Barista Magazine

FEB-MAR 2014

Barista Magazine is your home for the worldwide community of coffee and the people who make it.

Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/251275

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 69 of 87

AS MANY OF YOU KNOW, we at Barista Magazine recently released our free app and Web map called Coffee Scout. The Coffee Scout Project began with our friend and coffee author, Alon Halevy, who approached us with his idea for a way to find good cafés when he travels. We immediately got on board since we especially liked his idea of a crowd-built database; it represents to us some of the best aspects of specialty coffee: openness, inclusivity, and community. (If you haven't added your café yet, you can do it at www.baristamagazine.com/ CoffeeScout/coffeescouthome.html.) As the database and the map continue to rapidly grow, we took a moment to chat with Alon recently about the reason for, and development of, the Coffee Scout Project. BMag: What was your original idea for the global coffee map (aka Coffee Scout)? Do you remember a specific time or place where you wanted to have an app like Coffee Scout? Alon: My day job at Google is about data, data, and data. I have a passion for enabling people to get the right data when they need it. What can be more important than finding a great café when you're in need? The specific idea for Coffee Scout came about when Barista Magazine asked their followers on Facebook to post names of great cafés. I was afraid this data would be lost forever in my Facebook stream and wanted to put it in a database I can view on my phone. I also happen to be responsible for the perfect tool for this kind of app: Google Fusion Tables. BMag: Why was it important to you to build a database that was open, i.e. the crowd-sourced model? Alon: It would have been impractical to build Coffee Scout and keep it-up-to-date without the participation of the community. Of course, the ethos of transparency in coffee should also translate into transparency in data. I'm hoping Coffee Scout can serve as a first example of collecting data that is valuable to the coffee community. BMag: You've written a book about coffee and coffee culture around the world; Do you see the Coffee Scout app as an extension of that? If so, how? 70 barista magazine Alon: In writing The Infinite Emotions of Coffee, I fell in love with this community and wanted to continue contributing to it. Since I'm done writing books for a while, I thought I'd do something closer to my real expertise. BMag: When, where, and why did you get involved in coffee? Why is it such a fascinating subject to you that you'd travel the world to find out more about it? Alon: My involvement with coffee started at the age of two, when my grandfather thought that sipping a boiling cup of Turkish coffee together would be a great way to bond. Many years later, when my job started involving a lot of travel for speaking engagements, I realized that I'm being drawn to cafés everywhere I go, because that's where I got to really experience the local culture. I decided to write a book on the relationship between culture and coffee, created a Google map with 30 countries to visit, and started executing. BMag: Why did you build the app first for the Apple App Store and when can we expect Coffee Scout for Android? Alon: I've been to too many gatherings with coffee folks where I was the only one without an iPhone…For some reason, the dominance of Android in the market does not seem to apply to the coffee folk. The Android version of Coffee Scout is coming very soon! BMag: Any truth that when Coffee Scout is released for Android it will also come preinstalled in Google Glass so you'll never go without quality coffee again? Alon: Actually, when you're waiting for coffee, the Barista Scout app on Glass follows the barista and automatically fills out a WBC score sheet. The data is collected and used by Google HR to identify candidates for staffing our internal cafés. I'm not at liberty to discuss the details, but I recommend not changing facial hair too often during this trial because it confuses the face recognition on the device [Wink]. —Kenneth R. Olson

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

view archives of Barista Magazine - FEB-MAR 2014
subscribe to email alerts