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i am near
I finally got around to writing and launching ‘i am near‘, a very simple application to show you ’stuff’ that you are near, in a format designed for mobile users. At the moment it’s only got pubs and megaliths in it.
Inspired by Simon Willison’s wikinear, it uses Fire Eagle to grab your location, storing your credentials in a cookie. The data is sourced from Open Street Map, which was the only useful source of pub data I could find. Fancy A Pint has a KML file, but it only contains ~2500 pubs, whereas there are ~7300 in OSM. But, if anyone knows of anything better, please let me know. Or, you could just add some pubs to OSM.
At the moment your nearest pubs live at pubs.iamnear.net, which offers lots of scope for more useful searches in the future… bikehire.iamnear.net, hospitals.iamnear.net, etc.
You’ll need a Fire Eagle invitation to use it. I’m afraid I’m all out.
That’s about it really. Very simple. Let me know if you have any suggestions to improve it.
Michael Richardson on April 4th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
How about Unthirsty ( http://unthirsty.com )? Then you could combine it with happy hour data. happyhours.iamnear.net. mmmm.
If you want an introduction to the Unthirsty devs let me know.
Ben Ward on April 4th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
That’s fantastic, Tom. I can see that being rather useful and I completely agree about the potential to pull in other kinds of destinations (restaurants, cafés and coffee shops come to mind).
Also, a few enhancements that come to mind, if I may:
• Adding Google Maps hyperlinks to all the pub names; clicking these on an iPhone will invoke the Google Maps application, and this allow route-finding/interactive mapping and so on.
• Pulling in the out-of-ten rating from somewhere like BeerInTheEvening.com, and linking to the reviews stream.
Steve Ellwood on April 4th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Outstanding! First use I’ve seen of FireEagle - and even found some pubs; since I’m in the Highlands, I’d better add some local pubs.
Potsie on April 8th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Tom Tom Tom……if I have ever taught you anything its that you follow a pub with a curry, where can I get a lamb bhuna after 6 jars of the maidens ale?
Links for 13th April | jon bounds on April 13th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
[...] links pubs i am near | tomtaylor.co.ukTwitResponse: Twitter + Autoresponder = TwitResponseJournalism.co.uk :: Case study: diary of a [...]
Tom on April 13th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
This is super cool, perhaps you could add the addresses as well?
Tom on April 13th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Unfortunately, I only get the data as longitude/latitude, so can’t really do anything useful with addresses. But like I said, if anyone knows a better source of data…
links for 2008-04-14 « Derivadow.com on April 14th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
[...] Find your nearest puv [tomtaylor.co.uk via plasticbag.org] A bit like wikinear it uses Fire Eagle to tell you your nearest pub - if it included the local weather this would be the perfect web app for the British (tags: fireeagle geolocation pub) [...]
Clive on April 30th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Originally known as “The Random Pub Generator” the http://www.throngalong.com website was developed to solve the age-old problem of deciding where to go out for a drink in the evening, how to invite everyone and how to know who is coming and who isn’t.
Basically you set up a shortlist of favourite pubs (or clubs, restaurants etc), add a list of friend’s email address and choose a date and time. Invitations are sent out with a link so everyone can RSVP easily and see who else is going. The neatest thing is that the venue is selected at random, at the time the invitations are sent out, from the list given. The date can be recurring so you can have it go off automatically every week, choosing a different pub each time.
The RSVP page is great as everyone can leave messages for each other to arrange where to meet, explain why they’ll be late, or worse of all, why they’re not coming!