My Enproperty partner Justin and I bought the new Boost Mobile $30 GPS-enabled cell phones for ourselves. We did not plan on using them as a phone, just to use them as GPS beacons that would auto-update a google map with where we were and where we had been.

The purpose of this experiment was to judge the accuracy and effectiveness of these low-cost phones in the area of contract maintenance management; integrating the GPS real-time position of your facility vendors and staff. But also it was fun. We set aside the obvious big brother concerns and gave map access to midventures friends.

Someone would ask “is Justin still at starbucks” or “why are there all these erratic zig-zaggy lines, were you looking for a parking space?” But aside from the novelty of seeing everywhere your friends have been, we brainstormed a bunch of cool ideas with who a GPS map could impact our lives.

1. Let advertisers see your daily routes and then single you out for online or mobile ads relating to places you pass by

2. GPS-driven dating sites or apps where both parties could get a text saying “turn around and meet this new person”

3. Distribute car traffic and recommend real-time alternate routes based on critical mass crowd data

4. Freelance delivery company with ad hoc pickup / drop - off points

5. The game of tag - but I heard some company was already working on mobile tag

6. Geotag photos of wherever you are, and it auto-populates the photo wall of the place you’re in

7. Geo-tag places you like, people subscribe to your geo-tag feed, and it creates a combo geotwitter and geoyelp

8. Mobile swarm projects for quickly amassing a large group of people in a location - perhaps for an ad hoc concert or rally

9. Geo-report crimes or public annoyances - the police reaction is equivalent to the number of geo-complaints

10. Leave a number of beacons in bikes or cars, unlocked, on the street; and research the distribution systems and routes taken by the criminal resale world

Just a few ideas.