Hi. I have been working on a D-Bus location-oriented service. I would like to get some feedback to help direct the development and possibly get some others involved. There are also some important non-technical issues I would like to address.
Firstly, the D-Bus service is a server type process to look-up the distance of other users of the system. It has a simple interface which has been designed to be self-clocking. What this means is you need to "ping" in location to update your local database of distance information. One of the ideas behind this was to encourage updates rather than be dominated by look-ups. A key feature of updating the database in this system is that transferring the data required is done in a very efficient manor. It actually "bit packs" the data. This makes no assumptions about the quality or cost of the underlying network. So how would this be used? Well, I need some help with ideas and clients. A simple use case would be to match users to your contacts list and alert when they are within a certain distance. There are other D-Bus location-oriented projects which could be integrated or used in some way. Are there any students working on GSOC projects in this area? It is my intention to release all code including server. This brings me to the non-technical issues. Although I don't have any problems running server processes on my own hardware etc I think there are some issues which need to be addressed. I understand the privacy concerns of using these types of services and want to make this as open as possible. Releasing the server code is fine but it does not actually mean the "real" server is some other code doing something evil and logging your data etc. This is where a trusted third party needs to be involved. If these server processes were run from such a source it would be a step in the right direction. How do others feel about this? I know some people will never use these types of services full stop. That is fine. I know others are interested in using them. I personally am not interested in plotting on a map where I am. I don't mind knowing that I am approximately close to something or someone and vice-versa. Anyway, I think D-Bus provides us with a good opportunity to develop some cool applications in this mobile space. Interested in your thoughts? John (zedstar on IRC). _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community