Glympse: Temporary Geolocation For Free Range Kids?

May 22, 2009 Aside from another botched spelling test via corporate branding with the clever name in “Pursuit of Happyness” style, I’d like to hear pros and cons from mobile maniacs, please… Mobile Youth.org? Teen tribes? Safety pros?

There’s a new phone app to share a ‘Glympse’ of your location for a jiff in real time without any ties, tethers and trackability of other GPS style mobile uses. (e.g.Google Latitude or Loopt that function more like a ‘social compass’)

Why on earth might I ever need that?

Let’s see…I could think of ‘field trip duty’ (which is like herding cats; fast find other chaperones and their groups in a click)…Maybe ‘Disneyland drama’ (when you get that ‘omg, I’ve lost the kids’ heart-sink) …Large events like concerts, festivals and fairs (where sight location only goes so far)…

Or even to ‘touch base with teens’ in a moment akin to a quiet text where they can ‘save face’ with their friends and give you specifics on their whereabouts (great for those come ‘get me pronto’ bailouts as well as the periodic ‘check-in’ necessities of 21st century fears and ‘free-range kids’). For those of us in the ‘sandwich generation’…it might be a good “senior finder” for wandering sorts if it’s easy enough to use without all the falderal of social networking add-ons too…

On the flipside, this also renews privacy issues and family safety involving situational whereabouts…

For example?

Remember all the cellphone caveats and ‘media management’ and starter contract discussion?

Well, now factor in:

a.) who/how your child connects with whom/where and at what age

b.) how ‘smart phones’ can be a bit too smart if parents have no clue what they’re handing their kids sans media literacy (they’ve literally got ‘the whole world in their hands’ so prepare them properly!)

c.) long term mobile marketing implications of ad/data mining

d.) ‘Timed duration’ of locations, set for ‘relationships without permanence’ may be great for a quick meeting but can this be used for nefarious factors? (e.g. If payments/meetups/drug deals are seamlessly untrackable and the connection is temporary and ‘goes away’ isn’t that a big ‘uh-oh’ in the wrong hands?)

(Obviously, we’d all need to look into this on the Glympse assurances and security settings, as I’d think the unit would ‘capture’ who’s who somehow/somewhere on the law enforcement side if the device were in their possession for analysis, wouldn’t it?)

Bryan Trussell, CEO of Glympse says,

“In reality, there are very few people who we want to know where we are all of the time; yet, there are lots of people who we want to know where we are some of the time.

…Only Glympse offers the ability to share your location with exactly whom you want, for exactly how long you choose…”

According to their site, the GlympseWatch timer allows users to determine exactly how long their location will be shared with each Glympse message, from a few minutes or up to four hours:

“A sender has the ability to “pause” or “cancel” a Glympse at any time or choose to extend an existing Glympse before it expires. The GlympseWatch timer acts as an “auto shut off” security feature, addressing the concern that users can easily forget to turn off location-sharing mode and unintentionally broadcast their location at inappropriate times.

Glympse’s unique time-based approach makes it appropriate for use with a much broader list of people encountered in daily life, including everyone a user would normally share location with via a phone call, email or text message. This includes not only family and friends, but also business associates, casual acquaintances, and people you may be meeting once and do not want to know your location on an ongoing basis.”

And we wonder why parenting is so complicated in this ‘can’t keep up’ media age of the ‘Next Great Thing’ in mobile…

So far, Glympse is in beta testing phase and only for ‘T-Mobile G1™ phones with Android,’ (not a Star Trek movie promo; just “click if you need to know” reference) It will soon be available for iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Palm…Anyway, check out the video below to decide for yourself and at least ‘be in the loop’ with awareness raised of mobile capabilities!

Creepy or cool? Weigh in…

I’d love to hear from Glympse themselves on the security ‘point of differentiation’ factor, as there are plenty of positives uses, as conveyed by trusted industry pro Anne Colllier of NetFamily News and ConnectSafely.org here:

“…A kid’s going to a game in the next town. The parent wants to be sure she gets there ok. The parent asks the child to send him a Glympse, and he can track her for the time they’ve decided it should take her to get there…

…”He can track her progress on a Web page, courtesy of Google Maps, and even tell how fast she’s driving. Once the session’s over – say 45 minutes later – she’s no longer being tracked. Dad can always call her up again in a few hours and request a Glympse that tracks her home.”

…”I’m not saying parents should use this service, and certainly not constantly, but I like that it 1) affords a young person some measure of privacy if her safety’s somehow of concern (maybe it’s used as a repercussion rather than all the time!) and 2) promotes conversation (rather than mere control, I hope).”

—Anne Collier, NetFamily News

Glympse adheres to CTIA.org  best practices, and Anne’s ConnectSafely.org site is amazingly helpful, but since it’s funded in part by a social networking group coalition (and has freely disclosed same) I’d like to hear from someone completely OUT of the industry loop that’s neither technophobic, nor favorably pre-disposed too…

Someone savvy enough to really ‘shoot holes’  from a ‘what if’ safety perspective and think it through with firsthand mobile media mama analysis…Maybe MC Milker at the Not Quite Crunchy Parent blog? (She did a great job with analysis from CES for Shaping Youth awhile back!)

I just plopped the link on my Facebook feed for takers, asking, “Will Glympse be a ‘safety/privacy’ bridge between parents/kids versus the GPS tracker factor of helicopter hoverers?”

Super Geek and fellow NextNow Collaboratory member Robert Scoble commented on TechCrunch:

“This is one of those things you need to see demonstrated. Very cool and very well thought out. Much better than Google Latitude, which made a ton of bad assumptions.”

Here’s Robert’s demo of Glympse and interview with CEO Bryan Trussell.

It IS an interesting geolocation concept for those

“I’m late, I’m late, I’m late for an important date” Alice and Wonderland white rabbit moments…

…But I DO have concerns about leading down a rabbit hole, so need to hear more…

Your thoughts? Impressions? Safety concerns?

Here’s more from the experts:

NetFamily News: Glympse of Your Kids’ Whereabouts

Scobleizer: Glympse vs. Google Latitude

Wall Street Journal: Share Where You Are When You Want

TechCrunch: Glympse: A Hassle & Worry Free Way To Share Your Location Minus the Social Network

CBS Mobile News: Larry Magid’s Interview w/Bryan Trussell

TechFlash: Glympse attempts to stand out among location-based services

GeekBrief.TV: Cali Lewis episode #563 Covering Glympse, The Palm Pre

(AJ note: And a cool Solar Hybrid Mobile Phone concept LONG overdue! This makes SO much sense, esp. for emergencies!)

Meanwhile here are related posts from Mobile Youth’s  “Ethnographic data” which is a fancy-schmansy way of saying ‘keeping up with youth culture!’

Robert Scoble’s Interview/Demo With Glympse CEO Bryan Trussell: