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jsacks
Profile

posted 2008/10/08 18:59    Visibility: World

hey check this out:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7659497.stm

Think this could be helpful for BW?  I think its quite promising especially since its open source.

lemon-head
Profile

posted 2008/10/08 20:40    Visibility: World

For those who don't want to surf to this external page: n n

Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, has released technology that helps websites detect the physical location of computers.

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The system will allow users, for instance, to find local restaurants when they travel to a new town.

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The Geode project is an experimental add-on ahead of a full blown launch of geolocation technology in version 3.1 of Firefox.

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Users will have control over how much location information they give.

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It looks promising!

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Nevertheless, we should be aware that it's a Firefox-only feature (that's how I understand it). We can add some special features that make use of this browser specialty, but should make sure that the site still works in other browsers.

philipp
Profile

posted 2008/10/09 08:09    Visibility: World

Nice idea - but for some reasons I am not convinced that this would help BW in the next 1-2 years.

  • it will only work with computers that have a wireless adapter - thus most desktop computers and internet cafe equipment will fail
  • it will only work in downtown and commercial regions of bigger cities as only those commercial wireless networks will be stored in the geo database of the company providing this service
  • limited to these locations it is not really helpful in terms of promoting cultural understanding
  • the user will get a popup to approve the transmission of the location - thus we could as well give him a popup asking for his location with an already suggested location based on the ip and probably some other stuff. If it is easy to pick a location it this is almost as convenient and would work for all members everywhere
lemon-head
Profile

posted 2008/10/09 12:33    Visibility: World

I think the feature can be one step to reduce the overall waste of time people spend at the computer of their host, when they could instead have a talk, go to town, do the dishes etc. Even if it does not work in all situations.

ocal5
Profile

posted 2008/10/09 13:17    Visibility: World

Looks very interresting if going to be "standardized" (no need for special OS, special browser, special plugin) 

A first step could be an IP location, with some kind of "what is around me ?" page. Like that, if it's possible to increase sharpness of location data, there will be just a need of location-search-tool update, nop ?

Also, as soon at it will cost a lot less, I'm very interrested by a mobile version of bewelcome. On the same subject, Mobile google maps give a location with GSM antenna location (nearly 5 km in countryside, 300m in citys).

 Dishes will be happy to be clean now ;P 

sitarane
Profile

posted 2008/10/09 18:58    Visibility: World

IP locations don't work very well do they? If the Geode system is more accurate, this would be a great "emergency hosting" tool. If your host fails you, you log in and ask the system: "list the hosts that are the closest to me right now". Of course that would be only the members that have decided to show their address to the logged-in other members.

Could it somehow be integrated in BeWelcome?

Julien

midsch
Profile

posted 2008/10/09 22:17    Visibility: World

IP localisation doesn't really help as it is inaccurate by design and easy to be faked.

>Users will have control over how much location information they give.

Hopefully. Paranoids like me will switch it off immediately. If it's not possible to switch it off, there will most likely a fork from mozilla (as it was clearly proposed in case mozilla starts snooping users, so the may have learned their lesson).

Anyway: if it's not a over all solution (all systems / browser) there's not much help from such a feature.

And a mobile version of bw is something different, isn't it? It's version of the pages working on small mobile devices (so probably no big pics, no JS, no non-basic features).

philipp
Profile

posted 2008/10/09 22:43    Visibility: World

IP localization is indeed often wrong but tends to porvide useble resultes (most of the time) in areas where the Geode system is supposed to work (western countries, big cities).

Of course you can fake it but you could as well fake the name of the city you enter? IP localization could help to GUESS you location so that in the ideal situation you only have to confirm it. Otherwise you would enter the location yourself. Of course only if you are interested in some location based feature (such as nearest strange who needs to be robbed) - if not, no need to enter any real or fake location - right?