According to Comscore, the typical mobile user downloads a total of zero new apps a month. Web site and app technology start to age, but there is a new platform emerging: Messaging ecosystems such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and others now have a very large user base. In this talk, we will show you what this could mean to our world of GIS. And as a bonus, you will learn a bit about the Swiss public transportation system
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Forget Apps, bots will take over GIS
1. Forget Apps - Bots will take over GIS!
And I for one welcome our new robot overlords…
2. First, a word about Swiss trains…
EBP Powerpoint Vorlage 2013 2Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ZB_Interregio_mit_HGe_101_bei_Niederried.jpgn
4. … at least, I want to get notified on time.
(about delays or any other realtime information)
EBP Powerpoint Vorlage 2013 4
5. No more web sites or apps.
I want a realtime personal assistant!
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6. A first step: a Chat Bot
Messaging is a huge ecosystem:
WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram,
Skype, Snapchat, Slack …
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Sources: WhatsApp,Telegram (both from Feb 2016)
7. «The chatroom is the new App Store!»
Making business with chats has arrived:
order a ride, send money, market your content…
My prototype platform: Telegram
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@gregisenberg
9. And where is (Arc)GIS?
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Geocode
Nearby
Search
Routing Maps
Geofencing
10. How will chat bots evolve in the future?
Natural language processing will become a commodity.
Chatting with things will become natural.
You will chat with your nearby train station,
your fridge, your bank account, …
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Inspired by http://solveforinteresting.com/on-chat-as-interface/
11. Test it now: http://telegram.me/TrainDelayBot
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Makes only sense in Switzerland.
If you’re not in Switzerland, type e.g.
/monitor Bern
to see how things work.
12. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords…
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13. Stephan Heuel
Ernst Basler + Partner
Stephan.Heuel@ebp.ch
Twitter: @ping13
http://geo.ebp.ch
«I’ve been looking for feedback…» (David H.)
EBP_P
Come to our
GeoBeer Switzerland
http://geobeer.ch
Hinweis der Redaktion
So, within the next 5 minutes, I want to convince you that bots will take over GIS.
Everybody loves Swiss trains: panoramic rides, modern cars, and always on time …
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ZB_Interregio_mit_HGe_101_bei_Niederried.jpgn
But sometimes, even in Switzerland, trains are running late…
And a delay of 6 minutes is shocking news for a regular Swiss!
If this happens, at least I want to get notified.
So, notifications. How do you get informed about realtime? With websites, apps, even smartwatch apps…
«According to Comscore, the typical American downloads a total of zero new apps a month.” It’s called App Fatigue, https://medium.com/@acroll/on-chat-as-interface-92a68d2bf854
I need to actively install and launch them and look into it.
So, no more web sites or apps.
But what will be next? A realtime personal assistant, like Siri, Google Now, Amazon Echo, that I don’t have to install.
It may suprise you, but these assistants are not human beings, but actually bots.
And TechCrunch and others tech sites say, that bots will take over, so it must be true…
As a first step, let’s have a look at chat bots and messaging.
This is a huge platform. WhatsApp has a billion monthly active users!
Telegram is a contender with only 10% usage. But still: 100 million monthly active users!
So, one can argue that the chatroom is the new App Store.
Already today, you can order a ride, send money or market your newspaper content in a chat.
So, I wanted to try this out. My platform of choice was Telegram, simply because they have a very simple and well-documented REST API.
May I introduce the «TrainDelayBot»!
Within a chat, you select your location, send it and the bot will look for stations within walking distance. Then, for the next hour or so, it monitors these stations for possible delays. If a delay occurs, the bot will send a message to you. Otherwise it stays quiet.
And if you are fed up, you just stop monitoring.
PS: Testing the bot is difficult, because delays are rare in Switzerland. So, there is a demo mode in the bot
(The delays are actually requested with an inofficial API.)
So, why is this the future of GIS? Even in this simple bot, there are a number of GIS functions used, such as routing, geocoding, nearby search and so on.
What’s in it for the future?
Right now, you have to use special commands to interact with the bot. But NLP is already here and will become a commodity for developers to use.
Actually, A chat is a natural interface for the Internet of Things.
You can test the bot now, if you want (even if you’re not in Switzerland).
No, it is not a fail. This is how I walked into my room last night…
I really would appreciate feedback, I’m here until Friday.
And if you are in Switzerland, come to our GeoBeer.
Thank you!