Wikipedia + Geotag = Cyclopedia vs Wikitude

A few weeks back, I came across the Cyclopedia and Wikitude apps in iTunes Store and clicked buy (Cyclopedia costs $1.99 whereas Wikitude is FREE) the moment I read their description and saw the screenshots. Well, it took me this long to try out the apps and share the goodness because of the poor performance of my iPhone3G which was running on iOS4.1! Anyway, let’s put the past aside (Yes! I am a iPhone4 user now!) and focus on the apps, shall we?

Cyclopedia is an iPhone app that uses iPhone’s inbuilt compass and GPS to trigger the Wikipedia entries that are geotagged and display on the user’s iPhone screen.

To add GPS coord to a wiki page, use the template provided by Wikipedia and it’s as easy as that to get the information to be displayed using the Cyclopedia app!

Here’s a video that demonstrates what this app does…

Here are 3 crucial enhancements (i.e. in my opinion as a user) I am proposing:-

1. App could push notifications to user on nearby mostly visited/viewed places of interest
2. Introduce more reliable sources instead of just source from Wikipedia. User could then select his/her choice of source of information.
3. Go 2-way instead of 1-way or static by allowing users to add locations/information/related media that do not exist on any of the sources.

With these enhancements, this app will certainly allow collaborative learning to take place anytime, anywhere.

Wikitude is an iPhone, Android and Nokia app that uses the phone’s inbuilt compass and GPS to trigger information from various sources including Wikipedia that are geotagged and display on the user’s iPhone screen.

Wikitude interface is not as friendly compared to Cyclopedia but has a lot more data and is more accessible for users to add data to (talking about 2-way and collaborative learning).  Wikitude lets anyone add POI (Points of Interest) to the Augmented Reality app through a dead-simple interface at Wikitude.me (I added my workplace!) and it’s as easy as A-B-C!

Watch how to do it here…

It’s because Wikitude is open to user generated content that I find it the most feasible for collaborative mLearning.

Hopefully the technology for mobile AR apps will continue to improve and our want/need list increases accordingly 🙂