Strawman Proposal: Wireless Access Point Geolocation, and Location-Linked Behaviours

[Andrew Coles]

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone - keep it coming :).  



> > * add support for it to the network connections plasmoid
> 
> can that plasmoid tell the difference between the unsecured linksys I leech 
> from at my friend's house, and the hundreds of other unsecured linksys routers 
> scattered around this city (and other cities I've visted for that matter)?

It would be okay.  Any limitations of the the network manager plasmoid would not be a problem, as it is not responsible itself for the geolocation - it would just use the available data to pick which network to connect to.  In any case, AP geolocation works with MAC addresses - otherwise I couldn't tell where I was in the building as the dozen or so CIS-WLAN access points woudn't be distinguishable.  I'd love it if - as well as choosing which network to connect to - the network manager could be configured to do the whole package.  Proxy settings, my distcc hosts file, mounted sftp drives, LAN package update mirror, etc.  Not that any of that needs geolocation, of course, but it's an itch I'd like to scratch once some of the ground-work is done.

In terms of the work to build the AP geolocation backend, I'm busy for the next couple of weeks (conference paper deadline looming) but then should have some time.  If a considerable body of potential builds up around the, I'll chat to the mobile HCI guys in the department about co-supervising a final year undergraduate student to work on parts of it as their project work.

Andrew