Location, location, location

GeoSmart is looking to goose interest in location-based services (LBS) with a new set of awards for local developers.

LBS software and services take advantage of a gadget’s ability to pinpoint where you are, via GPS or the cellular network, or both. The ncover four categories: social networking, proximity-based marketing, LBS games and widgets for the AA MAPS Biz Locator website.

In the US, LBS has already become a talking point of the presidential campaign, with Barack Obama’s iPhone recruiting app becoming a major hit for Apple’s AppStore. The Obama 08 software uses an iPhone’s GPS receiver to locate the nearest campaign HQ or event, and sorts a user’s Contacts list so they can quickly contact those who live in battleground states.

The AA-owned GeoSmart licenses its New Zealand maps to satellite navigation system makers Navman and TomTom, and sites like Wises, and also offers geospatial information system (GIS) and fleet management tools.

“Location-based services will become common in four or five years. GeoSmart has the tools to facilitate this type of technology now, so we have launched a competition to get people to develop concepts today,” says GeoSmart Business Development Manager Luigi Cappel.

In its most invasive incarnation, proximity-based marketing reaches out to touch unwitting customers. For example, Land Rover set up a billboard in New York’s Times Square in 2006, complete with a Bluetooth transmitter that beamed a video ad to passerby’s cellphones, whether they wanted to see it or not.

But Cappel envisages a more gentle, opt-in approach, and a more meat-and-potatoes commercial approach. He offers as a hypothetical:

“Imagine you’re a tourist hopping off the plane at Queenstown Airport and as you head to the luggage conveyor area you see a billboard with a promotion offering you amazing deals on various local attractions. If you text ‘Queenstown Live’ to a short code, you will have $20 deducted from your account and will be offered a range of services at huge discounts,” Cappel says. He sees follow-up texts to hustle you to different attracts on the cheap, calibrated to land in your inbox when, say, seats are free on a jet boat.

Geosmart’s Location Innovation Awards opened yesterday, and entries will be accepted until February 16. Prizes include a trip to the “Where 2.0” conference, May 2009 in San Jose.