I have long thought that mobile social networking could be a killer app. it can be killer for a number of different reasons, 1. it will increase text and data usage making the carriers happy, 2. it will keep individuals connected - that why you buy a phone, right?, 3. it will use good technology in a great way. I am not sure if there are formal criteria for "killer apps", but these may be a start.
Recently Microsoft launched a beta app called SLAM which stands for Social Location Annotation Mobile. Don't bother checking the Microsoft site for more info, you will only find info on driver and debugging programs. I was able to find the SLAM site by digging through the MS research site.
So what is SLAM? According to the SLAM site, it "enables real-time communication, location awareness and photo-sharing." Information Week has this to say, SLAM "lets people blast messages and photos to fellow members in a group. For people with the SLAM client installed, their smart phones will buzz, and an indicator on the phone's home screen will show that there's a new message. The application supports any Windows Mobile smart phone."
Generally it seems that this product is built for users that want to create a group and send SMSs to each other. Aren't there other apps out there that allow this? The app also allows for the instantaneous sending of pictures from your camera phone.
On the LBS side, SLAM allows you to see the location of other users in your group on a map using Virtual Earth. From the SLAM site - "Slam users can also see where other people in their groups are on a map. The Slam client will periodically let the server know where it is, then, when someone in a group requests it, the server generates a map using MSN’s Virtual Earth with everybody’s location marked. Of course, this only works from slam smartphone clients, not SMS users. However, this feature does not require a GPS device, as it attempts to determine location based on the cellular towers your phone detects. "
They have a use case to illustrating the value of the service - one where user can convene at a restaurant based on location. Cell tower fixes are good, but if you are in a small city, you may get a fix that could be off by 1,000 yards. Seems to me that it would be tough to coordinate based on cell tower fixes.
The SLAM site addresses privacy...and in their own words, it is scary. They say that letting your friends and family know where you are "automatically can be scary". However, they must not have thought that you would be too scared as "location tracking is on by default in Slam, you must opt-out to disable it". If you were that concerned you would make it opt-in, not on by default.
I know that this is a research project, and location is limited to a few phones, and only works in certain geographic areas, but I have to slam MS for putting this on the market with location on by default.
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