Locative media

Origin of concept: Location-based Workshop in Karosta, Latvia July 16-26, 2003, Karosta, Latvia

Global vs. local

McLuhan: "global village"
• Vs. locality

Geographic Information Systems

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Technological background

Positioning

• GPS Global positioning systems
To come: Galileo

Maps and satellite images

• Google Maps
• Google Earth
• Yahoo maps
• Eniro
Etc.

Mobile devices

Equipped with:
• GPS
• Wireless internet connection (for example 3G) or WLAN
• Camera
• Etc

Internet of things

• Internet of things
Tuters and Varnelis, 2006) Beyond Locative Media: Giving Shape to the Internet of Things. Leonardo, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 357-363.

Communities and locations

How do they relate to each other?
Do places unite people, or are people associated with places?

Mobility

• Internet turning mobile
Focus on nearby-things: Services, people, hot-spots

Socio-geographical applications

Brightkite: Sign up in places
• HeyWay (iPhone)
• Locative Matchmaker? Ontospace + geospace

Navigation applications

• Street navigation, e.g. TomTom
• Marine navigation, e.g. Navionics

Assignment

Genius loci of hot spots! Locations with free WLAN have a particular meaning to globally connected individuals. But what about the random place itself? Observe locations with the invisible link and reflect the contrast of local situatedness and global connectivity on the spot.

Team up

• 1 - 4 members
Go out to the city.
Track for hot spots.
When finding a hot spot, make an entry to the shared Tallinn hot spots map.
Add photos.
Describe the environment, promote, observe.

Show Tallinn hot spots on a large map

Each member to her own.

Blog post

Embed or link the map to your course blog.
Killer application? Could communities emerge on the basis of sharing hot spots?
What is missing from the concept?
Personas for the hot spot sharing concepts?
• Concerns? Legal, ethical, security, privacy? Brightkite example