Location is dead. Long live location.
If tagging was the new black at SxSW 2005, location-based technologies are the new, new black. The past year has seen the launch of Google Earth, Google Local (MS and Yahoo versions). The opening of the API for these has lead to a number of map mashups such as like wayfaring, community walk, mehere, and platial. Geotagging has been introduced as a way to include gps information in tags.
Beyond maps, services such as socialight and dodgeball, and jambo leverage handheld devices to connect people to those around them, and provide them with locationally relevant information.
While the Internet has had a role in creating a global community that transcends time and place, it has simultaneously reinforced the need for community. The interplay between global and local was looked at explicitly in the panels on “Cyberplace: Online in Offline Spaces” and “Designing for Global and Local Social Play.” However this interplay also cropped up in unexpected places. The panel on the future of radio discussed the role of tradional radio as a community and locality-based technology in a world of online global media. The panel on online politics stressed uses of the web that organize people at the local level—to get people talking to their neighbors—within the context of a national campaign.
Related Panels:
Cyberplace: Online in Offline Spaces — and vice versa: program | notes | podcast
Designing for Global and Local Social Play: program | notes | podcast | video
How to Make the Most of Maps: program | notes | podcast
The Future of Radio: program | notes | podcast | video
Online Politics: Fast, Cheap and Allows for Control: program | notes | podcast