Geek Gestalt

SAN FRANCISCO--We're driving through the heart of the city, cruising along at a nice clip, but just in case we hit a patch of rough traffic, I know which alternate route I can take to go faster.

That's because I've got an iPhone with Waze, a new app released Thursday that's designed to give drivers a wide range of crowdsourced road information including traffic flow, road reports, and even warnings about where the latest speed traps have been set up.

Waze gives users many different views of the road, including this one, in which users' avatars turn into a Pac-Man-type creature when going down previously undiscovered roads.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Waze, which has been out for some time on the Android platform, is new to the iPhone, and its developers clearly think that Apple's hit phone, complete with GPS and accelerometer, is a natural device for giving drivers a way both to inform each other about what's happening on the road in real time, and to learn from others about what's ahead.

The app begins as a standard turn-by-turn directions tool and then offers a slew of other features, many of which give drivers something fun to look out for as they make their way to wherever they're going.

"At the end of the day," said Di-Ann Eisnor, Waze's community geographer, Waze is "about a community of drivers helping to build this map."

And, to be sure, the map is the heart and soul of the Waze app. In the car I was in, there were three different iPhones running the application, and because of that, I was often able to see three different views of what Waze can do.

One of the most fun parts of it--and in some ways the most social--is that the app allows you to see the location of anyone else nearby who is also running Waze. And while there is no way to communicate directly with such drivers, or find out anything about them, it still feels gratifying to see them pop up on the map.

Nearly real-time
Eisnor explained to me that Waze is designed to offer drivers real-time information about the roads they commute on, generally with no more than a 30-second delay. And that's because most of the information that's available is being relayed from other Waze users.

To be sure, the app will require a critical mass of users to have real utility, and it certainly isn't there yet: In about 30 minutes of driving around, we saw no more than four or five other Waze users pop up. But Eisnor argues that it won't be long before that critical mass comes. In Israel, she pointed out, more than 20 percent of smartphone users have Waze on their devices, despite the service only being available since January.

Photos: Dodging traffic with Waze iPhone app

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One of the features that has the most potential is one that shows you the speed of traffic on roads near where you are. That's possible because the Waze service is constantly measuring your progress, thanks to GPS, and is reporting back about your movements.

Fear not about your privacy, Eisnor said. She explained that while there are some elements of the service that may eventually be able to tell users something about others, for now, Waze is making sure that everyone has complete anonymity.

And that's probably good, since many drivers probably don't want anyone to know that they're sending out warnings about the whereabouts of police or the location of speed traps and speed cams.

But other users will no doubt be eager for such alerts, just as they might well want to get photographs showing traffic conditions just ahead of where they are.

Ultimately, the point of the application is to offer users "actionable" information. In other words, information that they can use to change a route, avoid an accident, or stay away from a potential speeding ticket.

Eisnor explained that Waze's maps come from the U.S. government and have large amounts of incomplete information. Many roads, for example, are displayed as "unconfirmed" and are depicted by lines of small, gray dots. But instead of treating that as a problem, Waze instead presents it as an opportunity for users to be the first to drive unconfirmed roads and earn points for being the first to confirm them.

Similarly, you can be the first to create a new road, one that isn't shown at all, an action that is rewarded with a nice, solid red line on the map as you drive.

Data about drivers' actions is fed back to Waze, but it's a series of local area managers--sort of like Wikipedia administrators--who do much of the local map administration. Users can get new access to the maps, and the ability to serve as local area managers by building up a large number of the points that they collect by being the first to confirm roads.

For now, Eisnor said, that's the extent of what Waze plans to do with points, but she hinted there would be something more interesting in the not-too-distant future.

Licensing the road data
The Waze app is free, and so I wondered what the company's business model is. Eisnor said that the goal is to get the app in enough people's hands that there is a steady flow of new road data to add to the Waze database. Then, she said, the company plans to license that raw data to other companies to do with as they please and, in the process, grab as much of what it thinks is a $4 billion market as it can. But to users, such goals may well be unimportant, so long as they can continue to get the very latest information about what's ahead of them as they drive.

One flaw in the plan is that, since Waze is dependent on AT&T's network to provide access to the Internet, the service is also heavily dependent on connectivity over that network. And during my half-hour tour around San Francisco--a notorious bad AT&T city--we constantly lost the signal.

For me, losing the signal might end up being incredibly frustrating. And for that, or for any other reason a driver might become upset or angry, Waze offers the ability to change your avatar's mood. Then, anyone in your vicinity can see the new mood when they see your avatar as it drives nearby, whether you're angry, happy, sad, or something else.

Much of that is window dressing, however. The main point of the app is to give users the important, indispensable information they need when trying to commute from point A to point B, be it map data, road information, traffic updates, or the location of the police.

"When using it every day," Eisnor said, "you're providing value to other drivers and other drivers are providing value to you.

To my mind, Waze is an app that has a lot of potential and could well become a truly crucial application. But until there is a critical mass of users, it's only a fun toy.

That said, there's no doubt that Waze is a lot of fun, especially because you get to be part of what could well end up being a wide network of users, each of whom is willing to showcase their location at any time.

For the moment, however, seeing the occasional angry face or noticing that there are several other Waze users in your vicinity may have to suffice. But if critical mass becomes a reality, look out.

MISSOULA, Mont.--There were two points Sunday when I had absolutely no idea what time it was. It wasn't that I didn't have any timepieces. Rather, I had several, and they were all telling me different things.

The first time it happened, I was on my way up to the top of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in western Idaho at 7,400 feet above sea level, as part of Road Trip 2009. From high up there, it is possible to see four states: Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Down below, in Riggins, Idaho, where I'd started my day, it was Mountain time, and, I was pretty sure, about 11:15 a.m. Off to the west, and to the north, it was Pacific time, or about 10:15 a.m. Yet, both iPhones I had in the car, as well as a dedicated Garmin GPS device, read 12:15 p.m. Which it would have been if I'd been in the Central time zone.

Utterly confused, but determined to believe the middle result, the Mountain time zone clock reading, I went on with my day. And indeed, before long, I saw that the iPhones--I didn't check the GPS device--had reverted to the proper time.

Driving around parts of Idaho and Montana on Sunday, CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman found both his iPhone and a dedicated GPS receiver confused by what time it was. Why did that happen?

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

But hours later, not long after crossing the border into Montana and re-entering the Mountain time zone--parts of north-central Idaho are in the Pacific time zone--I glanced at the two iPhones and once again, they were reading a time that just had to be in the Central time zone.

At least I hoped so, as I really didn't want it to be that late. So, just to be sure, I checked one of those bank time displays you always pass on the road, and sure enough, I was right. It wasn't as late as the iPhones were saying it was. They were once again displaying a time that would be in the Central time zone.

So what happened? Do you have any idea why three different pieces of digital equipment--the two iPhones and my GPS device--were giving me the time from hundreds of miles to the east? I could accept it when I was on top of the world, at 7,400 feet and climbing. But later, I was down in the flats, and the devices were doing the same thing.

Any ideas? I'd love to hear them.

Geek Gestalt is on the tail end of Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'm now writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.

CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman wearing a bowler hat in Austin, Texas, during the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival. His chapeau was a dead ringer for one being worn around town by players in a project called 'The hat game.'

(Credit: Chris Taylor)

AUSTIN, Texas--"Is that the hat, Mr. Terdiman?"

My inquisitor was Alice Taylor, a prominent British video game journalist and, like me, an attendee at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival here this week. But the bowler Taylor--whom I know through professional and social circles--had spotted on my head and was asking me about was most definitely not the hat she thought it was.

And she was hardly the only one seeing this black chapeau resting atop my dome and thinking that it was something other than a stylish headpiece. In fact, all day Monday, strangers and friends alike had been coming up to me after spying it on my head and asking me about it.

"Excuse me, sir, but I do believe you have my hat," one eager forty or fiftysomething SXSW male volunteer with salt-and-pepper hair had rushed over to say to me in the halls of the Austin Convention Center earlier that day.

"No, I don't," I told him confidently. After all, I knew for a fact that my bowler actually belonged to my friend Chris, a local, who had lent it to me for the day. After a moment of the gentleman looking confused, a group of his fellow volunteers burst out laughing, and one woman said to me, "You're going to get asked that a lot."

Indeed. And that's just exactly what I had planned.

It turns out that an outfit called Arts Council England had sponsored a group of UK companies to come to SXSWi to showcase the state of interactive and creative work being done these days in Britain and as a visceral way of doing so, had commissioned a small games company called Simon Games to create what became called "The hat game."

This was one of a number of so-called pervasive games that companies or small independent teams had sprung on SXSWi this year. Others involved companies like Zappos, FreshBooks, Iridesco, and SocialBomb, and tasked players with things like trading cards, snapping pictures of Robert Scoble, and playing a geek tech version of bingo.

"The hat game" revolved around a bowler hat embedded with a GPS chip, and the idea was that somebody would be wearing the hat around Austin, tracked live on the Internet, and when someone privy to what was going on would see them, they would come over and inquire, "Excuse me, sir (or madam), but I do believe you have my hat."

Discovered, the bowler wearer would hand it over, photographs and e-mails would ensue, and eventually the person who had managed to hold on to it the longest would be declared the winner.

When I told Chris about that, he said he had a bowler and I should wear it around the conference to see what trouble I could get in. I certainly do love a little culture jamming and gaming of games, so with a big mischievous grin crossing my face, we both knew I had to do it. And write about it of course.

That explains why, not long after the salt-and-pepper gentleman suggested that I had his hat, another fellow, this time much younger and with a thick British accent, approached me and said, "Would I be close in asking for your hat?"

At least that's what I think he said. He spoke too softly to understand fully.

A spin-off of "MooseHunt"

Being SXSWi, where serendipity rules, I found myself in line for lunch Tuesday next to Alex Fleetwood, a pervasive games festival organizer from England who had helped out with the creation of "The hat game." I couldn't resist explaining that I had spent the previous day gaming the project, and asked if he could tell me more about it.

Fleetwood, who created the Hide&Seek festival in England, got me in touch with Simon Johnson, from Simon Games, and we sat down a little later to talk about the project.

Johnson--fully informed that I was hacking his game--explained that the basic mechanics of "The hat game" had been lifted from a game, called "MooseHunt" that he and his business partner had created for IGFest, another street and pervasive games festival in the UK. He said that for that project, his partner walked the 80 miles from his home to the town where the festival was being held in a moose suit.

Like the hat, the suit had a GPS chip in it and could be tracked on the Internet. Players could send a text message and get an online map of where the moose was at any given moment, and if they managed to find him and take a picture of him before he took a photo of the player, they would win.

So, looking for a way to create a game for SXSWi that would borrow the mechanics of "MooseHunt," but that involved something small that could be easily passed around between people, Johnson and his partner settled on the bowler hat.

Over the course of the three days that "The hat game" was played, it was always possible to load the game's Web page and see where in Austin the hat had gone. According to Johnson, the very first person who found the hat--Johnson began the game wearing it around--was a teenage Austin girl. Having acquired the bowler, she promptly got in a car and drove off for parts far from downtown, where SXSW is being held.

"We had no expectation that anyone outside the festival would be involved at all," Johnson said, "so it was great to see that kind of (local) involvement."

He said he asked the girl how she had found out about the game, since she wasn't in any way connected to SXSW. She told him her uncle, who lived far from here, had heard about the project and had called her, telling her that since she lived in Austin, she should keep an eye out for someone wearing a bowler.

And, of course, if she spotted it, to say, "Excuse me, sir, but I believe you have my hat."

Johnson said that over the three days of the game, about 12 people had had possession of the hat for some period of time, and that one had it three times. He explained that one man had spent $35 on a taxi to follow a woman wearing the hat, eventually knocking on doors on the street he was sure she had ended up on. He got the hat.

This woman, named Erica, won 'The hat game' by holding on to the bowler for four hours, seven minutes and 39 seconds.

(Credit: Arts Council England)

The winner, meanwhile, a woman named Erica, managed to hold on to the bowler for 4 hours, 7 minutes and 39 seconds. And several others had it for more than two hours.

But back at the Convention Center, I was walking around, innocently wearing my own bowler--okay, not that innocently--when out of the corner of my eyes I saw a woman see the hat on my head and spring into action. I moved forward, and she followed, eventually circling in front of me and saying, "Is it over?"

"Is what over," I said.

"Excuse me, sir, but I believe you have my hat," she said.

To which I replied, shaking my head, "I'm afraid not."

The woman grimaced, embarrassed.

My plan was to wear the hat all day, especially at the Convention Center, where I knew that there would be the highest probability people would see it and make the connection. But even there, only the tiniest fraction of conference attendees knew what was going on. That's because knowledge of "The hat game" was spread mostly through word of mouth, although a BBC reporter had done a story on it on Saturday that included a video and which had risen to a top spot on the BBC's Web site. That, in fact, was where I had first come across it.

At the end of the day, the plan was for me to go to one of Monday night's parties, where Chris was a volunteer, and return it to him. It was to be as simple as that.

A few more times though, I was approached, and each time, I had to tell the rather excited person asking me for the hat that, no, it wasn't theirs.

Finally, evening came and I made my way to the party. And being SXSWi, where, as I mentioned, serendipity rules, Chris was working the door when I arrived. I walked towards him and caught his eye.

Without missing a beat, Chris said, "Excuse me, sir, but I believe you have my hat."

Indeed I did. I took it off and handed it over.

Say Where, an iPhone app from Dial Directions, aims to give iPhone users the ability to employ speech recognition to get information from services like Yelp and MapQuest.

(Credit: Dial Directions)

If you've spent any time using iPhone apps, you probably have gotten a hint of the fact that they may well be the hottest thing going and, in some ways, the future of software.

That's largely due to the fact that, especially with iPhone 3G, the device combines GPS, an elegant interface, Mac OS X, an accelerometer and high-speed Internet connectivity.

Now, Dial Directions, a company that has focused on providing speech recognition tools to cell phone users, is getting in the iPhone game.

And on Monday, the company announced at DemoFall its Say Where iPhone app, a tool that allows owners of the device to use their voice to get information from several online service providers specializing in geographical information.

Dial Directions will continue to add partners, but it is starting out by giving iPhone users the ability to employ speech recognition with services like MapQuest, Yellow Pages, Ask.com, Yelp, and Traffic.com.

The idea is simple: you launch the Say Where app, which is expected to be free from Apple's App Store--when it is approved, which Dial Directions hopes will be soon--and then, when prompted, say an address or business name that you're looking for.

Then, you choose which service you want to use--Yelp, say, for reviews of the restaurant that you named--and finally, the results should appear a moment later.

Or, by speaking an address and using MapQuest, directions would appear, aided by the fact that the iPhone's GPS chip tells the service where you are starting from.

The point is to allow users to get the information they want without having to use their hands--much--to get it. So, by using Say Where, iPhone owners should be able to get information they're looking for while driving, for example, without having to focus on the iPhone's screen in order to type in the name of the business or the address they're looking for.

Say Where is an open application that Dial Directions hopes will lure in many other service providers. And that has a lot to do with its business model for the application, which is to get revenue by partnering with those companies and, ideally, incorporating the application into their services.

It's too early to tell if the application will be a success. But it has a lot of potential, especially given that there could be many more service providers linked to the app down the line.