iBeacon and Rapid Technology Adaptation

Tonight I was at “Mobile, Mobile Everywhere” hosted by NYEdTech and it was thought provoking. The panel members gave a bunch of great insight like:

• User sessions on mobile are shorter (30-300 seconds prevalent, as opposed to desktop sessions 30-60 minutes)
• Mobile has a better experience when requiring something like a camera or microphone (video chat, pictures, augmented reality – difficult to do on the desktop)
• Mobile learners are using mobile because that’s what works for their lives/constraints

I found the “better experiences with rich media” an interesting point.  Obviously one can do media applications from a desktop, but it’s not as low friction as it is from a smartphone.  It also got me thinking about iBeacon (which I am currently working on) adaption.  I’d say the best use of taking advantage of the embedded camera and microphone do not come from typical industry (finance, retail/e-comm) but have seen the most adaptation in social and ed-tech as possibly second place (maybe real estate?)

Anyways, I was brainstorming simple ideas about how to use micro location with folks:

• Scavenger hunt type activities
• Attendance taking (what a stupid shitty time suck at school) and other presence awareness applications
• Prompting (walk into math class, have the app wake up and get you started)

One person told me about an educational scavenger hunt powered by QR codes.  I pointed out probable flaws: 1) it’s easy to cheat (someone posts the QR code as a picture online) 2) it’s high friction.  (the guy told me these were indeed issues) iBeacon addresses both of those issues.  It’s going to be harder to fake an iBeacon signal (esp with certain twists) and it’s lower friction than a QR code.

Ed-tech has less to lose than “typical industry” (it’s a new industry) and the client base (kids) are easier adopters.  I think ed-tech is an interesting future client of iBeacon tech.