Mobile messaging service framework for location-based communities - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Mobile messaging service framework for location-based communities T-106.5820 Seminar on Distributed Systems, Autumn 2008 Harri Hälikkä

Synopsis of the study ● Goals are to – describe the concept and basic characteristics of the service on general level – take a look at current location-based services and analyze them – get overall picture of the situation with current location-based services and see if there's room for our service Mobile messaging service framework for location-based communities

Concept ● Create a communication channel between you and people physically around you - right here, right now ● Emphasis is rather on being useful than fun – service would give communication tools for everyday life – ”I need to loan a screwdriver” – ”I should warn people about that accident” – ”We need more players to our football team” – ”Damn, somebody stole my bike – has anyone seen it?” Mobile messaging service framework for location-based communities

Service based on the concept ● Should have lots of users to be really useful ● Characteristics and things to consider – Different types of messaging – should handle them all – Simple and reliable privacy preserving mechanisms – Message classification – Text, images, audio and videos in messages – Trust needed between user user and user system – Integration to other services as extensive as possible – Open APIs for developers Mobile messaging service framework for location-based communities

Current services ● Variety of different services available ● Applications for a single platform only (iPhone, Android) but also for wider scale of devices ● Majority of the services are rather fresh and – based on existing social connections – offer a way to create and share placemarks ● Some services are integrated to major social networking services like Facebook (but not all) ● There are popular and mature services, too Mobile messaging service framework for location-based communities

Current services vs. our concept ● Different philosophies on creating the community ● Level of openness and integration ● Entertainment vs. practical usefulness ● Penetration of intelligent enough mobile devices still a limiting factor ● Few existing services resembling our concept exist but are not that popular - why? Mobile messaging service framework for location-based communities

Conclusions ● The palette of location-based services is fragmented – there's still room for great ideas and clever design ● For a successful service – Attract users with great ideas and easy adoption – Collaborate with existing services – Developers are make the ideas come true, give them what they need = APIs + docs ● Our concept is feasible, but needs more background work Mobile messaging service framework for location-based communities