Locative Media and Communities

K Willis, K Cheverst

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The development of locative media applications is not simply about the physical location or social setting in which the interaction occurs, but also about situating the media within the social setting of a community. This Special Issue explores the potential for locative media applications to support community cohesion and the integration of such media within existing community structures and practices. The articles address the dual challenge of capturing the temporary and spatially changeful nature of behaviours with locative media, as well as responding to the intricate web of strong and weak social ties that make up local social networks, in order to find ways to support community frameworks and practices. In terms of methodology it focuses on ethnographic approaches for investigating and evaluating the integration of media in these social settings. Many studies have investigated how mobile computing can respond dynamically to the setting in which the interaction occurs. Locative media has tended to refer to mobile ‘context-aware’ technologies which respond directly to location and features of spatial settings. These technologies and applications typically recognise the current location of the user, either through GPS or other location-based sensing and enable certain actions that are relevant to the location. However, here, we refer to locative media in a much broader sense; as those which are embedded within a social framework or setting so that they are ‘located’ within their socio-cultural context. This draws on and extends approaches introduced by researchers such as Suchman (1987) and Dourish (2001) which see computing as situated or embodied within a rich and complex social world. Therefore we define locative media as ‘media that situates communication practices within a local social or spatial setting’. This setting may have the location in space as a critical aspect of the interaction, but the social network or community in which it is embedded is the primary factor.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)615-617
Number of pages0
JournalInternational Journal of Human Computer Studies
Volume69
Issue number10
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2011

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