obtaining location
4. Conclusions
5. Q&A
Our background
More…
Our background
Location based users-generated content Location based social network
Our background
Family safety 3D Off-board navigation
1. Introduction
What is a social networking service?
A software/service for building online social networks for communities of people who share interests and/or activities
The most famous ones:
Why bother?
“40 percent of mobile web traffic heads to social networks”Source: Opera mobile browser.
Mobile social networking revenues could reach $52 billion by 2012.” Source: Informa UK Ltd. ‘Mobile Social Networking: Communities and Content on the Move’ Report.
“GPS-enabled handsets that will account for an estimated 78% market share by 2012 end.” Source: Research and Markets, ‘World GPS Market Forecast to 2012’.
Location is a key boost to social networks More and more handsets & operators support location
More efficient advertising opportunities
Navigation is the mostly step 2 of the mobile user
Viral marketing
2. Features set
What are the features?
Around me
Where am I?
Where are my friends?
What is nearby?
Nearby friends Basic
Nearby locations Useful
Nearby content Fun
Photos
Videos
Comments
Communication
Contacting A known friend
Unknown person
A business (Search result)
Means Phone call
Video call (3G)
SMS
Instant messaging (IM)
Voice over IP (VoIP)
Issues Disclosing details
Spoofing details
Costs
Tracking of communication
Content sharing
Geo-tagging
Multimedia
Photos
Videos
Text
Locations
POI’s
Tourism
Other (Wi-Fi Hot-spots, celebrities etc.)
Content sharing
Incentives for generating content by users Personal use of the content
Expectation for getting something in return
Getting to know better the system, curiosity
Feeling of making change, Ego,
The 90:9:1 thumb rule 90% Passive
9% Casual contributors
1% Massive contributors - They create most of the content in the website
a) Reaching critical mass
3. Common issues
Critical mass
What is a critical mass?
A minimum number of users that by actively exchanging information and sharing knowledge they keep an online community up and running over time.
How to reach critical mass in short time?
Fast growth
Use the existing contact list
Add friends from other networks Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut,
etc.
Invite friends from mail accounts Gmail, Yahoo, POP3 etc.
Suggest friends Two 2nd degree links
Make use of groups Fastest!
b) Building trust
3. Common issues
Building trust
Brand Don’t spam – let the
user decide what and when
Be careful with default values (Examples: default location availability, photos publicity etc.)
Protect against identity theft
Digital signature and code signing
Building trust
Legal protection Minimum age for
signing-up
Separate to age groups Parents/moderator
permission for adding a friend/publish a photo
Privacy management Location availability –
Opt ins
Location obfuscation Time/place
C) Bringing it to life
3. Common issues
Bringing it to life
How to make the application ‘feel alive’? Let it work from the first
moment Friends availability
Content availability
“We were waiting just for you”
News feeds New content
More friends
“While you were gone…”
d) Dealing with fragmentation
3. Common issues
Handset families
Choose one handset family to begin with:
Display dimensions
API’s availability
Market share
Average user profile
Generalization
Make your code “porting ready”
Images dimensions
API’s abstraction
Location
Communications
UI’s
Keypad
Full keyboard
Touch screen
Consider using 3rd party services for porting
e) Obtaining location
3. Common issues
Obtaining location
Locationing methods
External (Bluetooth) GPS receiver
Internal GPS receiver
Network based
Cell ID
IP address
Manual
Other (Wi-Fi, others)
Obtaining location
Major differences Accuracy
Good enough for navigation? Good enough for local
search? Good enough for local
advertising?
Availability Through 3rd party provider Built-in, API Self implemented
Power consumption
What’s best for navigation isn't essentially the best for social networking
4. Conclusions
Product
Remember who your users are Usage patterns Implications on porting scope
Age Implications on complexity and
legal issues
Buying ability Implications on business model
Remember what your application is for Mostly for fun Implications on GUI
Saving time <> Killing time Implications on features set
Development
Don’t “invent the wheel” Use existing API’s and
tools available Aggregate users from
existing networks
Don’t shoot too far Give the basic features
first and introduce more advanced features later
Begin with a small group of supported devices
Focus on what you’re good at
5. Q&A
Yogev TrikiVP Business Development
Atlas Cartographic Technologies Ltd. (AtlasCT)
www.atlasct.com
Thank you!