2010 Geo-Loco Conference in SF: What is your geo-location strategy?
There are only two days left to get in on the early-bird price for the 2010 Geo-loco Conference: The Future of Geo-Location.
If you are at all interested in the topic you should consider this one-day conference scheduled for July 21. Bancroft Research Group has assembled what appears to be a “who’s who” of experts and brands for the event. Here are few of the confirmed speakers according to the site:
- Fred Wilson – Union Square Ventures
- John Battelle – Federated Media
- Andy Ellwood – Gowalla
- Matt Galligan – SimpleGeo
- Louis Gray – Paladin Advisors
- Deborah Schultz – Altimeter Group
- Robert Scoble – Rackspace
- Jeremy Toeman – StageTwo Consulting
Here is the whole list: http://geoloco.tv/?page_id=133
The topics range from “The Futures of Location Based Services” to “Please Stalk Me,” on the implications of LBS on security and privacy.
Hope to see you there!
iPhone 4: First Impressions at 24 hours
It’s been slightly more than 24 hours since I activated the phone and here are my impressions:
Ordering
I was lucky enough to get an order through on the 15th despite all of AT&T’s issues. Although it did require three attempts before the order was successful.
Shipping
Upon checking the tracking number on Wednesday I was delighted to see that it had already been delivered – a day early! Kudos to the team for exceeding expectations on that front. I appreciated that the box it shipped in had no indication that it was from AT&T or Apple. The plain brown packaging with no branding was a nice touch since it sat on my porch for most of the day until I got home from the airport.
Packaging
Kudo’s again to the design team. The packaging while very nice is getting smaller and more efficient. I’m guessing that I could pack six of these in the box that my first iPod came in. Glad to see Apple moving toward more responsible packaging overall.
The Pros
- The Retina Display: This display is phenomenal. I can’t recall ever seeing any screen with this much detail and sharpness.
- Multitasking: It’s about time: I can now listen to Pandora and see my timer or make notes in Evernote at the gym.
- App Folders: Very nice and well designed approach. I’m now down from nine screens to three.
- Front camera: It’s a heck of a lot easier to take those self-portraits now.
- Main Camera: Excellent. Five megapixel with flash? Very nice. It won’t replace a real camera, but it’s a vast improvement for snapshots. Still testing the flash, but it seems to work well close up.
The Cons
- The Integrated Antenna: Wow. How this ever got out of the lab is beyond me. There are plenty of complaints already about the phone dropping calls because of the unique antenna design. There is visible signal loss and I’ve experienced two dropped calls today already. YouTube is already flooded with videos demonstrating the issue. Although the bumper is reputed to solve this issue, my local Apple store is sold out. It will be interesting to see how Apple addresses this issue.
- The Touch Screen: I noticed a slight hesitancy in the touch screen as well and gave it test drive with Tetris. In my experience, the touch screen is significantly less smooth and less sensitive than the 3Gs.
- Forwarding Photos: This is a small notice, but when I email photos, it sends them with the same name instead of retaining their identifying number as it does when you sync or transfer the photos.
No word on the FaceTime feature yet. As soon as I log my first call I’ll update this post.
Summary
Overall I really like this phone. It was the perfect early birthday present. I’m very happy with the new features with the exception of the antenna. However, this is a phone. As cool as it is in all the other respects, designing it so it drops calls is unacceptable. If the bumper doesn’t solve this without decreasing reception, I’m afraid I’ll have to revert back to the 3Gs until Apple solves the problem.
App Exchange offers App Developers and Brands a FREE opportunity to present at ad:tech SF 2010
If you are an app developer or a brand with an app (mobile or desktop), check out the App Exchange that is going to be hosted at ad:tech April 19 & 20 in San Francisco.
Until midnight March 31, ad:tech is accepting submissions in the following 4 areas for a FREE “highly coveted speaking spot on the expo floor.”
- Branded Apps
- Non-Branded Apps
- App Platforms
- App Promotion
You can find the brief here.
And the submission form here.
(Disclosure: I’m involved in coordinating the submission process – so ping me with questions.)
Geo-Loco! Bay Area Geeks discuss the issues and direction of geo-loco services.
The Geo-loco panelists
Wednesday evening I attended the sold out Geo-loco panel event put on by Bancroft Research Group at Stage Two Consulting. There was a waiting list of over 80 people indicating a significant level of interest in the topic of geo-loco services in the Bay Area.
The panel was composed of Kevin Marks of BT as the moderator, with Robert Scoble of Rackspace, Tom Coates of Yahoo’s Fire Eagle, Matt Galligan of SimpleGeo, Jeremy Toeman of Stage Two Consulting, and MG Siegler of Techcrunch as the panelists. Sponsors included Rackspace, Traveling Geeks, We Blog The World, Stage Two Consulting, and Gordon Biersch.
Based on who I recognized in the audience, I would say it was largely composed of geeks and early adopters.
As one would expect, the first thirty minutes revolved around privacy before moving into monetization, place vs. space, and how companies are trying to use it. Here are a few of the more interesting quotes and points that were made (more or less in the order they came up in the discussion):
- Tom Coates pointed out that as an industry we now have a history of legal precedence and experience. He shared that privacy was a primary concern when building Fire Eagle and that large companies routinely factor in privacy when building these apps.
- Jeremy Toeman started out by reminding us that our address information has been public since the first phone books. If someone wants your address, they can find it on the web.
- Robert Scoble said that when he shared Twitter a year ago, people said “That’s lame.” Now, when he shares Foursquare, they say “That’s lame and scary.” Geo-loco services have a much higher bar to adoption than did Twitter.
- MG Siegler: “The business application of this is what is interesting. The question is the privacy issue; why should I tell you where I am?”
- Kevin Marks: (speaking for the consumer) “I’ll tell you where you I am if it is valuable for me, otherwise, I lie.” For an example, he pointed out that if you believe the addresses people give on the web, more people claim to live in Bev Hills and Schenectady, NY than actually live there.
- They have the two most easily remembered zip codes: 90210 and 12345
Matt Galligan: “Location is going to be in everything soon – it’s all about making the apps smarter and more useful.” - Jeremy, the self-proclaimed naysayer opined that the existing services are not here to stay. “Something will be here, but this is not it. People don’t want the deluge of coupons.”
- Robert: “Plancast is the new Doppler.”
- Robert also noted the philosophical differences between services. Gowalla requires you to check in at your location where as Foursquare allows you to lie.
You can see video clips of much of the event courtesy of Renee Blogget.
That I would have liked to have heard before we ran out of time was the panelists’ predictions of what is coming next. It would have been a neat trick if someone could have predicted Apples move the following day to ban geo loco ads on iPhone and the iPad.
10 Ways Not to Blow an Interview as a Project Manager - Part II
continued…
- Bring your resume. Take a moment to look at the interview from the interviewer’s point of view. If the agency is hiring that means that there is enough extra work to justify a new position (or to refill an existing one). It’s likely that one or more of your interviewers are carrying that load. That means more meetings, and more work on top of the interview process. You want to present your best, so have your resume ready in case it’s needed. You are only cutting into your own interview time if someone has to step out and reprint your resume. And as a project manager or interactive producer, I recommend that you have one or two more copies than you think you’ll need.
- Take notes. Many experts recommend that you ask if you can take notes before the interview starts. That’s fine, but I personally care a lot less about whether you ask. You are a project manager. Please convince me that you aren’t going to rely on your flawless memory to run projects.
- Do your research. Sometime in the interview process, the interviewer is going to offer you the opportunity to ask some questions. This is really an opportunity for you to show off your knowledge of the space, your skill set, and your interest level. So, check out the company website. See who their clients are. Think about the challenges they may be having. If you haven’t done your research it’s going to show. And if you’ve been taking notes, you should easily have several questions that don’t involve compensation and benefits.
- Ask for the job. Someone took a lot of time to set up a series of interviews. Perhaps it was a recruiter, or maybe the hiring manager. Do not walk out the door without a follow-up plan. You might be the lead contender for the position, but if you don’t follow-up, say thank you, and ask for the job, then you are off the radar in days. Maybe even hours. So, show some enthusiasm. Why do you want to work there? What about the agency is appealing to you? Remember, they’ve interviewed three other candidates that day, so remind them of the skills you bring to the table.
- Once you’ve accepted the job – show up. Cold feet. I get it. Sometimes after the interview process is over and you get briefed about the project, you have that hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach and your mind starts asking questions: “Is this project to big for me? Do I really have the experience required?” Those questions are fine and even answering them in the negative is fine. But please do it before you have negotiated compensation and accepted the job. Do not wait until 10 AM the day you are supposed to start to Facebook message someone in another department that you used to work with to say you are having second thoughts and won’t be coming in. Not only do you look bad, but it reflects on the people that recommended you and served as references.
There are many more I could add to this list, but these 10 are the highlighted mistakes of the last two months. Please add your own favorite “what not to do in an interview” stories below!