Database Reference
In-Depth Information
11.5 Envisioning Mobile Phones as the Heart
of Community-Built Databases
As stated in previous sections, the current and future feature of mobile devices will
allow them to play a very relevant role, not only as interfaces to community-driven
databases, but also as platforms where applications using data from community-
driven databases will be running, or even as distributed databases where users can
have better control of relevant data they are contributing to those databases. The
ongoing state-of-the-art development of mobile devices related to community-
driven databases focuses on the interface level, with a lot of work being undertaken
on augmented reality that enhances the real world with information extracted from
these databases. But mobile devices will have a key position on the database itself.
In many community-driven databases, users contribute with contents created by
them, or even with personal information. This is the case of communities such as
Flickr where photographers share their photographs, or even LinkedIn, where users
share their CVs and their professional experiences. With the current state of
technology development, users have no option but to upload contributions to a
common database managed by third parties. But it would be possible in the near
future to create distributed databases where certain parts of the information, or even
the whole database, remain on mobile devices. In that way, users would have
greater control of their most important information and contents.
11.5.1 Mobile Phones as Interface
Mobile phones integrate a great number of technologies that make them suitable for
many tasks. But when dealing with interfaces, they are particularly adaptable. They
include touchable screens, cameras, and many sensors such as GPS, digital com-
pass, and accelerometer. This is why they are being used as interfaces for our
everyday activities in the real world with the digital reality. Some examples of
using mobile phones as our interfaces with the world can be seen in the following
applications:
l
FourSquare
1
is a mobile social network that allows registered users to connect
with friends and update and share their locations. It integrates a geo-location-
based game in order to encourage users to share their actual location. FourSquare
mobile applications (available for most important devices such as iPhone,
Android, Blackberry) allow users an interface with their environment as they
can easily share their location and discover nearby businesses and places of
interest.
1
http://www.foursquare.com
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