The technology for mass dissemination of information Geotalk
Good time.
Not so long ago we told about our project Geotalk. We continue to develop the concept and at the moment came to develop the technology of mass dissemination of information. If you want to know how to develop a unique technology and discuss how useful it is, welcome under kat.
concept Development
Geotalk is developing of similar to the chat application, which takes into account the location of the user in each message. Developing the app, we are trying to expand the existing framework and bring information sharing to a new level. Immediately the question arises — "What is this level and what, in fact, not satisfied with the existing?". Traditionally, information is disseminated through TV, radio and Newspapers. To this set not long ago joined the Internet, with its blogs and social networks. Maybe someone with this set of tools will seem enough, but in our opinion, the existing means of information exchange "suffer" chronic problems and here are some of them:
the
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the
- Skewed in the direction of global news and events; the
- Subjective determination of the importance of news and events; the
- the common man is difficult to become a source of news and events; the
- has No direct access to target audience;
That's why we decided to develop a new service for the exchange of information. Then go more in-depth description of the issue (description is subjective, and not backed by scientific dissertations).
Every day we read news feeds that tell us about current events. Most are news and events with global or national significance.
Only a small part of the information level of the city falls on the monitor screen. For several reasons, the news feed can't afford to "fall" to a lower level and to publish news of individual district or village level events regional drama theatre or private schools. Does this mean that at these levels, nothing happens to bad news and events of this magnitude? Quite the contrary, the closer-to-person information, so it is important for him. The problem lies in the lack of a tool that allows you to distribute local information, along with the global.
The definition of information importance of traditional media, it's a question causing a lot of controversy and which will long remain open, if nothing is done. Who and why decided that I want to know about the current political situation in the neighboring country? The average person has no opportunity to determine their interests and to influence the assessment of the importance of the event. Hence, the question of manipulation of public opinion, but we're not going to dive into this topic. I hope everyone who reads this article, I share the view that manipulation of public opinion through the media certainly is.
There are many sources of information. But each source has its own unofficial ranking. Information from the mouth of the press Secretary of the President at odds with a much greater circulation than a statement to the regional Deputy. Even if you have very important information, often it is more difficult to spread because the average person has almost no possibility to become a source of news.
The question of reaching the target audience follows from the previous problem. By themselves, the messages have no value if you can't reach the target audience. We do not say that in the current Internet, targeting is missing. On the contrary, targeting is now at the forefront and actively growing. In our opinion, one of the most important criteria of the target audience is its location. As proof, think about what people living in the American heartland are unlikely to want to read the news about Moscow traffic jams, written in Russian. We believe that the closer to the person the information, the more relevant it is for him.
I have tried briefly to outline our understanding of the problem, but I hope the developments outlined quite clearly. We responsibly approached the question and tried to develop technology that allows you to create an application that eliminates the disadvantages of modern means of information distribution.
How does the technology Geotalk
Key meta-information in technology is the location of the user. Therefore, to use the service you must have a device, able to locate. When users connect to the service is determined by its location, and he can immediately obtain the information that is presented in the form of news and events which are, in turn, sorted by the time tag.
At the moment we do not create bots and parsers of news, so whatever the news appeared in the ribbon, you first need to publish. To post a message, you need to register. When a user logs on, he receives a positive personal rating for distribution of messages. This rating allows you to distribute published for several kilometers around the user.
The figure below shows the coverage area of the communication which was published by the new user (the author). All users who are in the coverage area will be able to see this message.
If the users who are in the coverage area determines that the message is useful, they can relay it. Thereby increasing the coverage area is proportional to the level of the rating. For advertising messages, as well as for publishing, you need to register.
The figure below shows the coverage area of the message, after another user with the initial rating retransmitted.
When a user rebroadcasts another's message, he also picks up personal rating of the author. This way the ranking of the authors whose messages rebroadcast, gradually increasing along with the ranking increases the coverage area for new messages that will publish the author.
Personal rating also affects the area of distribution of other authors. If the user a personal rating and he relays the message, then the coverage area of the message will increase proportionally to the rating of the user. If the coverage has already increased to the limit, just increasing the personal rating of the author. The figure below shows how to increase the coverage area of the message, if it relays the user with a high rating.
If we impose this grid on the real map, we will see how the message is distributed on the surface of the planet.
Formal block diagram of the algorithm of the technology is provided below. As you can see it is very simple.
In simple terms, this all looks like a radio, where the user is the receiver and the transmitter, with the difference from the radio that the user can move, and the transmitter power may vary depending on the user rating. Note: for this analogy, we called the button for messages "ON AIR".
Briefly all the technology can be described as: Every published message mandatory is supplied with real geo-coordinates. The user has a rating, through which his messages are getting the zone of visibility. The higher the user rating, the greater the visibility of his messages and the more people will be able to see them. If those who saw the message deems it useful, they may support the message by increasing its visibility in proportion to their rating.
Messages are propagated to great distances only when they are really important and in the calculation of the degree of importance of the involved location. Therefore, if you publish a message stating that the village is free to operate the tractor, then the message will see only the inhabitants of the village. But if You in the village was a meteorite, the message is able with lightning speed to spread across the planet and will appear in the news feed of all users of the application.
We have not mentioned another goal of the service is equal conditions for all authors. What the user can see in a single tape all the messages I had to enter the time label to sort the messages. Using this tag, we allow users to see the most important messages and at the same time not to miss the new. We're currently testing this mechanism and, therefore, the separately available tape with a new message which uses the traditional sorting by date.
Touch application prototype here thegeotalk.com. In the prototype implemented the basic set of possibilities of technology, but in the future we plan to implement in the prototype the following ideas:
the
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the
- subscriptions. the
- Opportunity to join together in groups to publish to a greater area of visibility; the
- the Ability to use multiple "transmitters" put them on the map; the
- Comments and direct links to messages;
The functionality of the previous version is still available. We made it in a separate section called Geochat and expanded range of visibility of chat messages up to 30 km. of the previously Developed concept we plan to implement in the form of marketing tools for shopping centers. The concept of geofences allows you to determine the shopping center the user is to continue to offer discounts or promotions nearby shops.
In the end I want to thank everyone who participated in the discussion of the development of the project Geotalk, especially trapwalker
If You are interested to participate in the development of the project, write a private message or on team@thegeotalk.com
P. S. For a visual evaluation of the messages in the prototype uses the google maps api heatmap. In order to see the zone distribution message, you must click on distance.
