Telepocalypse

Lost and found

A selection of musings by Dr Cluetrain on using GPS navigation prompted a little thought. Here’s the meme fodder first:

It did route me home in a sub-optimal way. I’m sure the route looked like the fastest on paper, but you really don’t want to go through Harvard Square at 6pm on a Saturday night unless you have to. Also, while it’s legally possible to make a left onto Comm Ave the way it told me to, you’d have to violate the laws of physics to do so, particular the clause that says two bodies can’t occupy the same space at the same time.

Now, if Garmin can ever close the loop, they’ve got a killer business model. Every time someone disobeys the directions, there could be a reason. Aggregate those events, anonymously. Record the time of day. See what the patterns are. Then offer subscriptions to the enhanced service that includes not just a static routing, but a dynamic one based on historical and present behaviour. Nobody ever turns left there at rush hour, so don’t suggest it.

You may have noticed that mobile phone subscribers are all equipped with network-locatable devices. But the location dip business may prove a mirage as the handsets become able to locate themselves, that you very much. I’ll leave you to figure out the obvious lessons for retaining middleman role an end-to-end world.