Weekly Wrap-up: Location, Location, Location, and More...

Our top story this week was location - location-based networks, services, advertising and even "feelings". Read on for our coverage and analysis. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Internet of Things.

Note: We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format.

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Story of the Week: Location

• Can Brightkite Beat Foursquare & Gowalla With a Universal Check-in?


• Google Patents Location-Based Advertising


• 2 Services for DIY Mobile Social Networks


• Google Chrome Becomes Location Aware


• Can Geosense for Windows Help Kickstart the Development of Location-Aware Apps for Windows 7?


• Glow: Location-Based "Feelings" for iPhone

More coverage and analysis of location-based technology

Announcing the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit

Join us for the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit on May 7 in Mountain View, California as we explore the latest mobile development trends, both the technology and the emerging business applications. Be a part of the discussion on geo-location services, augmented reality, native app vs. browser-based, commerce and marketing, mobile social networking and the Internet of Things. Sponsorship enquiries: sales@readwriteweb.com,

Register now for the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit and get early bird rates - only $295.

Mobile Web

• Watch Out, iPhone Devs: One-Man Android App Nets $13K Monthly


• Netflix on the iPhone? Yes, Please!


• Can We Kick Our Keyboard Addiction by 2013?

More Mobile Web coverage

Historic Conversation in NYC: Ai Weiwei, Jack Dorsey & Richard MacManus

On March 15, at the prestigious Paley Center in New York City, a conversation will take place between Chinese digital activist and artist Ai Weiwei, Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey, and yours truly, Richard MacManus, ReadWriteWeb founder and editor in chief. The moderator will be Orville Schell, the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York.

The topic of the event is the emergence of digital activism for fostering positive social change. The onsite event is invitation only, but it will be live streamed exclusively on ReadWriteWeb on Monday, March 15, at 6:30 PM EST (-5 GMT), from the Paley Center for Media, New York City.

Internet of Things

• McKinsey: Get Ready For Sensor-Driven Business Models


• Ads with Eyes: Keeping Digital Signage in Check


• Google Wants Your Lamp to Tell You How Much Power It's Using

More Internet of Things coverage

Real-Time Web

• Google Index to Go Real Time


• 10.5 Million Wordpress Blogs Get PubSubHubbub


• Beyond Twitter Search: Semantic Analysis of the Real-Time Web

More Real-Time Web coverage. Don't miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb's report, The Real-Time Web and its Future.

Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App

We recently launched the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app. As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes.

ReadWriteStart

Our channel ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.

• The Startup Bus: Is This How Outsiders See Startup Culture?


• Picnik CEO to Startups: The M&As Are Out There


• Are Crowdsourcing and Outsourcing No-Nos For Startups?

ReadWriteEnterprise

Our channel ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' and using social software inside organizations.

• Will StatusNet Be Another Open-Source Star in the Enterprise?


• Drupal Founder Critical of SaaS and its Proprietary Nature

ReadWriteCloud

Our channel ReadWriteCloud, sponsored by VMware and Intel, is dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing.

• Steve Ballmer: Microsoft's Future Is in the Cloud


• Weekly Poll: What is the Top Threat to Cloud Computing?


• How Many Enterprise Workers Will Work in the Mobile Cloud? Try 130 Million

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

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It's Back! Layar's Mobile AR Browser Relaunches On iPhone

In December of last year, augmented reality (AR) browser makers Layar chose to pull its iPhone app from the App Store due to frequent crashes reported by users. They thought it was better for their brand to remove the application than to promote a faulty product. As we've mentioned in the past, Layar had hinted that a revamped iPhone app would be out near the end of February, and earlier this week they released just that.

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With the relaunch of their iPhone app, Layar rejoins acrossair, Wikitude and others now vying for elbow room in the mobile AR space. Layar boasts one of the largest collections of points-of-interest (POI) data sets and now that library is available again on the iPhone. The usual suspects can be found on Layar, such as Flickr photos, Google search, YouTube videos and Wikipedia articles, but one of the more unique layers on the app is Foursquare integration.

Users can use the Layar AR viewfinder to find nearby Foursquare locations and by linking the app to their account can check in without leaving Layar. There is also a feature in each layer to view entries on a map, or in list view. The map is especially handy for Foursquare integration because Foursquare's own app disappointingly doesn't support a map view. An equally interesting layer to investigate is the Recovery.org layer which shows you which U.S. organizations in your area received funding (and the amount they received) from the Recovery Act.

"The new Layar Reality Browser has a re-engineered engine under the hood. This new engine makes the application light, stable and very quick," the company said on its blog. "It is ready to handle all the current layers and it is a good base to realize all of our exciting future plans."

Layar's return to the iPhone platform comes just in time for the company's new layer marketplace which will allow developers to charge users for their content; in other words, an App Store for mobile AR. If Subway wants to create a layer with all of their locations and charge $.99 for it's use, they or any other company will easily be able to do that. One could assume that Layar will make use of Apple's in-app purchase functionality on the iPhone, but it would be sad to see Layar lose a percentage of their cut on the purchases to Apple. If anything, that could raise prices on the layers themselves, but that's a whole other argument.

This could be a huge step forward for the mobile AR space. As these applications become more useful, more refined and more popular, companies will be excited to participate in providing branded content in an AR experience. Expect an announcement from Layar in the next few weeks about the launch of this exciting new platform, but in the meantime, iPhone users (3GS only) can go snag Layar's free app (iTunes link) in the App Store.

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ActiveTrak: A Hybrid Service To Track Stolen or Lost Laptops

Portland has a fast emerging tech culture that is seeing a number of new technology startups.

Today, $225,000 is on the table for one of the year's biggest events: The Oregon Entrepreneur Network's annual Angel Oregon.

One of the major contenders is ActiveTrak, which tracks lost or stolen devices. The company is launching a SaaS service in the next three months for the enterprise.

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You may know the company for its consumer service: GadgetTrak. The software is installed on laptops or mobile devices. It uses WiFi to track the device. For mobile devices, the service may use GPS. If that's not available, it will triangulate using WiFi hotspots or cell towers. The software will also take a picture of the person who stole it.

The software has been used to track stolen computers that has helped break up criminal rings. Recently, Portland schools had a number of laptops stolen that had the software installed.The software tracked the devices, leading to arrests and recovery of the laptops.

CEO Ken Westin said the enterprise service will be available as SaaS or on-premise offering. One of its pilot accounts is with a major chemical company.

People will install the software on the device, which syncs with the application in the cloud. Mobile devices will allow for over the air updates such as with iPhone or Android applications.

Security is obviously a priority. ActiveTrak will store its databases on dedicated servers. The application layer will reside in the cloud. The on-premise service will reside entirely As demand increases, it will increase or decrease its number of application servers as demand peaks and ebbs.

Westin said they are trying to avoid issues with propagating data across a number of servers. Data, in Westin's view, is easier to secure in one place.

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Gain a Job, Lose Two Jobs: Do Tech Companies Wield Too Much Power?

I'm a big fan of maxims and technology. It should be no surprise, then, that Melvin Kranzbergs six laws of technology really speak to me. Perhaps my favorite is, "Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral." There have always been - and will always be - winners and losers. Lately I have been wondering if there have been too many of the latter and not enough of the former.

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Guest author Phil Simon is an independent technology consultant and a dynamic public speaker for hire. He focuses on the intersection of business and technology. Phil is the author of two books: Why New Systems Fail and The Next Wave of Technologies. He maintains a blog, writes for a number of technology media outlets, and hosts the podcast Technology Today.

What specifically am I talking about? I'm talking about how there are only a few companies and industries actually creating jobs these days - and how they're certainly in the driver's seat. In this post, I'll take a realistic (as opposed to moralistic) look at the power that technology companies are wielding these days vis-à-vis job creation.

Supply and Demand at Work

Consider the recent announcement by Facebook to create 200 jobs in Austin, Texas. However, there's a hitch. The company's U.S. expansion is contingent upon Austin officials approving considerable tax breaks.

Some might question why local governments would essentially bid for jobs. It's really quite simple: supply and demand. In this case, the demand for jobs is quite high while the supply is not. What's more, from Austin's perspective, the costs of lost tax revenues need to be viewed against the self-explanatory benefits of newly created jobs.

Google in North Carolina

With that in mind, it's hard to blame Facebook or Austin city officials for trying to make a deal. In fact, they are hardly the first parties to work out a sweetheart deal. I can cite a number of recent examples of organizations that have played would-be suitors against each other for the purposes of procuring the lowest corporate taxes.

Perhaps the most publicized recent case involved Google and Research Park, North Carolina. In that very piece, Rick Smith writes about the complicated negotiations that Google executives held with public officials about job creation - and the subsequent public backlash. Smith rightly asks two questions: Should North Carolina government officials accede to Google's demands? And what's the alternative?

Technology's Role in Unemployment

So there's a fundamental imbalance between the supply and demand of jobs. Let's not pretend that this has never happened before. However, let's compare The Great Recession with previous economic crises. What's different this time? Two things.

First, technology has made jobs more portable, less tied to an individual community. It's not as if Procter & Gamble in 1932 could make contemporary arguments in an attempt to bargain for tax concessions from local government. Employees had to work near other employees; they weren't virtual.

Now, my plumber still needs to be local but he is increasingly the exception to the rule. High-tech companies such as Facebook and Google can take their operations virtually anywhere around the globe. What's more, without getting all political, U.S. tax laws are hardly as employer-friendly as that of other countries that are equally if not more desperate for job creation. Don't think that tech companies are not acutely aware of these facts when they make local U.S. communities in essence bid for job, a trend that will continue.

Second, technology seems to be destroying jobs much faster than it is creating others. German economist Joseph Schumpeter coined a term for this phenomenon in 1942: creative destruction. No doubt that has endured for both its relevance and its wonderful dichotomy.

Technology has always been a disruptive force, but has it become a net negative with respect to job creation? Journalists certainly come to mind. Also, what about the downward pressure that technology exerts on wages? What about the emergence of "The Disposable Worker". As Peter Coy, Michelle Conlin and Moira Herbst argue in a recent BusinessWeek article, more and more people are forced to work as independent contractors, absent the benefits of W-2 - e.g., health benefits, sick time, etc.

Business Realities and the Swinging Pendulum

Let's not kid ourselves here. No economic system is perfect. With capitalism, you have to take the fleas with the dog. Publicly traded corporations such as Google have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders to maximize profits. As for privately held companies such as Facebook, VCs investing millions of dollars surely want to see a ROI sooner rather than later.

Bottom line: We can't blame any organization for minimizing expenses and seeking the lowest taxes, the biggest loopholes. Current economic conditions allow companies to be extremely picky with regard to hiring and establishing new offices. The pendulum has swung squarely to their side.

The Downside of the Internet and Globalization

The question becomes: Is the pendulum permanently stuck on the side of employers? In other words, have globalization, the widespread adoption of broadband, and collaborative tools collectively put too much power in the hands of employers? If so, then are employers unjustly wielding their power to extort onerous terms from communities desperate for job creation?

I know enough about economics and history to rarely use the term "permanently." To me, it's the acme of foolishness. I'd also argue, however, that it's equally foolish to take a Pollyannaish view of technology. Returning to Kranzberg for a moment, technology always creates winners and losers. For the foreseeable future at least, it appears as if employers will fall into the former group.

Photo by dreamguy.
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