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Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 10:28:37 -0800 (PST)
From: Lily Wai <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Good Use for new Technology (fwd)
Sender: Lily Wai <[log in to unmask]>
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Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 10:12:43 -0800
Skip to Your Loo With GPS by Stewart Taggart
2:00 a.m. Nov. 23, 2000 PST SYDNEY, Australia -- There are 13,000 public
toilets on this continent but only one that matters -- the closest one.
And, like the police, you just can't find one when you need one.
Within a few months, a Perth company will be putting a searchable
database of all Australia's public toilets on the Web. Heading across
town? Across the country? Just type in a postal code, street name or
landmark and, voila -- back will come a list of relief-providing
amenities.
National Geographic Information Systems (NGIS) in Western Australia has
been collecting the data since April. It's now putting the finishing
touches on it. However, it cautions that the database hasn't been
"quality checked," so some surprises could be in store.
Nonetheless, it could be among the most, if not the most, comprehensive
database of such facilities on a national level ever compiled. While it
may not be the most glamorous piece of national information
infrastructure ever built, it could be among the most practical.
The idea was dreamed up earlier this year during meetings between
Australian federal Aged Care Minister Brownyn Bishop and the Continence
Foundation of Australia.
"Historically, incontinence has been a taboo subject, with people afraid
to seek assistance and just hiding away," Minister Bishop said. "Yet up
to one in 20 people are affected by incontinence, a problem that does
not respect gender, class or age."
After winning the tender to provide the database earlier this year, NGIS
faced some clear logistical decisions about how to complete the task.
"One method would have been to go and find all those toilets ourselves,
by having individuals travel around the country with GPS units and
(handheld) computers," said Paul Farrell, NGIS' director of business
development. "But to visit every loo in the country would have taken a
long time, a lot of people, and a heap of money."
Instead, the company sent out questionnaires to each of Australia's more
than 700 local councils asking them to mark on maps where their public
toilets were, as well as other information such as opening times and
wheelchair accessibility.
Surprisingly, more than 99 percent of the local councils responded.
NGIS has already built a website and plans to open it up to a grateful
public sometime early next year. The company also plans to make the
information available to traditional mapmakers, brochure publishers and
local tourist offices. "We figure there'll be two main kinds of users:
those that want to get to know their communities better, and those who
are traveling around," Farrell said.
One valuable sidelight to the survey is that it will enable researchers
to do "gap analysis," a fancy way of saying they'll be able to locate
where public toilets are few and far between.
Value-added services? Well, they could come into play down the road,
says Farrell. Among the ideas being considered to increase the
database's "granularity," its level of detail, are including which
public toilets have baby changing facilities or showers.
Even a star system for comfort and cleanliness has been considered, but
that would require regular updating of the database, he said.
Other ideas might also include providing information about
"quasi-public" toilets, such as those in fast food outlets, gas stations
and in shopping centers. But clearly, the initial database opens the
door to all kinds of possibilities, much like the initial mapping of the
human genome has opened up huge new areas in the realm of biotechnology.
Indeed, with all the current hype about "location-based services" that
might be made available through mobile telephones, this one seems a
killer application. That's because mobile telephones are constantly in
touch with multiple transmission towers, trading off between them to
ensure maximum call quality. This gives mobile phone operators the
ability to locate any switched-on phone to within just a few feet
through a process known as "triangulation."
This tracking ability has raised privacy concerns. But it also raises
the commercial possibility that mobile phones might one day be used as a
kind of portable map through which directions can be provided. Mobile
phone companies already are toying with providing highly localized
weather forecasts or traffic reports.
But both of these would appear likely to be trumped by the information
utility of prompt directions to the nearest public toilet, given the
likely time sensitive and price inelastic nature of demand for the
service.
Lily Wai, INSIDE Idaho Project Director Phone: 208-885-6344
Professor, Head of Government Documents Fax: 208-885-6817
University of Idaho Library (0135) E-Mail:[log in to unmask]
Rayburn Street http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/govdoc
Moscow, Idaho 83844-2353 http://inside.uidaho.edu
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