{"id":4719,"date":"2015-06-25T19:24:14","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T19:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=4719"},"modified":"2015-06-24T15:56:21","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T15:56:21","slug":"tapping-into-passive-goodwill-with-smartphones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/06\/25\/tapping-into-passive-goodwill-with-smartphones\/","title":{"rendered":"Tapping into passive goodwill with Smartphones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On FieldGuide, there is an article titled, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/fieldguide.gizmodo.com\/4-ways-to-use-your-smartphone-for-a-good-cause-1711612948\">4 Ways to Use Your Smartphone for a Good Cause\u201d<\/a>. I\u2019ve been thinking about this for a while both personally and professionally. Today\u2019s modern cellular phone collects more data than we ever could have envisioned. My iPhone and Apple Watch inform me of how many flights of stairs I\u2019ve climbed, my heart rate, the amount of steps I took and where I went. My car even has a GPS chip that shows me exactly where my car went when the mechanic took it for a test drive. These <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hansel_and_Gretel\">Breadcrumbs<\/a> tell us more than we ever needed to know about our lives and our world and that\u2019s before adding dongles that accept credit cards, barometric pressure and blood glucose levels.<\/p>\n<p>I noticed a few weeks ago that when I\u2019m walking in a city, Apple Maps defaults to walking directions when I asked for navigation to a cafe and to driving directions when I\u2019m moving quickly down an Interstate. This is a great example of my iPhone being spatially aware of my land-speed and recommending an ideal navigation. I can switch from walking to driving directions with one tap but it\u2019s nice when the default knows what I\u2019m currently doing (walking versus driving).<\/p>\n<p>When you think about map-making, there are half a billion devices in the world that quite easily build out the geometry of a map. Map making is incredibly difficult. Companies around the world spend billions a year to make maps or they\u2019re lucky enough to get by with 50 thousand volunteers logging a million hours a year. If half a billion people contributed breadcrumbs to one map maker, there would still be a deficiency in the lack of meta data that makes a map navigable.<\/p>\n<p>I think there are two components to crowd-sourced mapping:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Passive Breadcrumb collection that enables millions of people to improve the map they rely on data without any action other than agreeing to some legal terms<\/li>\n<li>Active meta data contribution paid or unpaid to a map service where a person chooses to spend 5-60 seconds a day clicking a thumbs up button or actually sending in a report<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ignoring the fact that I work for a mapping company, I commend Google for doing a fantastic job at tracking customer location for the sole reason of improving their maps. As early as Android 2.0, when you launched Google Maps, it would ask you your location. From that point on, your device would phone home to Google\u2019s servers a few times an hour to give your location and a few times a minute if you are in navigation mode. To disable this, you\u2019d have to go to the phone settings and dive deep within various menus to disable the location tracking within maps. As the Android user base grew, so did the breadcrumb trail contributed by millions of customers.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know how the system works today on Android phones, nor do I know if these breadcrumbs ever contributed to an improved map. Google for sure collected them.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Passive Breadcrumb collection opportunity is limited by:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The size of the customer base that opts in to using your application<\/li>\n<li>The size of customers who opt-in to location tracking<\/li>\n<li>The value you give them in return so they continue graciously sharing anonymized data<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>A lot of users like myself track our own data. I use GeoFencing and Location Tracking applications that store data on my personal iCloud and merge the location data of iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch to give me a view of where I go every day and where I visit the most and how long I stay.<\/p>\n<p>I wouldn\u2019t mind sharing that data with a mapping company of my choice. If I choose to improve TomTom\u2019s map or Google\u2019s or Open Street Map, that should be a choice I make. Each of those companies have ways to contribute Geo Data. I think there is a wealth of people who don\u2019t know how to contribute their location data for an improved map and I think mapping companies should promote transparent data collection to their most passionate customers.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Active Meta Data Contribution is limited by:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>See Passive bullet #1<\/li>\n<li>The value and quality of inputs a customer can make into improving the map<\/li>\n<li>The ease of use in reporting a map change very quickly without fuss<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I think the top priority should be that anyone, even non-cartographers can open the application, make an error report \/ correction in 45 seconds or less. I can\u2019t think of a single mapping application that allows this on mobile. Further, an application that allows this while the customer is operating a moving vehicle. All app developers instruct the user to not use the app while driving. Most people do it anyway so why not make the buttons large and easy to use?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Active and Passive data should be promoted as a standalone application by mapping companies. Maybe they\u2019re two different apps? The applications should clearly be free, should have very limited functionality and be cross-platform.<\/p>\n<p>Passive breadcrumb collection is easy. The device logs Lat,Long a few times an hour and phones home to the host server when the device is on WiFi. That data is anonymized and the user gets a few data points like kilometers driven, time spent at work versus home. It\u2019s very similar to Google Latitude (a now retired product).<\/p>\n<p>Active is a bit more challenging. There are simple features and advanced features. The #1 feature I\u2019d want is a way to mark a place for later. I\u2019m driving, observe a map change, mark my location w\/ a single menu that helps me remember why I saved it as \u201cBlocked road\u201d or \u201cSpeed Limit\u201d and I can file the report once I\u2019m home.<\/p>\n<p>The key to making any app sticky is to balance a customer\u2019s love for improving their community map and their personal driving experience and rewarding them with incentives to keep going. <a href=\"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/06\/16\/linked-inside-wazes-volunteer-workforce\/\">I linked to a piece earlier in the week<\/a> that discusses Waze\u2019s issue with community attrition after the Google acquisition.<\/p>\n<p>Rewards can be as simple as a pretty badge that only you can see or additional app functions unlocked as you submit more feedback or drive more miles. The incentive could even be cold-hard cash. Finding the right balance is crucial and iterating quickly as the community reacts to the incentives you provide is equally as important.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p>I am writing this about mapping because that\u2019s what I do every day. It\u2019s what I think about 12-15 hours a day. The same can be tailored to any industry where crowd-sourcing is essential. The best computer is in your pocket or the one that\u2019s with you. Not enough companies are utilizing the power or convenience of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On FieldGuide, there is an article titled, \u201c4 Ways to Use Your Smartphone for a Good Cause\u201d. I\u2019ve&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2016-03-17T02:28:05Z","apple_news_api_id":"cf7ef60b-8ac1-42de-a0f1-2570aedf41bc","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2016-03-17T02:28:05Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Az372C4rBQt6g8SVwrt9BvA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-technology","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-1e7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12872,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2025\/06\/22\/hobbies-the-10-year-itch\/","url_meta":{"origin":4719,"position":0},"title":"Hobbies &amp; The 10 Year Itch","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"June 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As a child, I had one love and it was surfing. I would spend all day at the surf shop and start each morning calling the surf report hotline with a pre-recorded message updated 3 times a day of the conditions, \u201cglassy with moderate chop and 90 second swells 2\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3735,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2012\/05\/14\/the-hitchhiker\/","url_meta":{"origin":4719,"position":1},"title":"\u2605 The Hitchhiker","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"May 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Sometimes, I see people walking on the road I take to work each day. Not the highway but the road with no markers, signs or road lines. It's a road that goes for a few miles before turning into a dirt road and it's the road that carries me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Motivational&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Motivational","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/motivational\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Long Road","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5024\/5746945207_34518f97af_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5024\/5746945207_34518f97af_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5024\/5746945207_34518f97af_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6804,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2017\/05\/03\/linked-vacation-with-the-apple-watch-series-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4719,"position":2},"title":"Linked: &#8220;Vacation with the Apple Watch Series 2&#8221;","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"May 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"via Six Colors: But that Apple Watch was on my wrist, and as a result, I was able to answer calls and reply to texts (we had eight people and three cars, so there was a lot of coordinating going on) without needing to dig my phone out of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Linked&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4305,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/11\/24\/linked-a-leather-clad-robotic-core\/","url_meta":{"origin":4719,"position":3},"title":"Linked: &#8220;A leather-clad robotic core&#8221;","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"November 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Another great piece on SixColors: I\u2019m with Marco. I have always appreciated using my iPhones as they were born, a naked robotic core with no adornment. And I\u2019ve never dropped one. But I\u2019ve been using an Apple iPhone 6 leather case for the last couple of weeks, and really liking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Linked&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5819,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/05\/16\/technology-one-year-with-apple-watch\/","url_meta":{"origin":4719,"position":4},"title":"Technology: One Year with Apple Watch","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"May 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been an Apple Watch Owner for an entire year. I\u2019ve never worn a single thing that long aside from my eye-glasses that I generally replace every 3 years whether they need it or not. My keys, wallet, phone are out of my pockets while driving or sitting at my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Apple Watch Unboxing 2015 Space Black 42MM with Space Black Link","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5448\/17937617701_627ee0da6f_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5448\/17937617701_627ee0da6f_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5448\/17937617701_627ee0da6f_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7114,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2017\/10\/04\/technology-my-first-plus-sized-iphone-model\/","url_meta":{"origin":4719,"position":5},"title":"Technology: My first Plus-Sized iPhone Model","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"3.5 \u2014> 4 \u2014> 4.7 \u2014> 5.5 Apple has added 2\u201d diagonally to my primary mobile computing device in 10 years. It wasn\u2019t forced on me but to upgrade each year, a larger screen was inevitable driven by how people are using their Internet Communication devices today versus 10 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Apple iPhone 8 Plus Unboxing","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4422\/37215489256_5156b13c90_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4422\/37215489256_5156b13c90_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4422\/37215489256_5156b13c90_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}