Evangelizing Waze

I have recently started to use Waze which is a social GPS navigation application. It is different from regular GPS applications, as it crowdsources real time traffic information from other wazers in my area. The good part of it is that the source code is available under open source. Also, currently it is free to use, in return for users updating the quality of the maps either actively (By editing over the web), or passively (By driving with the Application on on their GPS enabled mobile device). The 'not so good' part is that the map data, which (though crowdsourced) is not open, but it is probably a small price to pay, in return of accurate map, navigation and real time traffic information. Read through the article, and judge yourself.
Now the questions that come in ones mind, and some lay-person type answer


What is GPS Navigation?
It is calculating your position in the world, using reference from GPS satelites, and calculating your path to your destination, super-imposing your real-time co-ordinates over map data


Why would I use it? In India I can ask the pedestrians for directions
In my opinion, GPS became popular in countries first, where you do not have a lot of people to ask for directions. However, even in places where you have people to ask for directions, it is beneficial in the following ways.
a. Every time you stop and ask for directions, you slow down, wasting precious fuel, lose valuable seconds to stop, and generally hold up traffic. And if you are really not sure where you are going, your seconds quickly add up to minutes and even hours
b. If you are travelling by public transport, you can get off at the right stop. Imagine getting off a kilometer from your destination and walking all the way, asking for directions


How accurate is the data?
Unfortunately, the current map data of Kolkata, India is not something great. You can understand the challenges of mapping a city like Kolkata, where there are numerous, lanes and by-lanes. The good part of waze is that it learns from your driving patterns, and more you drive, more accurate the maps will be. For India, Waze has partnered with Satguide, a native Indian GPS service provider, so the maps are fairly reasonable. (My opinion is entirely based upon Kolkata)


How will waze give me real time traffic information. How can I use that data
If there are a lot of users in an area, all using waze, then waze will have average driving speeds of the roads in that area. If at any particular instant, the wazers in that area are driving at a lower speed than the average, a traffic congestion alert will be posted to all the wazers in that area, so he can take a decision to re-route himself.
The data is crowdsourced, and users can also report active events through their mobile devices. Also, to keep up the spirit, waze also publishes a list of leaders based on their contribution to the map data


What mobile devices are supported?
Pretty much all smartphone OS are supported (iPhone, iPAD, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Mobile 7). You can read more about it at their web-site.


How much does it cost
Waze comes as free download. However, it would require an active data connection. There are economic modes, where you can download your local maps and use them without a data connection. However, to get the latest updated maps, and real time traffic information, you need a data connection. I use Vodafone Mobile Connect data plan in Kolkata which gives me 10Gb usage per month at Rs 499/-. However, I use it for a lot of other usage in my phone (other than waze). I would say, waze would probably use 50-100 Mb of data per month for normal usage, but it is better to check with them.


Why is Shubhrajit evangelizing this?
More the number of users in a location, better is the navigation. I am an waze user, and I would love to drive safely and reach my destination fast. That's a 'win' for me. I believe I am contributing to the quality of maps in Kolkata, which would help other citizens to drive safely and reach their destination fast. It's a 'win' for them too. If waze has a lot of users, they would make a lot of money for their shareholders , i.e. it's a 'win' for them too. So, essentially, in this application, everyone wins.


Why would I use it, if the map data I create is no longer open?
This company is providing us a service, for free, which other companies charge a lot of money. Other GPS providers in India charges more than Rs 2000 a year for annual map update contracts, and close to Rs 600- 700 for one time map update. They do not have real time traffic information, and the map does not update unless you specifically request for it. If waze becomes successful (and it would be if a lot of users start to use it), the quality of the maps will be way way ahead of its competitors. I think it is a win-win situation, and every company should be allowed to make money. I also take it that I am doing a community service, actively editing the maps of Kolkata, India and have a sense of fulfilment. Now the facts are open, if is for you to decide if you would like to join.

How I use social networking

I was introduced to social networking probably sometime in 2003-2004 with Orkut. At that time I was 6-7 years younger and quickly collected my friends into the platform. I started joining groups, communities. Slowly though I started to lose interest, and logins to orkut became very less frequent as there was not a lot of adhesive to keep me glued to the platform. While I joined a lot of groups, still the drive to connect waned down, because while the group sounded fun, the interests I subscribed to were probably not doing enough to bring me back to the site at regular intervals.
Then came facebook. Joined again, as that seemed to be the norm of the day. Quickly got hooked to the social games from Zynga, like Farmville and others. Obsessively, I came back to facebook every weekend, so that my "crops don't wither!". (I will probably write in a future blog post, why people perform repetitive tasks, apparently with no value, in order to receive some intangible rewards). It did not take me long to find out, that I could not progress ahead, unless I have a lot of friends within the game. My real life friends and acquaintances were not playing a lot, so I reached out to absolute strangers, who like me, were looking for in-game friends to move ahead.
Some of these people play with an account they created just for the game, while others, like me, play with their real accounts. I have started to connect to some of these people, and that made me pay more interest to the news feeds posted on my home page.
The next thing I noticed is integration. One advantage that facebook has (In my opinion) is the integration options with other networks like twitter, flickr, foursquare,blogger, etc... So, truly speaking, while I look into my facebook home page, I actually see updates from a host of other general and specific network sites. One advantage obviously is that I get a quick snapshot of all the networks, while the other is that I get to know about other new players in the field. To make my point further, I have had a twitter account since 2009, but have really become an active micro-blogger only this year, after I have seen various possibilities of the medium, right on my facebook home page. I have seen people using applications like foursquare, and it really does not require anyone to be an Einstein to figure out, that foursquare (Or a similar concept) would go a long way in the future.
It has now created a snowball effect. If I summarize my journey in the social network platforms, we can see that I have been trying out various platforms in isolation, but the integration has cascaded into a snowballing effect, with "fire feeding fire".
To summarize my journey into the social platform as a case-study

• Been in Orkut since donkey's years, but interest slowly waned
  
• Been in Flickr and other special interest photography sites, also for a very long time
  
• Tried my hand in blogging also for countless years. But it really did not take of (yet) because I rarely have something to say
  
• If I have something to say, and only a few listens, then it is highly demotivating (at least for me)
  
• Been in facebook for 2-3 years - similar mode as in orkut
  
• Been in Twitter for the same period, in isolation, less than one post a quarter
  
• Started playing the social games
• Started taking interest of the strangers who play with me
  
• Started noticing the facebook news feed
  
• Understood the integration of the social media and also became aware of a lot of new stuff (From facebook as well as twitter)
  
• Renewed interest in blogs as I am hopeful that twitter and facebook will draw in more reader
  
• Started contributing to foursquare by adding unknown places in Kolkata
  
• Learnt about waze from twitter
  
• Started my ambitious goal of popularizing waze in Kolkata - As somehow I am fascinated by GPS and navigation technologies
  
• ??? What's next?
  

I would leave it to the readers to comment on my journey with this revolution, as a person who was born at the cusp of "Generation X" and "Millennial". Readers, I welcome your valuable insights.

New Android Device

I decided to join the smart phone bandwagon recently, and procured a Samsung Galaxy 551 powered by android. The reason is funny: I wanted to have GPS, and thought that having an android phone will allow me to have GPS, and more with the phone. The teething issues are now over, and have started to enjoy my phone.
First stumbling block I had to overcome, is the huge data charges that are incurred on the phone - data plans in India are still very costly. After calling up Vodafone Kolkata (My career), I got a plan which is Rs 499 per month for up to 10 GB of data usage.
Next shock is that Google still does not offer navigation yet at my location (Kolkata). So, although I can position myself accurately on the map, I still cannot get turn-by-turn driving directions. Currently I am evaluating other options and have downloaded Waze. Let's see how it performs.
There are paid applications available on the android market: but I would like to have a comfort level that it will be worth the money - before investing on it. The reason I am making this point - I tried to get a driving direction from MapMyIndia (Supposed to be the best map option in India) which I know (From my home to office) and found that it could not locate my office area at Sector V, Salt Lake. It could locate my home, and tried to take me from non-existent roads. I understand that mapping India is quite a big challenge with its maze of lanes and by-lanes. The point is that the technology is not mature yet: I can evangelize - but not really willing to pay yet for the immature technology. Will wait and watch how this shapes up.
Another location based application I am trying out is foursquare. I feel it is wonderful ... you need to get to a place, and you can search nearby places, with crowd sourced review. I am using it actively now - In Kolkata though, only a few places are marked, and that too, upscale places. I am marking simple places on the map, like the cigarette/tea shop next to my office. I saw that it is not possible to mark a place from the mobile device - you can mark it only from the web version. I feel it is a serious limitation to discover new places.
This is the first week I am using the device, and this blog was supposed to talk about the technologies I dream about. It turned out to be a beginners experience. I will continue to talk about the new applications I try from the android market, and will hope both the new users like me (As well as the application developers) make correct choices.