A theme I keep reiterating in presentations is that everything we encounter in daily life has a geographic component.   Tying this geographic component into the technology we use is the key to real transformation in how we consume data in daily life.   Being able to filter and analyze data geographically is the key.  In this vein, I’m quite excited about yesterday’s launch of geolocation on the Twitter API.

Let’s dream for a second.

Let’s imagine being able to collect a realtime feed of what is going on in a particular location through a network of distributed listening nodes.   Let’s imagine being able to process this feed and analyze what is happening in real time.

Maybe we know about a tsunami 10 minutes earlier from villagers that experienced its power.   Maybe we know there was a spike in chatter about a shooting at a military base 3 minutes sooner.   Maybe we can market to consumers better based on how they react to a billboard in Times Square.

I see this dream becoming reality quite soon.   Twitter with geolocation is essentially a network of  distributed listening nodes for geographic data.    I don’t think we can really predict all the novel ways this is going to be used.

Have an idea for Twitter and geographic analysis?  We’d love to hear it:  info@azavea.com