Location-based services: Enabling technologies and a concierge service model

Abstract

It is widely believed that about 80 percent of public and private sectors’ day-to-day decisions are related to some sort of spatial and locational consideration, leaving only a few areas that are not affected by locational considerations. The Internet puts an unprecedented amount of locational information of all kinds at a user’s fingertips, information that can be used for personal production activities in a mind-boggling variety of ways (Ostensen, 2001). Location-based services (LBS) – sometimes called location-based mobile services (LBMS) – are an emerging technology combining information technology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), positioning technology, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technology and the Internet. LBS combine hardware devices, wireless communication networks, geographic information and software applications that provide location-related guidance for customers (Kang, Oh and Kim, 2006). Location-based services differ from mobile position determination systems, such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), in that they provide much broader, application-oriented location services, which become useful in specific situations, such as the following (Kim, 2004):