‘Big Brother!’ This is the most common reaction from people who hear or read about Wizi for the very first time. I’ve seen it in many forums and blogs, I’ve heard it from friends and unknown people I’ve talked to. "Big Brother!" they say "that means my boss or my wife may track me at any time. There will be no peace from now on…" Most of these comments are made in a funny tone but there’s always some truth in it. People are concerned with their privacy.  

The concept of Big Brother, raised in George Orwell’s novel, is related with another concept investigated by the French philosopher Michel Foucault: the Panoptic. In his book Discipline and Punish, Foucault analyzed the Panopticon, a prison that was structured in a way that all cells would be opened to a central tower. Prisoners could never know whether they were being watched or not, but they knew someone could be watching them at any moment. This uncertainty, this constant possibility of being watched (pan=all; optic=seeing) would make prisoners more docile and self-controlled.

George Orwell used this concept to describe an authoritarian society where all citizens were "good citizens". In every home, in every working place, there was the telescreen (a mashup between a television set and a security camera) which could never be switched off. At any moment, anywhere, big brother could be watching so every citizen had to behave.

The idea of having all your friends and colleagues controlling your steps is, in fact, frightening. We all need our space, our privacy. The other day I was demoing Wizi to a couple, and the husband told me instantly: ‘Big Brother!’ And then he said: ‘Listen, I don’t mind if my wife knows where I am… as long as I’m home. But I don’t want her to spy on me’. The wife replied: ‘I don’t want to know what he’s doing when he’s away. And I don’t want him to know where I am. He’s too jealous’. And then they kissed and laughed at it. Then I explained that Wizi in not about controlling, but about sharing information. I mean, you just tell what you want to tell: you can set yourself invisible or, as in life, you can always lie about your whereabouts. They enjoyed the idea. And this is the big difference between Wizi and any panoptic device: you decide when someone can be watching you, you decide who can watch you and for how long. You define what that person  will see when watching you. Wizi is a social application, not a surveillance device.

A new preview for Java ME compatible devices in now available. We are still fixing some bugs and haven't placed it in our download page yet. However, some users showed interest on start trying it right away.

In this version:

- Some features are limited
- Location using Cell ID is not available
- Interactive maps are not implemented yet: temporarily we are using static maps by opening the web browser. This solution lets you see yourself, your friends and your places on the map, but doesn't allow routes.

To download Wizi for your Java compatible device, point your phone's web browser to the following address:
http://download.wizi.com/midlet/Wizi.jad

Please feel free to use our help by posting a comment here or by sending me an e-mail to andreg@wizi.com. This application is being developed for you, so let us know your opinion.
 

Miguel @Wizi Just receive an email from google with our results from android challenge, we were on top 25% of all applications:

Hi,

Thanks again for participating in the Android Developer Challenge.  We have had a lot of constructive feedback from our developer partners who have contributed to the success of the challenge.  In listening to the feedback, we heard that participants would like more visibility into the ranking of their entries.  As you know, entries were judged on the following criteria: Effective Use, Polish, Indispensability, Originality.  Due to the large number of high quality entries, many of the submissions received scores that are extremely close to each other.

That's why a single individual score would provide less information than the relative ranking of each submission when compared to the other submissions.

Below is the percentile ranking for your application in these four categories and the overall score.  The first set of scores is for the percentile ranking for specific categories; for example, it shows how your application ranked among all the other apps in "Effective use",  "Polish", "Indispensability", and "Originality". The final score shows your application's overall ranking among all of the submissions.

Wizi

Effective use: In the top 25% of all submitted applications

Polish: In the 25th to 50th percentile of all submitted applications

Indispensability: In the top 25% of all submitted applications

Originality: In the top 25% of all submitted applications

Overall: In the top 25% of all submitted applications

Thank you,

Android Developer Challenge Team

A Portuguese well known computer magazine has just publish this article in their magazine and Website:

 http://exameinformatica.clix.pt/multimedia/video/997202.html

It's me demoing Wizi for Android (in portuguese sorry...)

Miguel

We just begin the mashup with twitter, you will just have to invite "Twitter" as a friend and then when you send "Geo  messages" (Ex: miguels @wizi)  to this friend, it will Twitt them on your profile (you will have to set your Twitter credentials off course).

 Check an example here:

 http://twitter.com/miguels

Our Twitter Bot is here:

http://twitter.com/wizibot

 Please tell us what you think about this idea?

Miguel - wizi.com/miguels

PS: Thank you Guillaume for this idea - http://webtopmania.blogspot.com/

One of the most useful things about Wizi is something I never expected.  I thought my main use would be to keep track of friends to link up for social purposes, or to let my wife know if I'm on the way home, saving me and her all those extra, "when are you coming home?" calls.

But the most frequent thing I do with Wizi is glance at the screen to see where my business partners are before I call them.

If it's early in the morning, or late at night, I want to know if Peter is still burning the midnight oil at the office, or if he's at home with his daughter.  For routine calls, I won't bother him at home, but maybe if he's commuting, or working late at the office, that's a good time to catch him for a chat.

I keep myself visible to all my business partners, too.  At first, I thought it was a little strange to let them know where I was every minute of the day or night, but now I actually find it very convenient - for me - that they can find out where I am at a glance.  If I'm late for a meeting, or on my way, they know.  If they want to call me, they know where I am at the time.  Maybe if I'm at my favorite restaurant, they're going to postpone the call.  And if I'm still at work, they can call even if it's late.

I admit it took a mental leap to set Wizi to show my location so often (and sometimes I do turn it off), but now that I've done it, it seems completely natural, and I wish more of my friends and colleagues used Wizi to find me.

Cell ID – This new release already supports location without GPS, automatically activated when the device can not detects GPS signal. Note that this feature is still restricted to certain regions and operators. You may notice a target composed by circles centring you on the map. That represents the probability of your actual location.

"Me" on map – In this version, besides your avatar on the map, you will also see a blue circle (blue arrow if you are moving). The blue object represents your real location, while the avatar shows how other users see you. For instance, if you enter in "Keep Me Here" feature, your avatar will stay in the assigned location.

Visibility – Users are now able to change very easily their visibility, switching between "Share Actual Location", "Keep Me Here" and "Invisible" mode. You may find this feature by pressing the small icon on the right corner of the lower bar (Earth for Actual Location, Earth with Pushpin for Keep Me Here and Ghost for invisible mode).

Offline Friends – When clicking on an friend which is invisible or offline, a new screen will appear where you will be able to ask him to share his location. This way he will receive a message on Wizi and e-mail notifying him that you want to see him on the map.