I did a talk with Matt Galligan when he was in Vancouver last month. You can see the video here:
http://blip.tv/file/3340542/
I can't seem to dig up a video of Matt's talk.
Basically, Navteq and Tele Atlas own the base map data. Google, Bing, and MapQuest add intelligence on top of this data with features like Street View and driving directions. Foursquare and Gowalla add another layer of intelligence with where people and places are at right now.
Rich location data is the "what,when,why,who" is at this location.
SimpleGeo is:
1) Storage for location with metadata about what's at that location
2) A marketplace to buy and sell data about locations
So, off the top of my head. I can create a door-to-door canvassing app and ask residents if they are Democrats or Republicans. Then I could sell this data to others that would be interested in this data.
What makes location data "rich"? And how do developers use "rich location data" to "leverage the location of their users?"
What exactly does it do?