LOJOCONNECT.COM
location-based technology + journalism

By Hilary Powell

Locative technologies are becoming more important to the future of journalism. Based on extensive research and experimentation with “locative journalism,” our team of master’s students at the Medill School of Journalism has completed a downloadable report (45 pages, plus appendices, in a single 3MB PDF file). From the report, here are our recommendations for journalists, news organizations and media companies:

1) Think geographically
News organizations should geotag their content. As location-based services and applications grow, the companies that have tagged their content from the beginning will have an advantage.

2) Capitalize on mobile technology for geo-content
The mobile technology already exists for news organizations to use location-based services to target consumers on mobile devices. One example is mobile phone messaging based on a recipient’s location. JotYou provides text messages that are only delivered when a recipient enters a previously specified geographic location. As an example, people could opt-in to get the latest score of a Cubs game as they drive by Wrigley Field. The technology exists for news organizations to start sending text messages of breaking news headlines that are geographically relevant.

3) The media should be experimenting now with mobile content
Now is the right time to explore and capitalize on the mobile content world. Smartphones are expected to continue to gain popularity, which would give media companies more opportunities to provide wireless content on portable devices. As people become “urban nomads” who aren’t tied to home or the office, there is a push for mobile content and Internet experiences on portable devices that are more similar to that of the desktop computers in terms of look and usability, such as the number of clicks required to access information. Google’s new Android open mobile operating system could help make this transition more seamless. Web pages are increasingly being optimized for the mobile devices through sites such as Skweezer.

4) Streamline content delivery
The process of getting content to portable devices is often cumbersome. The news media should capitalize on new technologies to streamline content delivery and thereby increase the number of users. Improvements in wireless, cellular and GPS technologies will allow for on-demand, wireless content delivery.

5) Target a young adult audience
Young adults are likely to be most receptive to location-based media at this point. Mobile social networking sites that are driven by location, such as Brightkite and Loopt, have immersed young adults into the world of location-based services. Young adults are also the most likely to have the smartphones that are best right now for location-based storytelling. But the audience will broaden as all mobile phones become more location-aware.

6) Maximize existing resources
News organizations should utilize their mobile journalists for locative storytelling. They can easily re-purpose audio, video and images from other kinds of stories. Also, news organizations should remember that locative storytelling does not have to require GPS-triggered stories. They can utilize audio recorders, which they most likely already have, for audio-only stories. Making audio tracks of locative stories available for download on the Web is cost-effective and easy.

7) Harness the power of audio
News organizations should begin to explore locative storytelling through audio tours. Not only are audio tours less costly to produce than GPS-driven content, but the audience is more likely to already have the MP3 players or even desktop computers needed to hear the stories. Start with audio tours and then eventually work up to location-triggered stories such as Mediascapes. News organizations should remember that walking tours often work best when they are mostly audio-based. Video is still very powerful, but should be reserved for the Web for location-based storytelling.

8 ) Treat locative stories differently, depending on the type of news
Breaking news is different from in-depth features and should be treated as such. It is ideal to know breaking news as it happens, so news organizations should capitalize on wireless alerts. However, immersive storytelling such as Mediascapes should be on-demand. Users may not have the time or patience for these types of stories on a daily basis, but this option should be readily available. Also, immersive storytelling that is dependent upon a user’s physical location should be tied closely to the geographic surroundings. News organizations may want to create GPS-driven stories on-site, so they can also provide precise orientation and directional cues, which are crucial.

9) Avoid “Google Maps fatigue”
News organizations need to better organize and differentiate information on interactive maps, to help avoid having content that looks repetitive. With Google Maps, there is not a lot you can do to change the look of the interface or to add more interactive features. However, Google Maps API gives authors some of these capabilities. News organizations should also explore other types of interactive maps.

10) Explore location-based advertising
Location-based advertising is one hope for media companies to generate revenue from location-based stories. It has great allure because consumers could conceivably be in locations near advertisers’ stores or products, and buy based upon impulse or convenience. Advertisements could play immediately before or after locative stories. However, news organizations should avoid ads embedded within locative stories, which would not only be intrusive, but also heavily blur the line between editorial and advertising content.

11) Encourage user feedback and community involvement
In offering locative content, news organizations should capitalize on the trendiness of sites that allow sharing, commenting and user-generated content. Also, following the lead of community storytelling initiatives, such as The Organic City, based in Oakland, Calif., newsrooms should engage community members in story development and promotion.

12) Just do it!!!
Locative journalism is relatively new, but holds a great deal of promise. We’re accustomed to using linear interfaces, such as alphabetized directories and timelines, to organize and access information. But our experiences in the real, physical and non-digitized world are usually not linear. They’re spatial, dynamic and intuitive. Locative technology has the power to capitalize on that instinct.

By Hilary Powell

The final report from Team LoJo — six master’s students exploring “locative storytelling” at the Medill School of Journalism — is now available for download (a 45-page report, plus appendices, in a single 3MB PDF file). Over the next few days, we’ll highlight our key findings and recommendations.

First, the most significant findings:

1) Geography is key

Geography is a key tool for making content relevant to media users. It is becoming a powerful interface for information search and organization. News organizations are increasingly geotagging, or embedding geographic data in stories, so they can be easily identified by their relevant locations. Rather than searching by keyword, people can now browse a digital map for relevant information for a particular location. The Google Earth-New York Times partnership is a powerful example of this. Also, Google’s news aggregation service now allows users to quickly see all the stories for a given geographical location. Geotagging is not only used by news organizations. It is also catching on with consumers, who are tagging photos within photo sharing sites such as Flickr. Driving this trend, many new cameras allow for automatic geotagging of photos.

2) Mobile technology is ideal for geographically relevant content

Key advantages of mobile devices include portability, location awareness that can be used to customize content, and the fact that people nowadays almost always have their cell phones with them. Increasingly, cell phones and other mobile devices will include GPS and other technologies that “know” the user’s location. This will make it increasingly possible to target content to users based on their location or geographic interests. Our experience with locative stories delivered to portable devices has taught us that this kind of storytelling, at its best, can be extremely compelling.

3) American media companies have been slow to develop mobile content and adapt to cultural changes

U.S. media companies are lagging foreign competitors. For example, in April 2008, French company Orange launched Read & Go, a portable electronic newspaper kiosk with access to several different newspapers. In 2006, Belgian newspaper de Tijd became the first paper in the world to publish on epaper - flexible electronic paper that can be dynamically updated. Meanwhile, foreign news media established mobile newspaper versions several years ahead of major American media companies. Cultural and technological changes have made consumers increasingly become “urban nomads” who are not tied to their offices and homes. But American media companies have been slow to develop content for mobile devices and to capitalize on this trend.

4) Cumbersome content delivery has limited the market for mobile and location-based stories

The process of getting content into a portable device can be time-consuming and often requires multiple steps. Podcasts must be downloaded from the Web, then transferred to an MP3 player. Cellular phones offer the potential of immediate content downloads, but most users are limited to content distributed through their wireless carrier. Mediascapes must also be downloaded, and can run only on a minority of portable devices. Google Earth offers a compelling user experience but requires a separate software download. The demand for location-based content will increase as the technological barriers fade away – eventually allowing people to obtain multimedia content on demand or automatically based on their location.

5) Young adults are avid users of mobile technology, and are likely to further embrace mobile content as social networking moves to portable devices

Mobile technology’s value to young adults will only increase as social networks go mobile. Young adults also tend to be more tech savvy, early adopters and less likely to worry about privacy issues and location tracking because they have grown up in a world with Facebook and other applications that make people’s private lives very public.

6) Newsrooms have resources that could already be used for locative storytelling

Mobile journalists are proliferating in newsrooms. For example, Reuters partnered with Nokia Research Center to outfit reporters with “mobile journalist toolkits” that allow reporters to file and publish stories from handheld devices. Mobile journalists are ideal producers of locative content because they are already outfitted with the necessary technology, tools and mindset. Not only are they in the field with portable laptops, voice recorders and video cameras, they are also on the hunt for hyper-local content.

7) Audio has been under-appreciated

Now that portable devices are becoming more popular for consuming content, people need to overcome the notion that audio is only for radio. Audio is powerful, immersive and often useful because people tend to use portable devices while multitasking. Several news organizations have started to offer audio tours that can be just as powerful as location-based stories. The New York Times, for example, offers several audio narratives of Manhattan neighborhoods, including tours of the places that defined P.T. Barnum’s New York and the Underground Railroad routes in Brooklyn.

8 ) The success of locative stories depends upon their treatment

Locative stories are more likely to catch on if they’re organic experiences. Consumers will be more likely to embrace this storytelling form if it fits the flow of their daily lives and does not force them into a location and an experience. Breaking news alerts trigged by a user’s current location could be really valuable. For example, users could be alerted of a big demonstration taking place up ahead and decide whether to avoid it or to attend. That said, there is still an audience for immersive, GPS-driven stories like Mediascapes, but the content and delivery mechanisms could differ from that of breaking news locative stories.

9) Readers may be suffering from overloaded maps that look similar

Newspapers widely and frequently use interactive online maps now, leading to what we call “Google Maps fatigue.” More information is being attached to geographic coordinates and readers may be turned off by the basic look of Google Maps, which start to look the same and are ubiquitous.

10) Location-based advertising is the “holy grail” of mobile marketing

Many advertisers want to explore mobile marketing, especially location-based advertisements, but there have been some roadblocks, including privacy and tracking concerns. Also, these ads are sometimes carried by select mobile subscribers, or are only available to owners who opt in and have GPS-enabled phones. CBS and Loopt recently announced plans for localized banner ads on certain CBS mobile sites. More partnerships of this kind are expected, although privacy concerns persist. The company that figures out how to provide location-based ads without infringing on consumers’ privacy or irritating them, while also reaching the specific consumers that they want to target, will be successful.

11) Younger audiences want to be more deeply involved in creating and sharing content, a form of social capital among young adults

We live in an era of user-generated content and participation. Young adults, in particular, are used to sites that allow comments, rating or reviews, and sharing. Sites such as Yelp and YouTube have been distinguished and made popular by these qualities. Social networking sites such as Facebook have applications that allow for easier sharing of news stories and other content.

12) Locative journalism holds great promise

We are accustomed to using linear interfaces, such as alphabetized directories and timelines, to organize and access information. But our experiences in the real, physical and non-digitized world are usually not linear. They’re spatial, dynamic and intuitive. Locative technology has the power to capitalize on that instinct. Also, now is an ideal time to incorporate location-based storytelling into journalism, considering the explosion of location-based services in general society and the technological advancements that are making location-based content viable and increasingly popular.

By Hilary Powell

Microsoft has released a new operating system to help companies to build portable navigation devices that also can connect to computers, networks and the Internet. Windows Embedded NavReady 09 is the latest took a trip to store shelves this week. Windows Embedded operating systems are made available to device manufacturers and software developers who use Microsoft technologies. The new operating system is Microsoft’s first geared specifically for portable navigation devices.

According to PC World, the OS is “is aimed at companies building handheld electronic navigation devices and includes several features to make them Web-friendly, such as easy connections to online services and the Internet, as well as links to mobile phones via Bluetooth, and to Windows-based PCs.”

Companies are looking to cash in on an increasing demand for portable navigation devices, or PNDs. (One device in this market is the HP iPAQ Travel Companion used by Medill students for this spring’s “locative storytelling” project.)

In 2006, PNDs were the most popular segment of the consumer navigation market, representing 62% of the total worldwide market, according to technology research firm IDC. IDC also estimated the entire consumer navigation market to grow by 53% worldwide by 2007, according to BNET Today.

As the market for navigation-enabled devices grows, the price tag for GPS technology is likely to head downward. Technologyreview.com reports NavReady can cut the cost of building and testing Internet-connected GPS devices. The review said OS is also more efficient because it makes it easy for GPS receivers to share data with other hardware such as cell phones and PDAs.

“Whereas the desktop version of Windows adds new functions and requires more memory with every release, embedded operating systems sacrifice versatility for leanness and efficiency. Currently, most GPS companies, such as TomTom and Garmin, use their own custom-built, proprietary operating systems. Others use off-the-shelf embedded systems that may not be ideal for GPS technology,” wrote Duncan Graham-Rowe of Technologyreview.com.

Technologyreview.com suggested that Microsoft sees a big opportunity in connecting navigation devices to other consumer electronics and the Internet. “I think Microsoft is laying the foundations for what we see as one of the big frontiers for navigation devices — connectivity,” says Clint Wheelock, chief research officer with ABI Research.

By Hilary Powell

If you’re going out with the girls or the guys for a night on the town in a new city, a new mobile map application could help you pinpoint the place to party.

Citysense is a GPS-enabled service that highlights hot nightspots in San Francisco in real time. The technology is currently only compatible with Blackberry phones, but will soon be available with the new GPS-enabled iPhone.

On Google and Yelp, users can pinpoint locations called “hotspots.” These locations include bars, restaurants, and clubs. The Citysense Web sites says that a color-coded map details which of these locations is packed with unusually high activity.

And the mobile application is one that really gets to know mobile users. According to the Citysense folks:

The application learns about the kinds of places you like to go from GPS – without ever sharing that information. In its next release, Citysense will not only tell you where everyone is right now, but where everyone like YOU is right now.

I’m not so sure about a phone that can predict where I like to party, but the technology is certainly an example of a mobile social network that helps like-minded people connect.

According to a ComputerWorld.com report released in May, “millenials,” or people born between the years 1981 and 2000 are leading the move to mobile social networks and Mobile Web 2.0, which includes cell phone-based blogging, multimedia sharing, location-based socialization services, gaming and chat.

The number of users of these services is on the rise - in fact, a new study by InStat is predicting that by 2012, there will be nearly 30 million millennials.

That would be one large map on Citysense.

By Amy Lee

The Associated Press on Monday showed off a program that the news agency says will allow iPhone users to submit news, photos and video to the AP’s Mobile News Network when they witness a breaking news event. The new software, which was unveiled at Apple Inc.’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, is expected to be available to iPhone users in the next few weeks, according to Jane Seagrave, the AP’s senior vice president for global product development. The AP says the new iPhone application enables faster downloads and the ability to read news even when the phone is not connected to the Internet, according to an AP news article.

The agency on May 5 launched the Mobile News Network for a variety of smart phones — including the iPhone — that allows users to access local news stories from more than 100 newspapers, as well as national and international news from the AP. The reports are organized by zip code. The agency already allows users to submit photos, news and video to its Web site, and in fact distributed footage this week from amateur videographers who witnessed Sunday’s mass stabbing at a Tokyo shopping area.

Seagrave stated that the news cooperative is “eager to get submissions” of material from iPhone users, and promises that material would be screened by AP staffers before publication. In my mind, this is critical to their initiative, and could help to make it a success.

Any news organization should be especially careful about posting material gleaned by “citizen journalists,” because they must be sure that the submitter (if you will) is in fact, a witness to the event and that they are an unbiased source of news. This will not only help to get news out more quickly with powerful visual images, but it also helps to protect the brand and reputation of the news agency itself. I’ll be curious to check out the application when it is unveiled, and hope that the agency has made the process of submitting breaking news from the iPhone as easy as possible.

By Ki Mae Heussner

Those who tout Asia as a leader in mobile telephony should note that not all kinds of mobile applications are gaining traction in the region. While it’s true that some parts of Asia-Pacific are expected to lead the mobile market over the next few years, that growth may not necessarily contribute to the acceptance of certain applications, such as (unfortunately) location-based services.

A recent TNS Global Telecoms Insight study on mobile device usage in the Asia-Pacific region found that, while mobile operators have started to offer a number of GPS and location-based services (LBS), they’re only catching on in a few markets.

Although 53 percent of respondents said they had access to location-based services, only 3 percent said they had used the service. In Japan, location-based services reached 13 percent and in Taiwan LBS reached 10 percent.

The top four features in the Asia-Pacific region were SMS (used by 88 percent of respondents), games (71 percent), cameras (61 percent) and multimedia messaging services (48 percent).

A 2007 report released by research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, however, suggested that location-based services in Asia would grow alongside the introduction of mash-up services and an increase in mobile advertising.

The report indicated that the market across 13 Asia-Pacific economies was worth $291.7 million in 2006 and would reach $447 million by the end of 2009.

Japan and Korea, the report said, were the most developed LBS markets, accounting for 92 percent of total revenues in the region.

Demand in other parts of Asia-Pacific has been stifled by privacy concerns, the lack of advanced GPS-enabled handsets, and a lack of an encouraging mobile eco-system and user interest.

Worldwide, though, some analysts project that 2008 will be the year mobile location-based services take off. Research giant Gartner says global subscriptions in LBS are expected to rise by nearly 168 percent this year, driven by increasing numbers of GPS-enabled phones and substantial investments in navigation technologies by heavyweights such as Nokia. Revenue is predicted to jump from $485.1 million in 2007 to $1.3 billion in 2008.

Annette Zimmerman, a research analyst at Gartner, said, “Growth [in location-based services] now will be stimulated by the arrival of mobile phones with built-in, precise location-sensing and the arrival of new service providers, like Google and Nokia, with [their] service offerings, keen to exploit geographic and positioning strategies.”

By Hope Needles

There has been much hype surrounding the release of the new 3G version of the iPhone later this month. It is expected that the latest version will not only run faster than the 2G device, but also come equipped with GPS technology.

According to several reports, iPhone access to GPS will be provided by Broadcom, a fairly new entrant into the GPS market. Broadcom Corporation, a company that specializes in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, announced in June of 2007 that it had acquired Global Locate, a privately-held provider of GPS chips, software and network services.

As a result, powerful synergies have evolved between the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and mobile technologies of Broadcom, and the GPS technology of Global Locate. These are already deeply impacting the wireless and mobile device industries.

The prospect of a GPS-enabled iPhone is indeed exciting because it could potentially leverage GPS functionality better than any other mobile device to come before it. If you look at the iPhone in its current form, you will see that it already lends itself extremely well to GPS use. The iPhone’s large touchscreen interface, external speakers and uncluttered Google Maps display only require a suction cup windshield bracket to become a fully-functional and portable car navigation device. With this in mind, the ease of use that a built-in GPS navigation system could provide consumers may significantly drive up demand for iPhones.

Here are some additional upgrades that are expected to be unveiled for the 3G version at the WWDC keynote, according to Engadget:

– The phone will no longer be metal. It will come in a glossy black color from top to bottom and the buttons will be chrome.

– Overall, the phone will be slightly thicker and have a sleeker design, with fewer angular edges

– The headphone jack will no longer be recessed

By Hilary Powell

The year 2008 could see the development of more gadgets and gizmos equipped with GPS.

At Asia’s largest technology trade show, Computex 2008, Mio Technology recently unveiled a new spin on digital cameras: the PND, or portable navigation device camera.

The hybrid camera integrates a GPS radio into a digital camera.

A GPS Business News article states the device will feature a 3.5-inch touch screen and, with the two integrated technologies, the camera will be able to geotag your photos.

On the Miss Direction blog, GPS blogger Bonnie Cha said Mio hopes users will be able to put away the cumbersome cords and accessories necessary to run GPS modules, such as the Pharos Trips & Pics and the Sony GPS-CS1KA.

No word yet on when those Mia models will hit store shelves, but some GPS-enabled devices already on store shelves look like they’ll be even more useful to travelers. Among those attractive options: devices that feature built-in cheap fuel price finders.

According to an article by Donna Goodison on BostonHearld.com, “Several Garmin GPS models are compatible with MSN Direct, a subscription service for personal navigation devices that includes a location-based search feature for gas prices.”

After searching for prices of regular unleaded gasoline and listing them in order of their distances, the device will spit out directions to the station of choice.

While Googling to uncover even more of the hottest geographic gadgets, I started to squirm when I came across an article on NewScientistTech revealing that Microsoft researchers are developing ways to track patterns of travel and modes of transportation using GPS technology.

A team of technology experts in Beijing recorded the movements of 45 people who carried GPS-enabled devices for more than 6 months. The scientists tracked variations in speed to predict each test subject’s mode of transportation: walking, driving, or biking.

Though Microsoft’s experiment is more concept than gadget, it raises a pertinent point about what Michael Peterson, Chair of the International Cartographic Association Commission on Maps and the Internet, calls “location privacy.”

As it becomes easier to track and share our movements, the concept of “locational privacy” – controlling who can access our location records – becomes more important, he says, adding that Microsoft and others should make sure their products are designed to protect users.

By Hilary Powell

It seems more lawmakers and safety officials are getting creative in trying to curb criminal activity.

A bill that would allow the use of satellite technology to track people who violate an order of protection in domestic violence cases may soon be in place in Illinois.

The Cindy Bischof Act, which recently passed by a House vote of 111-0 and is now headed to the governor’s desk, would allow courts to require that these violators wear a Global Positioning System monitoring device as a condition of bail.

The legislation could be a sign of the times, as more states are considering how technology can help keep locals safe. State lawmakers in Oklahoma and Hawaii passed legislation to track offenders earlier this year as well.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that since late 2006, some registered sex offenders serving probation have been required to wear GPS ankle bracelets that track where they are 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Probation officers can download data whenever they want to check where a defendant has been and whether they’re keeping to their pre-approved schedules. Or, the officers can sit at a computer screen to watch a probationer move from place to place in real-time, said David Sanders, Pima County’s chief probation officer.

Officials from the American Civil Liberties Union have raised questions about who should have the authority to enforce GPS monitoring.

“This should be done by independent judicial officials, not by police officers whose job is to investigate, not to mete out justice,” said Barry Steinhardt, head of the ACLU technology program.

Either way, tracking systems, like most technology, are not always foolproof. New Orleans station WDSU reported that one man under house arrest was able to commit a crime while wearing his GPS device.

Also, rather than deterring crime, GPS technology has sometimes been used to outwit the system. For people who might violate speeding laws, Trapster is a Web site that allows drivers to have a text message sent to their phone when they approach a speed trap tagged online by other users.

When you see a trap, report it by pressing a button on your phone, or calling a toll free number. Other user’s phones will alert them as they approach the trap.

“Think of it as Facebook meets radar detectors, and throw in a little bit of eBay ratings,” Trapster programmer Pete Tenereillo said.

By Satta Sarmah

With a bit of anxiety and great anticipation, the LoJo team ventured to Washington Park this morning for a trial run of our Chicago 2016 locative tour.

We were armed with our HP IPAQ GPS-enabled devices, headphones, response surveys–and loads of coffee and bagels— for the people who were kind enough to volunteer as our multimedia guinea pigs.

About 10 people showed up for our experiment, which was the perfect number for our five-person team.

Though we had more GPS devices than people, even the best laid plans sometimes go awry.

A few of our devices went haywire. Some couldn’t locate a GPS signal and others didn’t trigger in the right spots.

Besides the technical errors, there were also human ones. We decided to put markers along the route of our locative tour, but some people got lost or continued walking along the path when they were supposed to stop at a particular point to hear the story.

Some of these mishaps were probably because our directions weren’t as spot-on as we thought.

At the end of the tour, we asked participants to fill out surveys. The feedback was a mix of positive and constructive criticism:

- Because of the glare from the sun, many of the pictures we loaded were difficult for our tour-goers to see. Some even said the pictures were a bit of a distraction and that they would have liked fewer of them, so that they could be more engaged with the physical location.

-Many people enjoyed the historical aspects of the tour. The beginning of the tour included historical photos and information about the World’s Fair held near Washington Park in 1893. We also had Chicago historian and lifelong South Side resident, Timuel Black, talk about what the park was like in the early 1900’s. Hearing and seeing historical information and pictures of Washington Park while touring the modern version of the location really seemed to work.

- Though some said there should have been less narration from LoJo team members, another tour-goer complimented our narration by saying it reminded him of something that would have been written by NPR personality Ira Glass, a compliment that our team will graciously accept.

- Some said more user-control would have been great. However, the nature of GPS-based storytelling is that the content is triggered by the location, which has its pluses and minuses. A good alternative for this would be a podcast, which users could download to their mp3 players.

- Many tour-goers also said locative storytelling could be adopted by news organizations, with a little bit of tweaking of the platform and the storytelling itself. Suggestions included more directions to orient users to the location and an improved interface in regards to the GPS technology.

-As for what stories are best told in this format, people said stories about real estate and gentrification worked best. Downloadable neighborhood tours posted on a newspaper’s Web site are the best way for news organizations to monetize and make use of locative storytelling, tour-goers said.

All in all, we think our locative tour was a success. Though it was, literally, a walk in the park, the LoJo team is a bit exhausted. We’ll be using the rest of our Saturday to engage in an activity that’s a little more lax than a walk in the park— a nap in our beds.