GoI70

Welcome to the briar patch Jackrabbits. You are the core of the GoI70 users community. Your efforts will help us to develop and refine the mobile interface for GoI70.

We are in early, early beta testing of the social network. Your help is essential to test and refine the features.

Rabbits love the briar patch – its a great place, but its a bit complicated at first. So here are a few directions for all you bunnies. Follow these and you will soon be hopping down the highway.

What is the GoI70 & the GoI70 social network?

GoI70 is a mash-up of the best traffic and travel information that is available for the mountains and the communities along I-70, west of Denver.

The GoI70 social network is open to everyone who travels I-70 – skiers, hikers, sightseers & local mountain dwellers. You will find the social network under the messages tab of the GoI70 control panel. Messages includes up to the minute system estimates of the speed/delay along the highway and posts from people traveling and working along I-70.

We built the GoI70 social network on top of Twitter’s basic messaging service. If you know and understand Twitter then this will be second nature. Don’t worry if you aren’t familiar with Twitter, we’ll walk you through hooking up a Twitter account and after that you can stick with us or explore Twitter to your heart’s content.

What do you need?

To be fully operational I70 iPhone Jackrabbits need an iPhone, the free InstaMapper app from the iTunes App Store, a computer and a good measure of curiosity… and patience.  Allow about 30-45 minutes.

Begin with your computer and your iPhone. Set up your browser – Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer – so that you can have two or three active tabs or windows. This will make for a better work flow since you will be moving from one website to another.

#1 Join! the GoI70 social network

Log on to GoI70 – type http://i70.spherado.com/maps into the address bar of your internet browser. (Hint: Bookmark this address.)

A Google map showing the I-70 corridor will appear. On the right side of the page is the control panel, click the “Messages” tab.

On the upper left in the Messages box will be a blue button that says “Sign in with Twitter”. Click it and follow the instructions. You will either a) already have a Twitter account or b) follow Twitter’s sign up procedure.

a. If you have a Twitter account, log on with your current Twitter name and password. Twitter will send you back to GoI70 where you can text your messages to the I-70 traveling community, see what others are saying and get the latest in traffic and road conditions.

b. If you don’t have a Twitter account, click the Sign in with Twitter button. Twitter will give the chance to “Sign Up Now.” Creating a Twitter account is simple, you will be asked to provide an email account, select a screen name and password, and be given a number of options to provide information and personalize your Twitter account. You do not have to do anything more than open an account. There are some nice features on Twitter, but life is short so don’t get bogged down in details if you don’t want to.

Your Twitter account screen name and password are your GoI70 screen name and password.

Leave GoI70 up in your first tab or window while you open a new one. On to task # 2.

#2 Set up InstaMapper & iPhone GPS Tracker App

The setup instructions for iPhone and Android phones are different from this point on. iPhone users can continue on this page. Follow this link to set up InstaMapper and the GPS Tracker App on an Android Phone

A key contribution to the accuracy and ongoing usefulness of GoI70 comes from collecting speed and road condition data from our I-70 Jackrabbits. We get this data when a Jackrabbit (you for instance) activate the app GPS Tracker on your iPhone. This will determine your location, speed and heading and share it with GoI70. This is real time information about the highway that we use and share on GoI70.

The application can be turned off any time you want. You decide whether to share your location information with GoI70.

InstaMapper installation Step 2.1

On you computer, go to the InstaMapper web site at http://www.instamapper.com/ and sign up for an account. They have very clear step by step instructions on the website and it only take a minute or two to sign up.

After activating your account, log in and click on “add a tracking device”. You will be asked to choose a name for your phone and designate its type. Leave it at the default,  “imperial.”  Click “Add”. You will be given a 13-digit device key.

InstaMapper installation Step 2.2
On your iPhone, go to the App Store search for and install the free “GPS Tracker” application.

Start the application, tap “Continue” to dismiss the welcome screen, and enter the 13-digit device key from step 1. Other settings may be left at default values. Tap “Save”.

InstaMapper installation Step 2.3

Caution: Please read this section through before you implement it. Note that there are two separate numeric keys involved – the Device key (13 digits) and the API key (19 or 20 digits). This step and the next one require the longer API key.

Go back to your computer and the Instamapper Devices page where you got the devices key. (See InstaMapper Installation Step 1)

Click the Devices tab

At the bottom of the Devices page, click the link “Configure API access”. This will take you to the API Access page where you will see the name you gave your phone and the device key number. To the right is a heading “Action” and under it a link “Enable API access” – Click the link.

InstaMapper will generate a new 20 character API key for you. (This is a different number from the device key, they are not interchangeable.)

InstaMapper installation Step 2.4

Return to the Messages tab on GoI70 (i70.spherado.com/maps) and sign in using your Twitter name and password. On the black menu bar at the top of the Messages Tab, to the right of the Twitter button is another button “Join the I70 Corridor Mobile Users” – Click it.

You will be prompted to enter your InstaMapper API key. Enter the API key – the 20 character number from step 2.3.

Start the GPS Tracker app on your iPhone. Let GPS Tracker run. You can put the screen to sleep with the sleep/wake button on the top right of the iPhone if you want. GPS Tracker will run after the screen sleeps.

GPS Tracker will track only as long as the app is running. If you use other iPhone functions – you make a phone call, text the GoI70 social network, take a picture, or check out GoI70 mobile – GPS will stop tracking you. When you are done, be sure to turn GPS Tracker back on and let it run.

Check the system out

Launch GPS Tracker and be sure the phone gets and transmits a location. Launch the Safari browser and go to http://i70.spherado.com/lite.  . This is our mobile phone application address.  Double tap on the window, write us a message and tap “Update”. Leave Safari and relaunch GPS Tracker.

To see your location and tweets, go to GoI70 on your computer, select the Interactive Map tab and check the boxes for “User Locations” and/or “Recent User Messages”. Your last location and tweet will show up on the interactive map. Your message will also show in the Messages stream.

#3 Traveling with Go I70

When you are ready to go on a trip, log into the GoI70 web site on your computer, http://i70.spherado.com/maps.  The current highway speeds show on the map and can be seen in detail on the Trip Planning tab. You can search the Interactive Map for road, weather and ski conditions and 100s of other activities. If you want to get the most recent updates from GoI70 be sure to set your Twitter account to forward messages to your phone or computer.

Before you leave start the GPS Tracker app on your iPhone. Let GPS Tracker run.

To post a message to the network using the iPhone, use the Safari browser to GoI70 mobile app which is currently found at http://i70.spherado.com/lite (Hint: You can add the page to your screen by clicking the + at the bottom of the Safari screen and then clicking “Add to Home Screen.”)

When the page loads double click on the center of the screen and the tweets will resize so they are easily readable. Enter a tweet in the text box and click “update.” Your tweet will appear on the map along with your most recent location.When you are done leave Safari and restart Instamapper.

Also at http://goi70.com/mobile, you can click on the Trip Planning tab to see current expected travel times by segments of the higway.

Keep up to the minute with GoI70

If you want to read the messages and alerts coming over the GoI70 network without interrupting the flow on your iPhone- the InstaMapper program or other programs that you are using – you can set your Twitter account to send the text messages by SMS (OS 2.2.1 or earlier) or Messages (OS 3.0 or later) to your iPhone.

When this feature is engaged you will see each GoI70 message whenever you touch the home button or the sleep/wake button on the top right of the iPhone. You can even set your phone to make a sound every time you receive a new message.

Go to Twitter.com and log on to your home page. (If you are already logged on to GoI70 you will go directly to Twitter.)

Click “Settings” in the upper right. This takes you to your account page – now click on “Devices”. Enter the number of the mobile phone that you will take on your trip. Twitter will give you a short numeric code to text back to them at 40404. When you enter the code, Twitter will verify that you are connected.

Finally, set limits on times you want to receive updates in your the Mobile tab found in your Settings. You will probably want to turn the SMS text messages off when you are not traveling or planning to travel along I70.

Other considerations

When you get back home you can log on to your InstaMapper account to see your location during the trip. There are lots of fun things you can do with this app if you wish.

You can always use your Twitter iPhone client – Tweetie, Twitteriffic or TweetDeck – to message us @GoI70 and stay connected to Twitter. But, you will have a better picture of the highway and the conversation if you go directly to GoI70.

Consider buying a car charger for your iPhone. It is a long trip and the apps use power. What a shame to run out of power just when there is something important to share.

Let us know how it works

We’ll be checking the comments on the blog, so let us know how things are going under the Pre-Beta Testing tab at the top of this page.

Thanks for your interest and help.