Location tracking -- for people, products, places -- is fast coming into its own / It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your _______ is?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Chris Kantarjiev <cak () dimebank com>
Date: October 12, 2005 10:16:05 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Location tracking -- for people, products, places  
-- is fast coming into its own / It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where  
your _______ is?


Dave -

Some amateur radio operators have been allowing their
location to be known since as early as 1994, using a system
called APRS (http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs.html).
This was originally envisioned as a tactical, RF-only
system, but the addition of an Internet component
(ARPS-IS, http://www.aprs-is.net/) and finally the
FindU service (http://www.findu.com/) has turned the
system into a world-wide tracking system.

It's completely opt-in - you have to be a licensed amateur,
you have to carry the equipment with you, you have to set
it up correctly to get your beacons to findu.

There *are* valid reasons to do this, voluntarily and opt-in.
There was hue and cry in 1991 or 1992 about the Olivetti
Active Badges that we carried at PARC, too.

Tracking itself is not bad; involuntary tracking is the issue.
There are a lot of plusses and minuses, and I look forward
to the exploration and debate.

Chris Kantarjiev
Palo Alto


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