Maps as Deep: Reading the Code of Location-Based Social Networks

Abstract

Location-based services comprise the fastest growing sector in web technology business [1, p. 9]. These services, be they location-based social networks, satellite navigation devices in cars, or augmented reality browsers as applications on mobile phones, have opened questions about their mediating effects on the awareness of location and engagement with location for users. McCulloch [2] argues that location-based services are a channel for specialized information, in that the information reaching users is now about where they are, rather than decontextualized information with no relevance to the location of the user. Analyses of the impact of location-based services have been myriad in consideration [3], but some major areas of research have emerged. Wilken [3] identifies the major themes as research directed towards analyzing how locative technologies mediate the relationship between technology use and physical or digital spaces [4]-[12], discussions of power and politics in location-based services [13], and assessments and discussions on the nature of the representation of space that emerge through locative media [14], [15]. In addition, the area of privacy has been a major area of interest [16]-[19].