OSLO -I will be speaking about 'Location, Location, Location' at the AppWorks Conference at Latter at Aker Brygge in Oslo on the 24th May and will join John Valentine from Scvngr, Christophe Joyau from Nokia and Mette Lykke from Endomondo in the first conference session on "Location Based Services".
This is interesting, as the first point I will be making in my presentation will be that "Location Based Services" are extinct. Readers familiar with my blog will know that I have mentioned this point before. What do I mean by this?
The point is not just a semantic one. We are now in a world of "location everywhere", with location becoming a pervasive and embedded element of mobile. In fact, you could argue (and I certainly do) that location has gone mainstream. Cue Facebook Places and Twitter, for example.
While location today is powerful, it is still lacking an edge. That edge could come from adding context to location, and so provide a cooler mobile experience (including predicting that you are about to head for a restaurant or go shopping).
Location privacy has been and continues to be a very hot debate. Expect this to remain the case 40 years from now. At the same time, it won't matter. The new digital native generation considers this a moot point. To get free digital services, it goes without saying that some invasion of privacy is required (even if it is only to better target 'harmless' ads).
At the same time, players in the mobile ecosytem can buffer themselves against the worst privacy storms by using common sense. The main rule being, don't store users' private data unless you really have to.
I will be covering more points in my presentation-those who will be there, look forward to meeting you. For the others, please check back on my blog for the Slideshare version.
