(image from Irish Rugby Union Website)
As of today, there are only 500 days to one of the most exciting sporting events to be hosted in New Zealand.
Closer to 85,000 well-heeled travelers are expected to arrive in NZ. This is a great opportunitity for us create some urgency and make some valuable innovations/projects happen.
Here are the first few things that come to my mind.
1. Up-to-the-Minute Journey Times.
Every minute, agencies like NZTA and Local Authorities collect heaps of data from road-side devices (ie sensors). By combining this data with GPS & mobile device data, we should be able to predict up-to-the-minute journey times from point A to B. (and suggest alternative routes if there are bottlenecks).
From technical point of view, all the components to make this happen is already in place. What's missing is a sponsor from the likes of NZTA who can see the massive economic benefit and productivity improvement of doing this project.
2. "Where is My xyz?" Apps
We need number of apps on iPhone (or other smartphones) that can provide answers to questions like "where is my Taxi?" , "where is my bag?", "Where are my team supporters?" etc.
Where is my Taxi would be the easiest app to do, if you can get access to Taxi company location data.
Where is my Bag is a bit tricky, because you need access to Airline/Transport company back-end-systems.
Where are my Team Supporters app can be done using feeds from social media sites like FourSquare.
3. Open Up Heaps of Government Data
During 2009, lot of us from the NZ open govt community put a lot of effort to increase the awareness and open up govt data but so much of valuable data is still locked-up by government agencies.
Would be great to see a rapid increase of data feeds by agencies so that our creative developer community can produce heaps of awesome applications.
There are the top three things that come to my mind. What are your thoughts?
4. Provide Robust Wifi Coverage Around Stadiums, Venues & Main Tourist Centers
My guess is that a vast majority of visitors will have smartphones. However, they won't be able to access valuable applications because of the horrendous roaming data charges.
Not sure if/how this will happen but would be great to have robust and comprehensive WiFi coverage in all stadiums, venues & main tourist centers.
