Is There an Echo in Here?

May 26, 2008 By: Mary Jo Wagner

Just about the time that most people were catching on to the idea of blogging, bloggers were already establishing and driving a new form of social commentary. Today that trend is a well-established "new normal" for online information distribution. Come this summer, however, we may see a new breed of geosocial commentators rippling through the Web space. "Echoers" — users of The Carbon Project's Echo myPlace (EMP) geosocial networking software — will share georeferenced Internet videos, news, photos, and other community-related information with other users through EMP's people-to-people technology and Microsoft's Virtual Earth.

Based on Microsoft's new Internet media platform Silverlight 2, EMP integrates a 2D and 3D neo-mapping environment with real-time content to bring georeferenced virtuality to any bit of information users want to share. Jeff Harrison, The Carbon Project's president and CEO, explains how "Echo's" spatial interactivity stands to redefine "data-sharing" — from local news and event promotions to micro-targeted advertising for the business owner — and how you too can become an "echoer."

MJW: Echo myPlace (EMP) was already available as an operational application in July 2006. What is different about the version scheduled for beta testing this summer?

JH: The previous EMP version was one of several proof-of-concepts. Now we have a go-to-market version that we will begin beta testing this summer. The new version is based on the next-generation Internet media technologies and it will provide a whole new set of experiences to people.

EMP is a real-time people-to-people social networking application, but it has integrated 2D mapping and 3D visualization. There is a system of channels and echoes, which means people can publish and create their own content and really target their message to their own local communities.

One of the biggest changes with the new version of EMP is that people can share any kind of Web content they want, including online videos, Internet TV, or entire social-networking sites. Before, people could only create a geospatial-oriented note. Now their content can be anything. It can be an entire MySpace Web page, YouTube videos, streaming media. This is pretty unique.

The fundamental philosophy is that people can search these channels created by other people based on a "where are you looking" Internet model. That's a key point. A lot of today's applications are based on a "where you are" model. Echo is based on a "where are you looking" Internet model; that means you can find content based on where you are looking.

For example, say there is a music group and they want to have a live "on-Earth" Internet TV event. EMP will provide them a medium to do that. The group can set up a channel and they can provide echoes in the channel for the show itself, as well as backstage views, and if people are looking over the city where this live concert event is happening, they would find the event, and check out the echoes for the show itself or the after-party and backstage experience. It's a new-media way of promoting that event.

It's also a new way of promoting material goods. A mobile phone shop owner in Beijing, for example, can set up his or her own channel with echoes in it and they can highlight the latest mobile phones available and advertise their business. When people look over that neighborhood in Beijing they will see the shop owner's advertising, but it will have as much content and fidelity as they want to include. It'll be fully able to handle any type of content that they want to put in their channel, including videos. The EMP application is very enhanced viral marketing.

MJW: When EMP was first released, it was focused on the consumer market. Has the target audience changed? If so, how can geospatial professionals and government users use the software in their businesses and operations?

JH: We are still predominantly looking at the consumer market and news, but we've extended it to a wider audience of people who are interested in next-generation media.

MJW: How could you see a government user using this?

JH: They can definitely use EMP. For example, they can use it to enhance the experience of a visitor to a system of parks. The government user can use what we call a "skinned" echo that is tailored to their community and they can create a new user experience for their system of parks. Likewise, a government agency — particularly intelligence agencies — can use Echo to easily share different types of content related to different events in the world. The military could also use EMP for field operations.

However, we're initially targeting the mass-market consumer applications, especially news. It used to be that the military would draw technology forward before the consumer market. These days the reverse is actually true. We feel the same will happen with Echo. But we definitely believe there is a government, intelligence, and military use for this.

MJW: Why choose to build your tools on the .NET framework and integrate Microsoft Virtual Earth, rather than Google Earth?

JH: That's a fair question. First, we are Microsoft business partners and that gives us access to the latest technology earlier than other people. Second, Microsoft has a very open attitude. They are very easy to work with, both from a business and a technology perspective. Third, Microsoft has a 3D Earth in a Web site; Google doesn't. Virtual Earth is in a Web site, but for Google Earth, you have to download an enormous application. Fourth and finally, Microsoft has very cutting-edge technology that changes the way Web experiences are developed and Internet media is delivered — particularly with Silverlight 2, Microsoft's new platform for Internet media. Silverlight 2 is cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device, and it focuses on delivering rich, interactive applications and Internet media.

Our new version of EMP is based on Silverlight 2. It's a very suitable platform for realizing our objectives with Echo. Silverlight 2 allows us to do things that haven't been done before to provide that rich, interactive user experience in a 2D and 3D neo-mapping environment, and I think that will really excite people.

MJW: How critical is the 2D and 3D spatial environment to the success of EMP?

JH: It's very important. There are the 2D and 3D spatial environments, which also include the bird's-eye view in Virtual Earth. And the spatial imagery provides the neo-mapping context for everything we do. This new generation of 2D and 3D mapping is fairly well known now, and it's an accepted way of using information. People are getting comfortable in the Virtual Earth environment, and we use that as the foundational context for EMP. It works extremely well for the "where are you looking" Internet model. It allows people to check out the real world, and with our system of channels and echoes, they can start to see what other people are doing in that Virtual Earth and start to make connections with those people, whether they are individuals advertising the latest skate park experience or a person who just opened up a business down the street.

Since you see the echoes and the channels both in 2D and 3D, it allows you to see people's own experiences "on-Earth" mapped out in the neo-mapping environment. And since the people-created channels are very rich and include videos and Web sites, not just pictures, it creates a whole new Web experience.

MJW: With the upcoming EMP, users can subscribe to available news channels and then within Virtual Earth, news feeds are streamed in real time in the form of a ticker tape along the bottom of the screen. How is this different from using presently available GeoRSS feeds?

JH: I like that you noticed this, because one of the main things we think Echo will be used for is local news. There may be a whole new generation of echoers out there trying to make a name for themselves by reporting on their own community, and what's different from a GeoRSS feed is that the content is not just text or geospatial features. We provide a complete georeferencing of any Web content, including a full Web site, Flash, Internet TV, YouTube videos. Inside your channel or your echo you can put in any Web content of any variety that currently exists. That is much more than you have with GeoRSS. This is a far richer and more complete experience than what you can have with GeoRSS feeds.

With Silverlight as our Internet media platform, news feeds will run directly in your Web browser or on any Web application. Instead of having an application, you just turn on your Web browser, you have your 2D and 3D Earth at your fingertips, and you choose your own experience. You have streaming media at your fingertips, movies, you create your own channels, chat, and search channels all within your Web browser. Why pay for all that TV every month?

MJW: An interesting feature of the EMP news experience is that as the news is streaming, georeferenced pushpins appear on the Virtual Earth map that directly correlate to the specific news item on the ticker.

How could that same functionality be transferred to real-time business and government scenarios?

JH: Both government and business users can announce and promote news and events in the same way users can now watch news feeds. For example, if there is an event coming up in your city, it's very easy to use Echo to set up a channel and then put echoes into that channel to highlight what's happening and where it's happening. We expect that most of the activity will be done by consumer and business users, but certainly the government has a large element of geography in it, so it'll catch on with local governments for helping to manage and to communicate events and news in their cities and communities. For example, I work in the city of Alexandria. The Alexandria city government could use Echo to create their own channels on Alexandria, and if that supplements and complements a concurrent news item, that's even better.

MJW: Can you make your channels completely private?

JH: Yes. There are channels, there are echoes, and then there will be something called community. A community can range from just you and me to just my family and friends or the entire world. You can choose to have your community as extensive or as limited as you want, and you can choose to share your echoes with as few or as many people as you want.

MJW: In January of this year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded The Carbon Project with a $100,000 grant to further develop EMP. What attracted the NSF to award you with such a sizable grant?

JH: The NSF was attracted to the commercial potential of using Echo for micro-targeted advertising.

What Echo is designed to do is to let local entrepreneurs target their message to the people likely to be interested in their products and services. A key area in this is connecting buyers and sellers of these products and services, particularly for those that change rapidly and differ from place to place. What micro-targeted advertising allows people to do is easily and cheaply create their own channel for their local community. It lets businesses publish their own Web content in that local community and lets them establish new relationships with people who view that content. What Echo is designed to do is to allow anyone, including a business, to create a channel. People not only can subscribe to that channel, but they can add that channel creator to their list of friends on their own.

For example, there are several businesses up the street from me. If they were in a certain folder in my friends list, I could find out what specials they're running, I could find out what the special of the day is at the Chinese restaurant up the street. For business to enter into that type of relationship with me is what micro-targeted advertising is about. And it's in the business's best interest to make that relationship exist, because customers can promote that business to their friends. That's of significant value to them.

MJW: How is this type of advertising any different than advertising with Google, Yahoo, or other large online spaces?

JH: We believe this is a good niche because this portion of the social networking and advertising market is just now emerging. What's really exciting is that this type of content is local and is likely to be created by the person up the street, not by some big company thousands of miles away. And we think this niche has not been fully addressed by Google or Yahoo, so it opens up an opportunity for us to move into this market and help businesses with local micro-targeted advertising.

In addition, there is tremendous emphasis now on reducing our carbon footprint and conserving fuel, which is leading to a significant push to support and promote locally produced materials. Echo fits in well with this model. I believe that local connections are the wave of the future, and I think Echo has an exciting role to play there. As people turn more local you'll see many more people-to-people business connections. The business aspect of Echo was designed with this experience in mind. I also think that connections between "local" buyers and sellers could happen between Africa and the U.S., for example. The technology is global, so Echo's "local" can be local across the globe too.

MJW: With the NSF award, you are eligible for additional grants of up to $1.1 million to further develop the EMP technology. What are the criteria for qualifying for additional money? With your current award expiring at the end of June 2008, have you already applied for further grants? If so, can you tell me what they will address?

JH: We started a portion of that process, and we're doing another portion of it now. The criteria require us to show the commercial and technical feasibility of EMP. By the end of June we'll have completed phase one, and then we hope to be moving into other future phases based on our success with the commercial and technical feasibility of it. It's a competitive process, so we'll have to work hard.

MJW: At present, EMP is designed to be freely available. Are you considering changing that business model for future geosocial-networking applications?

JH: We'll plan to do some versions of Echo technology for specific customers, but Echo itself will be freely available.

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