NOTE: this project page dates from March 2000, and was shelved a *long* time ago...

h2g2 On the Move is already an amazing extension to the h2g2 service, and the storyboard below shows our plans for the service. As we're sure you'll agree, the possibilities are very exciting.

Ask h2g2

You wake up in the morning, and there's time to kill, so you reach for your trusty h2g2 handset and ask it what's happening in the world.

h2g2 looks at where you are and, based on what it knows about your personal likes and dislikes, suggests a list of possible activities in your area.

From that list you decide you fancy a bit of art gallery action, so you ask h2g2 how to get to the art gallery that it's recommended.

Because it can tell where you are (but only if you want it to, of course), h2g2 guides you to the gallery.

Once at the gallery you can ask h2g2 for more information about the particular paintings you are looking at...

...and h2g2 tells you not only about the painting, but about the artist, her other works and other intriguing and useful facts.

Tell h2g2

Having thoroughly enjoyed your experience at the gallery, you decide that life would be considerably easier with a coffee inside you, so you wander round to corner to a café. Here you use your h2g2 handset to tell h2g2 what a great gallery it was.

The coffee also happens to excellent, though the service is a little sloppy, so you write a Guide Entry on the café which h2g2 automatically dates and tags with your location before putting it into the Guide.

Browse h2g2

While in the café you use h2g2 to have a chat with other members in the community, asking them and h2g2 for more information on the area and what's worth exploring - and because h2g2 is a live service, the information is bang up to date.

h2g2 Tells Me

Based on what it knows about your personal likes and dislikes, h2g2 contacts you to say that today there is a beer festival just down the road, where you'll be able to combine your favourite pursuits of drinking beer and dancing like your dad...

...and again h2g2 gives you directions from the café to the beer festival, taking you on either the shortest route or the most interesting one, depending on your mood.

Once at the beer festival it's time for the first of too many. Life is indeed sweet.

h2g2 Community

While sinking pints of whatever beer tickles your fancy, you not only get talking to fellow revellers at the festival, you also have real-time forum chats with fellow Researchers from all over the world...

...the culmination of which is a collaborative limerick created by other h2g2 members - some of whom will be at home, and some exploring the planet like you.

h2g2 Account

It's the next day, and through the sawtooth haze of a hangover the waking thought strikes hard - how long did you spend on h2g2? What's your phone bill going to be like? And when's that throbbing behind the eyes going to go away?

So you fire up your h2g2 handset and find that your regular use has earned you loyalty points that reduce your overall phone bill by a considerable amount. Life, it appears, can go on.

h2g2 Limits

One thing though: h2g2 can't answer everything, especially when beer is involved...

Here's some more nostalgia from the same source, this time from November 1999...

For those of you who don't have a WAP or HDML phone, this is what our h2g2 On the Move service looks like.

Each of the following sections shows a feature of the service, along with links for each of the options available from that screen. So, for example, in the Home Page section, there are five options you can choose - on the phone you'd use the two buttons available, but here you can simply click on the approriate links and you'll go to the next screen. It's just like having a phone... just a very big one with more buttons.

The text shown in square brackets after each link is the name that appears over the relevant button on the phone.

Note that these shots are taken from the HDML version of the service; WAP phones may look slightly different, but functionality is the same on all platforms.

This is the main menu for h2g2 On the Move, from where you can access the five top-level features of the service.

About h2g2 [About]
Latest Additions [Read]
Active Conversations [Look]
Search h2g2 [Find]
My Journal [Add]

In case you need help with how to use h2g2 On the Move, there's some help text right to hand.

h2g2 Home [h2g2]

This is where you can read the five latest additions to the Approved Guide.

Title of Entry [Read]
...h2g2 Home [h2g2]

This is where you can read the five most recently updated forums.

Subject of thread [Read]
...h2g2 Home [h2g2]

If you want to search the Approved Guide, this is where you can enter your search word(s).

Title of Entry [Read]
...New Search [Find]

...h2g2 Home [h2g2]

Once you are logged in, this is where you can write and read your Journal. If you haven't yet logged in, you are taken to the Login screen instead.

...Previous Threads [Prev]

Subject of thread [Read]
...More Threads [Next]

...Add new entry [Add]
...h2g2 Home [h2g2]

Reading entries is surprisingly easy, even on a small screen like a mobile phone's.

[Cont...] [Prev]

Next Section [Skip]

See discussions [Forum]
...h2g2 Home [h2g2]

When viewing a forum, you get a list of all the threads in a conversation.

Subject of thread [Join]
...Back to entry [Read]
...h2g2 Home [h2g2]

When you choose a forum thread you can read it in exactly the same way as on the web.

Next Post [Skip]

Previous Post [Skip]

Back to Topic List [List] or Back to Journal [Jrnl] or Back to Forum [Forum] (depending on context)

...h2g2 Home [h2g2]

Adding a Journal Entry is easy: just enter the subject, then the message, and then post it.

Back to Journal [Back]
Continue [Cont.]
...h2g2 Home [h2g2]

Before you can post anything to h2g2, you must of course log on. This uses the same account details as on the h2g2 web site, so you don't need to set up any new settings to use h2g2 On the Move.

Login Help [Help]
Continue [Cont.] (takes you back to where you were before you needed to log in)

...h2g2 Home [h2g2]

And, in case the login system gets confusing, there's help available.

The text reads:

Currently, in order to login to h2g2 On the Move, you must have already set up an account on the more sedentary World Wide Web. It's not possible to set up an account from your phone at the moment, but we will make this possible as soon as we can.


UserID
To identify yourself to us, enter your email address or your h2g2 researcher number. You can find out your researcher number by looking in the right-hand column of your home page on the WWW version of h2g2.


Password
Use the same password that you use to login on the WWW version of h2g2.

Back to Login [Back]
...h2g2 Home [h2g2]