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

• ur 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