Welcome to the future

Growing up as I did with an extended family that included some of the most likeable religious fundamentalists you're likely to meet, meant that technology was viewed with contemptuous suspicion. For some reason, the 8-bit games of the late eighties and early nineties (think Super Mario Bros), with their primitive graphics, limited sound array and mundane storylines, were thought to be the spawn of Satan. Needless to say, it took exemplary chutzpah and ballsy determination well beyond my then 10 years of age, to buck the system, plug my console into the TV and proceed to feed my addiction.

Fast-forward some twenty years and the world is a vastly different place. While the “real” science-fiction future of levitating skateboards and time-travel is not yet a reality, Vodacom’s new system, “The Grid”, is a stark reminder that “the future” has arrived. In web 2.0-speak, “mashup” describes a collection of otherwise unrelated technologies melded together to create a new service. I suppose this is the best way
to begin to understand The Grid and the possibilities it opens up.

Firstly, The Grid is network independent, so even though it’s by Vodacom, customers from other networks are able to use it. It is an application that you install on your phone, which gives you access to the magic. At its core it is a mapping service, although unlike the map books you may have thumbed through before the days of the Global Positioning System (GPS), this mapping service is “alive”. It uses a triangulation algorithm to determine your location based on your phone’s signal strength to the three nearest cellphone towers. With this information, it plots you on the map. Of course GPS is infinitely more accurate than a cellular tower-based location service, but that’s not the point. The point is that it allows any phone, GPS enabled or not, to instantly become location aware. The fact that the location variance is between 1 km and 5 km, makes this its best feature.

Why? With this location information you are able to see which of your friends are in your immediate physical vicinity (it plots them on the map too). And because it lacks pinpoint GPS-like location accuracy, it should keep the privacy lobbyists at bay.

Once you’re connected to The Grid, you can post videos of places you’ve just been to; post messages about restaurants you’ve visited, and share information in a manner unlike anything you’ve seen before. It’s the best of social media meets the best of mapping technology meets the best of instant messaging. The notes you leave on The Grid are called “blips”, and you can share these with your friends so that they can pick up your trail like digital breadcrumbs.

Currently businesses can only market themselves by using blips (free of charge). This is expected to change in the long run. Commercialisation of the service is definitely on the cards, according to Vincent Maher, portfolio manager for social networking at Vodacom. Imagine, for example, being able to download the latest, purpose-made video advert of a local restaurant as soon as you’re within its range?

The fact that The Grid is built with an open-access framework means that Vodacom has wisely left the door open for developers to come up with new and exciting applications and services which can be integrated into The Grid. This kind of thinking is what has made Facebook so popular, as the system was not entirely dependent on its creators for new services.

Imagine, for example, a confi guration setting on The Grid called “tourist mode”. Once in this mode, you’re given an array of tourist-friendly spots to choose from, with the option of downloading videos of the places and the surrounding sites.

With technologies like The Grid, it’s difficult not to feel more like the king of your domain.

This article first appeared in The Media magazine, our sister publication. Used with kind permission.