In the summer of 2005, lots of folks from all walks of life and some in the geospatial and LBS community starting using "Web 2.0" in press releases to describe capabilities of a product, application, or even a vision of what they aspired to become.  I recall having a discussion with a good friend at ESRI about this at the time, and that day we both agreed that one day (sooner rather than later) people would look back on those remarks in their PR's with embarrassment because the term would eventually have no meaning.  Three years later, Tim O'Reilly agrees that his coin was rather meaningless.  And as ReadWriteWeb summarizes "there is no Web 3.0, there is no Web 2.0 - there's just the Web".  And beyond that, there certainly aren't parallel universe GeoWebs as pundits profess, SocialWebs or SensorWebs, but rather just a Web. 

On the topic of openness at the 2008 Dow Jones Wireless Innovations conference...

All carriers have a lot of baggage.  We know we are hard to do business with. We can be caught up in our own bureaucracy with the size of our business.

We are working on a new approach for all our platforms so developers can have access to open software development kits and applications programming interfaces.  We are very excited about a set of open Android APIs and a variety of devices using them.  I hope it will generate development of not dozens but tens of thousands of new applications that will spawn a new level of excitement in this industry.

-Joe Sims, T-Mobile 

Google has really thought through what Apple has just begun to unlock.  Developers are now bringing up media applications on the systems and then will turn to work on location-based services and systems optimization for lowest power and maximum throughput.

-Sy Choudhury, QCT on the topic of Androids port to Qualcomm 3G solutions, which will initially include 5 new handset releases in the next 12 months   

-EE Times 

You just can't help but to be curious about Android.  It's not like a Linux-Java stack is revolutionary, but rather that the Android packaging and porting plan is by supporting the rapid introduction of thousands of mobile clones leading to the emergence of a device long tail, which could indeed lead to free phones someday.  That approach belittles big mobile OEM efforts big time by democratizing the tools of production and design now down to mobile manufacturing, and it arrives with impeccable timing when everyone is distracted by Apple and the head of the tail.  And with Google rounding up 1788 developers to write long tail apps for their Android Challenge, OEM Jedi's best watch your back.  A clone army is mobilizing.

Back in the day of GIS 0.1, GIS pros passed around shp files and mif files.  Geometry was described in one file with associated attributes in another.  It was an elegant, simple design for an offline desktop GIS environment, and still supported today by commercial vector data vendors (e.g. NAVTEQ, TeleAtlas) and by private folks swapping files & sharing geographic data.  The OGC adopted these ESRI and MapInfo creations as de facto standards of the day, and are now doing the same for an online Web world of geographic information exchange by adopting Keyhole Markup Language (KML), an XML format designed by Keyhole (now Google Earth).

I often find standards strange in that groups form with the intention of creating a collaborative environment in a competitive sphere.  I never did get that.  OGCs OpenLS started this way, with reps from all walks of LBS life getting together to pontificate what a saving grace standard should look like for a struggling LBS segment.  That de jure standard was built, but who uses it?  No one.   For me, that was narcissistic work and a waste of time and energy.  KML on the other hand fortunately was not conceived, but rather adopted by OGC after hundreds of millions of people downloaded Google Earth.  This adoption in of itself historically suggests a format like KML has promise not because it's technically advantageous, but simply because people use it - just like they use shp files.  And that use will continue, with or without OGC's blessing.  

The outdoor tracking and fitness measurement space is heating up, with Bones in Motion, Nokia, Trimble Outdoors, Samsung, and Wayfinder all now challenging dedicated fitness and outdoor tracking GPS tools the same way mobile handheld navigation applications are disrupting 2007 P-Nav market momentum.  And now what's more is big boys Nike and Apple entering the fitness fray, with a solution coming soon to your iPhone (presumably arriving at the same time you'll get Nav)? 

Here's a prediction... 

2008 probably marks the death-knell of the standalone GPS navigator.

-Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung

Here's another substantive report about the 3G iPhone carrying GPS, this time from someone's Dad, who heard it from his friend whose wife works at Apple.  My sister's husband's second cousin's brother in law on his step mothers side of family validated the report, so it must be true...

My Dad has a good friend whose wife works high up at Apple. My parents gave me an iPhone for Christmas knowing I wanted to wait for the next generation iPhone, or at least a significantly upgraded iPhone. I feared a Christmas gift iPhone, no matter how well intentioned and generously given, might be eclipsed by an significantly upgraded iPhone at MacWorld in January. I didn't want my parents to get me an iPhone that I'd almost immediately want to replace. Knowing this, my Dad asked his friend's wife if he'd be "safe" getting me an iPhone for Christmas that wouldn't be outdone come MacWorld in January. She assured him nothing significant was in the works for the iPhone for at least six months (bear in mind this was last December).

Tonight, based on a recent informal conversation my Dad had with his friend's wife who works at Apple, he told me the next iPhone is likely to have GPS. Usually, my Dad's friend's wife doesn't let Apple product info slip out until right before a new product announcement is made. This being the case, I'm betting GPS will be included with the 3G iPhone... and soon.

-Silicon Alley Insider 

Thomas Landspurg, CTO of 8Motions and an LBS blogger, has launched opencellid, an open source project with the goal of collecting Cell-ID lat/longs and building an openmap database for developers to use freely.  Like OpenStreetMap, this service will only get better if people participate.  I applaud the effort.  It's great to see folks pressing past old in-network ways to extract location, as well as challenging new formidable ways and sources.  Don't give up!

ten23, a real class act of LBS developer start-up talent from SoCal, just walked away with the top-dog loot at the 2008 NAVTEQ LBS Challenge.  Good for them.  I'm too old to attend this theatrical shindig, but my crowdsurfing curiosity gets the best of me.  So, I watched from my hotel room via webcam and snapped some slides to share with those too busy to attend the awards ceremony.  Enjoy, and shout outs to Mark Naddell. 

• TI Does Nav, Hands-Free Voice, and FM Radio all at once
  
• ARM SoC Bakes-In SVG Tiny
• NAVTEQ Streams the Challenge
  
• TA still following
  
• Traffic.com goes D2C with 2GO
• ATX Opens, No Idea What it Does
  
• GeoMicro Eats Dog-Food for Nav, Taps TrafficCast
• TruePosition still solving 911 10 years later, tries thought leadership
• TCS launches new GIS, Traffic, Offers LBS Alert Platform to Carriers
  
• Garmin Wanders through the Wacky World of Wireless, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
  
• NIM Announces the Announced
• Nuance Adds Voice to the Input of TeleNav
  
• Wavemarket Shoots a Birdie, Watches Telecom SOAP, and becomes an Aggregator
  
• Xora's Workers Get Weatherbugged
• Symbian Sends Map Database Heavy-Lifting Client Side
• Useful Sniffs Out facebook Friends with UK Carriers
  
• Sprint Has Instinct for Live Search & Navigation with Samsung's Touch
• Moto Brings Back the Car Phone, with Jentro under the hood
  
• Big Bell Sees LBS as Mobile Data Savior
• CTIA Offers LBS Best Practices to Carriers. Uh, ok. 
  

Finally, I'm not an April 1 moron, but I might be a Commercial Real Estate Martian & Alien Local Advertiser