A prototype of the messaging service Geotalk

If you want to know about the new, unusual, something unique messaging service, welcome under kat. You will learn the history of the development of our app from idea to implementation.

preamble

Information have many characteristics, but there is one in our view the main characteristics of relevance. If this sign is missing then the information is either false or unnecessary. An example of irrelevant information for me is what is happening now at the intersection of two streets in some small town in Minnesota. But information about whether there is disruption to the metro station Bibirevo, relevant for me. Every day we watch the news of their country, and not someone else, because this news is relevant to us, not only in time but also geographically. I want to say that an important criterion of relevance, along with time, is geographical location information.

the idea and the challenge

As promised I will start with describing the idea of the app. A shortened version looks like this: one day standing in a remote cork was very sad that there is no way to know what's ahead. But just ask and people will gladly help, to share information. But how to appeal to all the people who are close? Want a service that will help you easily share information with people that are around me. Kind of horn, through which, here and now I can say that I could hear for miles around, but still would be able to answer me so that I heard the answer. Coverage like TV or radio, and interactive like the Internet, hmm... That would be to implement.

the Concept of application and implementation of

No sooner said than done. Decided to implement the prototype application (web), which is embodied the basic concept of the service. The Foundation took the opportunity of every modern device to determine its own geo position and is screwed to it text messages. You pick up the device that has the GPS module and Internet access, open the app, write the message and enjoy the result. Now any person, wherever he was, which is the same as you go into the app, will see Your message. Moreover, he may respond to You by writing your message. But we are not enough, as too much irrelevant information displayed in the message flow. Mixed continents, cities and villages.

Most important, the user should not see messages beyond its geographical range of interests. The user from Moscow are unlikely to want to see messages from Minnesota or Hong Kong. The opposite is true in Hong Kong not many people know about the ring, and those who know still won't tell You now whether the Congress on leningradku. In short, the real theme of communication is geographically limited. But it was not opening.

the concept

It is necessary to restrict the visibility of messages of a certain area. To calculate the distance with the GPS data is not difficult. Now the app is installed out of range messages is equal primereniya three kilometers. Thus you do not see the message from Hong Kong, but Hong Kong does not see Yours, but all who are in the radius of three kilometers from You, can see Your messages and reply to them. Harmony...



Fine, but what use is that? Variants of using the app very much. Just open the app in a public place and write a message. Anyone who is near You and open an application, read your message and can reply to You. You can ask for help, and you can publish news that are relevant at this time in this place. For example, you came to the store, I saw that the cheese stale, wrote message. Other people have read it and already in the store for cottage cheese went. And another store I saw that people the quality of the cheese is unhappy and writes a message, they say let us, we have the cheese fresh brought up, and even costs less. Ultimately, what information is shared with other people, should be decided by the user.

Mass communication

We can restrict the area of communication in an arbitrary manner and to tie those zones to geographical objects. For example, this may be a continent, a country, city or even a detached house. We simply draw on the map a shape that follows the contours of a geographic object. It remains to obtain the coordinates of the shapes, and to limit the receiving and sending of messages for users who are outside of those coordinates. For example, if the contour of the zone to choose Your own house, then all devices that are inside the home will be able to exchange messages. At the same time, all devices which are outside of your home will not be able to see messages from this zone and respond to them.



Now we can provide an interesting service, master key access, which is always Your position according to GPS coordinates. Where this service may be useful, you ask. Here are some of the possible applications:

the

the
• suppose you decide to hold an exhibition or conference and you want people there talked and shared news and experiences. You yourself at any time could bring to all parties without exception important information.
the
• You are the owner of an ordinary bar and you want to allow visitors to chat in virtual private chat when they are in your bar.
the
• at the airport or train station with this service is easy to create a zone for communication and the publication of news, emergency and urgent information.
the
• so as to allocate the area of communication can be not one but several objects, it is easy to merge objects located in different places of the globe. For example, you can combine in one zone communication, all McDonald's restaurants around the world.

Users create zones yourself. Links to user-created zones implemented in the form of a url with the grid. For example, now to get into the area of Moscow, it is necessary to follow the link sitename/#moscow or use the special form in the menu.

About the development, monetization and resources

The concept is confirmed and the results showed that the application can be a very useful tool for communication of people. Immediately there was an overwhelming desire to embody the service in real life. But despite the seeming simplicity of the implementation has many nuances and issues that we are trying to solve. And one of them is money.

The app itself will be free. The working name of the app GEOTALK. We see the following channels of monetization:

the

the
• selling targeted advertising, which will appear as a normal message, but is always shown at the top. Also they will increase the size of the zone of visibility;
the
• of the protected area encrypted for b2b communication;

Due to the mandatory use of geo position of the user, the advertising effectiveness is very greatly increased. This is very cheap and it covers only the target audience. For example, if you need to advertise a small beauty salon on a regional scale, you don't have cheap and effective tools to do it. GEOTALK and how best to cope with this task. Ie app GEOTALK is in the Arsenal of a unique technology not found in other apps and sites.

For the development of applications need resources, which at the moment is not enough. Yes money is needed but what is more important than the money, it's people. Technology without people is an empty phrase. At this stage, we continue to form a project team.

application Prototype

The application prototype already exists. It can do everything you need in order to demonstrate the conceptual possibility. And at this stage it is planned to receive investment in the project. Touch web prototype right now, but in order not to violate the rules Habra, link can in PM.
There is a huge check-list, which contains ideas that we would like to implement in the framework of this application. Here I will publish a small part of the tasks of the development plan, which in my opinion are the most important.

Tasks and ideas

From the list of "immediate goals".

the

the
• Service need a new design, which will perfectly match with all the basic functions, on its basis we will develop the application for ISO and Android.
the
• the service has no concept of zones. There is a zone #nearme (radius of 3 km around) which by default gets any user visits the site. The user can manually change the area, but not yet worked out the formula as to inform the user about areas that are around it.
the
• It would be logical to show the user the area in which he is at the moment, so he could go in and view the posts. For such zones need to show a kind of mini-description that the user did not go to the zone if the information there does not match its interests.

From a list of common tasks.

the

Obviously we need a system of gradation of zones, i.e. zone of Moscow created by the government of Moscow, which publishes the official news of the city, must somehow differ from the same zone created by Ivan Ivanov. Accordingly, there is a need to develop a mechanism under which the zone will be ranked. the

• Like the service must be registered, as all decent social media, and user profiles containing at least the minimum information. Still open to question.
the
• Development option, which will give the ability to disable the publication of messages by users that have no rights to the publication. Example of area which is responsible for civil defense and emergencies.
the
• a Mechanism to subscribe to certain areas. Need the ability to configure notifications for new messages.
the
• Need the ability of private correspondence between users and the system prompts to the area.
the
• message History and add a message to favorites.
the
• Support for multimedia messages. The ability to reply and quote other messages.
the
• Branding pages geographic areas. Pages for news agencies

Apotheosis

The opinion of the community, in fact, what is all this fuss and this article. For us, this service has become an obsession, and we are not able to evaluate some of its sides objectively.

Maybe some of You will be able to cool our enthusiasm, and say — "what What cheese? Which plugs? Yes, who needs it?" — and bring their arguments.

Maybe someone interested in this concept, and we'll hear opinions about how you can use messages with geo tags.

What are the options for the development of this technology do you see?

UPD: it became clear that without a full-scale demonstration of the discussion of the subject, a link to a prototype thegeotalk.com

Article based on information from habrahabr.ru