Hello Airline Pilot Forums--

I've spent a few days trying to get a feel for this community now, and I believe this is an appropriate message, but if it's not I apologize to the moderators and forum users in advance. I'll say right now, this post is neither an advertisement for our app nor a market research survey. I'm just looking for some insights.

I am the founder of a tech start-up based in Washington, D.C. that is about to launch its web app for alpha testing. The app, called Trotr, is a location messaging website designed to help users send and receive location updates to and from their friends.

Trotr, as a location sharing app, is distinct from the likes of FourSquare, or Facebook even, because updates (which are based on very general location) are only sent to and received from friends in the same approximate area. So for example, if you were in New York for a weekend, your friends around New York would get an update, while people in San Francisco would not see anything. There are other features, but that is the most defining.

My brother-in-law is a commercial pilot and when I discussed the app with him, he said airline professionals (pilots and FAs) would got nuts for something like this. On the assumption that he was right, we intend to run our beta testing by opening the app exclusively to airline professionals at first, which is why I'm posting here today. I would like some help understanding the best way to approach this group of people.

Our plan has a number of blind spots that I'm trying to fill in before we proceed, so any help you guys can provide would be much appreciated (feel free to respond by PM if you prefer). These are just general questions, but if you can think of anything to add to them, fire away:

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Again, I appreciate any insights offered. I've always been very fascinated by airports and flying, and am really excited to be reaching out to this community, and I hope you're willing share.

Jacob Hall

 

Interesting idea, but to me, it seems like technology in search of a solution. All of my friends carry cells phones, if I need to contact them I can either text or call, or god forbid, email.

What is the benefit of the app? You mentioned that location updates are sent to and received from friends which implies prior coordination and acceptance of a location beacon invite (refer to the first paragraph). If the app broadcasts to anonymous users, that's just creepy and I can do without being cyberstalked.

I've used "Find my Friends" on iOS and find it pretty useless. Aside from the obvious privacy/safety concerns I just don't get the benefit of seeing "very general location" info on a "radar" type display.

 

Thanks for the feedback, CRM114.

So we assume a number of early advantages over conventional messaging, specifically for people who travel with an irregular schedule to various destinations (making it hard to know when they're in which city). This is compounded when said person has friends or contacts whose travel habits are similarly unstructured. For certain users--we're assuming pilots fall into this category--the immediate benefit is simply making regular messaging with your friends more seamless.

That said, these are assumptions. At the end of the day, our beta roll-out to airline professionals is an attempt to test those assumptions with ideal users.

As for your other points, other benefits include the ability to communicate abroad via the internet (text/call might be very expensive for international users) and coordinate plans in advance (future expansions will include the ability to notify friends where you will be before arriving).

There is indeed "prior coordination" to manage the sharing of location beacons. Users follow each other with what is called asymmetric account following (think Twitter/Instagram opposed to Facebook). So I only send updates to users who are following my account, and only receive updates from accounts I follow (with an option to approve all of my followers). There are privacy concerns, but we take them very seriously and have mapped out very robust controls.

Does that change your outlook at all?

 

I would use that app in a heartbeat.

 

There would probably be many mobility pilots from the Air Force that would like to try that app as well. Try to ask the same question on Baseops.net.

 

Ewok, we were actually wondering how much use we might get from active duty military professionals, who are a relatively mobile group. We assumed even though the location beacons are private and relatively benign pieces of information, that sharing them across a digital medium might create too many opsec issues to be feasible. Do you think we misread those factors?

 

Mobility pilots have no idea what opsec is, my FB feed is full of friends announcing their landing in some city and asking who's around for dinner. Your app may encourage more bad habits as far as opsec is involved but if you have descent privacy and security built in you might get a few takers over there.

 

Mark Zuckerberg is a billionaire for a reason. Other people are not Mark Zuckerberg.