Note to Location-Based Services - You Suck!

I moved to a new neighbourhood a few weeks ago and I'm directionally challenged at the best of times. So when I found myself lost a couple nights ago in a strange part of town (all the Danforth is strange) I thought it'd be location-based services to the rescue. How wrong I was. Four separate location-based services let me down.

Yes, I could have easily asked someone for directions, but the lesson drilled into my from childhood has me reluctant to talk to strangers - and I was determined dammit to use my mobile device (after all this is my research area)!

I was headed to a pick up a package from the Canada Post at a new Shoppers Drug Mart. I knew the major intersection - Danforth and Pape - so I got out at the correct subway station. But as I walked to where I thought the Shoppers would be, I was checking my mobile device and walked past the store without knowing it. Mobile device usage and walking is probably almost as bad as texting and driving, but so far I haven't had too serious of accidents (aside from walking into a few posts and dog poo). I should learn my lesson though.

After walking for over 20 minutes and not noticing that I had come to the Shoppers yet, I finally looked up from my mobile device and figured out that I had no idea where I was.

So I figured my trusty, new mobile device would help me! How wrong I was...

First, I tried Google Navigation. It correctly determined my location and even the direction I was headed (which was helpful as I was walking the opposite direction than I thought I was), but it couldn't help me locate the store. As I never considered that I had passed it without noticing, I figured something more odd had occurred.

So I tried Google Local they could locate where I was but didn't have any Shoppers locations listed as near me when I searched. (In hindsight, the two Google apps probably use much of the same back-end so a failure in one is bound to be the same in another.)

Starting to get desperate, I tried Foursquare. I mostly use Foursquare for their geosocial networking functionality, so I haven't really tried their newish "Explore" functionality. There was no point in trying it though. Foursquare also correctly located me but insisted that the nearest Shoppers Drug Mart was about an hour public transit ride away. No other Shoppers Drug Mart came up in a search of their database, despite the fact that I had previously checked into other Shoppers' location (and was once the mayor of the Forest Hill one).

I'm not a big fan of the mobile web, but I figured I'd give that a try.

At this point, I'd been standing in the cold November weather for about half an hour and my fingers were going numb. I was thinking those gloves that you can get to use your mobile device in the winter weren't such a bad idea after all and probably worth the price. (Great Christmas gift idea for your friendly lost-in-the neighbourhood Webslinger.)

So I searched Google on the Chrome browser for Shoppers and Danforth and nothing returned (despite their numerous stores on the Danforth). I went to Shoppers' website and tried their store locater functionality. ;It didn't work and it is almost impossible to use. It correctly located me, but it said the nearest store was incredibly far from me. Also, their map feature wouldn't display and the phone numbers couldn't be dialed or even really clearly seen.

Then, I remember the Yellow Pages app that I had on my Blackberry and had such great luck. Well, a search for Shoppers (in its various forms) turned up no locations near me.

At this point, I gave up and started to walk home. I did find that direction from Google Navigation. To my great surprise, I found the Shoppers right near the subway station.

Okay, how is it so hard for four mobile apps to not be able to execute basic functionality. If they can't get the location part of location based services right they are rather useless. I'm also puzzled at how so few Shoppers locations came up when I searched.

I tried the same search from my home again tonight and they all worked except for Foursquare and Shoppers' mobile webpage (which is indeed impossible to use).

Apparently, the other apps haven't heard of fuzzy search as if one types in Shoppers but not Shopppers Drug Mart they get the problematic results. (I thought for sure I tried various name combinations - but I won't rule out human error, as it surely wouldn't be the first time). Still, why would a shortened version of the name pull up some results but not others?

So I'm still convinced that although location-based services have a lot of promise - I still assert that - THEY SUCK!

(Buy me the gloves and I'll forgive you.)

Online Research: New Challenges and Opportunities

I delivered a guest lecture this week on online research - both online methodology and researching online phenomena. Below are the slides from my presentation and a coding exercise of online discourse I had the students do.


 

Online Research: New Challenges and Opportunities from Glen Farrelly

Methods to Study Digital Media

I'm teaching a class next week on "Online research: New challenges & opportunities". In preparation, I was thinking of all the ways to study online (and by this I mean both Internet and mobile) phenomena and to use online methods to study other things.

As I love typologies, I thought I'd prepare one on this.  Although such a list doesn't express the complexity of online research, I thought it would demonstrate the diverse ways to investigate digital media.

Online methods to examine online phenomena:

• computer-captured and compiled data (e.g., web metrics)
• email, virtual reality, VoIP telephone or video call, or instant messaging interviews
• diarying or user logs
• remote observation (participant or nonparticipant)
• online focus groups
• web-based or email surveys
• audience response systems
• remote user testing or experiments
• autoethnography (can be conducted through blogging)

Methods to analyze online phenomena:

• social network analysis
• semiotics or visual analysis
• content analysis
• discourse analysis 
• hermeneutics
• ethnography

Online methods to study offline phenomena:

• web-based or email surveys
• email, virtual reality, VoIP, or instant messaging interviews
• diarying (e.g. through special software or blogs)
• photo documentation via mobile device

Offline methods to study online phenomena (which may or may not involve having users interact with digital media while capturing data):

• face-to-face interviews or focus groups
• nonparticipant observation
• contextual inquiry
• verbal protocol analysis (talk-aloud method)
• eye-tracking studies
• user testing or experiments

As a colleague pointed out there's also design science and participatory design that involves creating digital media as research tool - this type of research could be place in every category.

Please let me know if I missed a major method, as I'd like this typology to evolve iteratively.

Mobile Devices Are Changing Our Lives

I recently signed out magazines from my nearby public library for recreational reading on a flight. I still like reading print, but don't like spending the $6 or more magazine now costs. Granted they were a bit old, but applicable to my research interests.

Toronto Life Magazine had an excellent article on the problems with RIM, "Lazaridis and Balsillie Meet Their Waterloo" (unfortunately, not available online).

Time magazine had a "Wireless Issues" this past August that discussed "10 Ways Your Phone Is Changing the World". These ways and their respective articles are:

1. Democracy - elections will never be the same
2. Giving - doing good by texting
3. Spending - bye-bye, wallets
4. Secrets (and surveillance) - the phone knows all
5. Attitudes (socializing & communicating) - your life is fully mobile
6. Talking (rural telecommunications) - the grid is winning
7. Seeing (photography) - a camera goes anywhere
8. Play - toys get unplugged
9. Learning - gadgets go to class
10. Health - disease can't hide

I'm planning a class (hopefully to teach sometime soon) on how mobile devices have affected our society and identified these areas as the major ways mobiles are changing our lives. But I wondered what other areas are changing as a result of the increasingly global, ubiquitous access to mobiles?

I was thinking this blog post would be a good place to iteratively document mobiles impact from the major to the minor. So I would love for readers to add their thoughts or experiences with this. Here are my observations:

• Socializing and Lifestreaming - our ever-present mobile devices enables us to share the magnificent and minute details of our lives
• Identity and Memory - not only do mobile devices allow us to record and reflect on the events and images of our lives, but they provide a way to craft and project our identity and serve as memory aids and diaries
• Personal efficiency - from digital to-do lists, calling the spouse at the grocery store, or proximal reminders - mobile devices help us manage our lives for efficiently (and also prevent us from ever escaping it)
• Information and m-Libraries - through either e-books, online news, reviews or facts, or mobile friendly info databases, we have more ready access to information than ever possible
• Maps - do we need them any more with GPS and maps on our phone or in our car (but we do need to learn to not drive into the ocean or onto logging roads because or device told us too)
• Accessibility - there are strong barriers to use of mobile devices based on ability literacy, and finances - but mobile devices are providing new forms of information and communication access to groups that have not otherwise had it such as in the developing world or for the deaf and their use of instant messaging as a readily available mass communication method.

That's all I can think of now, but I'm sure there are many other ways mobile devices are changing our lives - so please share your thoughts here.

On Location in Baltimore

I went to Baltimore to present my findings on location-based services at the conference for the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). I was only supposed to be there for a couple days but then Hurricane Sandy blew in and stranded me there for a few days. So the dull academic conference had more excitement than usual - and I got to explore more of Baltimore.

Before going to Baltimore I bought a new mobile device, a Galaxy Nexus, so that I could connect to WiFi as my old BlackBerry didn't allow this. I also thought I would just be getting a better device. So far my experience with the Nexus has been very disappointing, which I'll blog about later.

I've travelled to the United States before and used my mobile device, but the roaming fees were killer. So this trip was the first time I was able to use my device while exploring a new place.

Before going to Baltimore, I was looking for travel guides apps or content to access on my mobile. I couldn't find a Baltimore app - which I was surprised wasn't readily available. The only thing I could find on Baltimore for my mobile was an e-book by Lonely Planet. But at $10 it was too expensive for me.

Baltimore is making good use of Foursquare however (see Visit Baltimore for more on this). I was able to connect to visitor centre beforehand and receive recommendations on places to visit, which I saved in a list.

My new device did allow me to easily check-in on Foursquare at spots with Wi-Fi and to upload pictures. This functionality forms a travel log, which I really enjoyed. It also made it easy to share what I was up to with my wife at home (I'm not sure she liked knowing the fun places I was at while she was working and watching our kid at home) and with friends.

These check-ins allowed me to earn the quirky crab "Charm City" badge. These badges, as I have noted before, are surprisingly fun. I also got a Halloween badge on the trip for being out on Halloween night - instead of with my family as usual - due to Hurricane Sandy.

Facebook also has similar check-in functionality, which now makes Foursquare less necessary. But at this point, I don't want to share every check-in with my Facebook network, so I still find it useful to have a separate app.

Plus Foursquare, in theory, offers "tips" on places, but these user-generated suffer from the inevitable problems of spam, trolls, and overall noise. Most of the time that I wanted to access these tips in Baltimore they were populated by such useless content, that it rendered this feature pointless. If I knew of an app that had place info on Baltimore - both official and user-generated - I would have gladly used it as Foursquare is really problematic in this regard.

Another problem, is that as I relied on Wi-Fi, I could only check-in at major places that had a free Wi-Fi, so I wasn't able to get the tips when and where I often need them (e.g. deciding a restaurant) and I couldn't check in at all the fun, new places I wanted to.

My explorations of Baltimore, however, came to a halt when Hurricane Sandy came to town. Under such circumstances, I (and everyone else at the conference) wanted regular, real-time access to hyperlocal news and weather. I couldn't find a source for this during my short time in Baltimore (yes, I could have used Twitter but I find it too much of a firehose in these instances). I could find weather forecasts for the entire city, but not a minute-by-minute update on my particular part of the city. This was info I needed to know to determine if it was safe to venture out to get to the conference venue or back to my hotel (the conference went on during the storm). It was easier to just turn on a tv to a local station or ask somebody to get the best information.

The conference itself was a great opportunity to meet other people researching some interesting things. But unfortunately the sessions, I found, were rather uninspired. There was almost no sessions that discussed mobile or geographic information - so ASIS&T might not be the best place for this topic. Still, several people were interested in my research on mobiles, location-based services, and sense of place. So maybe I'll attend the next ASIS&T conference in Montreal - at least I could use my mobile device freely around the city and not have to worry about access points or roaming charges that otherwise greatly limit the technology's potential.

Study Highlights: The Role of Location-Based Services in Shaping Sense of Place

I'm presenting this paper at ASIS&T annual meeting this week.  It represents the highlights of a larger survey study I conducted last December.

ABSTRACT
The increasing ubiquity of mobile devices with positioning technology has enabled more people to access and create information where it is geographically relevant. These location-based services are growing in user adoption, yet the role of such emerging technology in our relationships to the places we encounter has not been fully examined. This paper reports on a survey study that examines how people use mobile devices in relation to place and the potential for location-based services to improve sense of place.  It was found that location-based services enhance people’s familiarity, personal engagement, and social connection to place, leading to an improved sense of place.

Keywords
Location-based services, mobile applications, locative media, geoinformatics, sense of place.

INTRODUCTION
The open and ubiquitous nature of current and emerging mobile, Internet, and geographic information technologies have enabled the widespread creation and dissemination of diverse and multimodal forms of geographically relevant information. Current mobile applications can identify a user’s location and deliver information geographically relevant to that position. This functionality is known as location-based services (LBS). Three-quarters of American smartphone users are now using location-based services (Zickuhr, 2012), such as foursquare, Google+ Local, SCVNGR, and Layar. LBS can take the form of stand-alone applications or embedded functionality in other mobile apps. LBS often enable users to access and interact with diverse sources and formats of place information, to create and share content, and to participate in geosocial networking and locative gaming.
Studies show possible societal benefits from the use of location-based services. For example, a Pew study found that 65% of survey respondents with a mobile device believe it is now easier to keep up with community information, compared to 47% for non-mobile users (Purcell et al., 2011). Yet, studies have not examined how this technology affects one’s sense of place.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Sense of place is the “meanings associated with a place” (Cresswell, 2009, p. 169). It arises from the interrelationship of self, others, and environment (Gustafson, 2001). Scholars have posited that sense of place is a fundamental human need (Relph, 1976), an essential component for feelings of belonging or attachment to the world (Stedman, 2003), and a trigger for heritage and environmental custodianship (Kaltenborn, 1997).

Relph (1976) argues that personal experience is the root of our relationship to place. Yet, accounts of others and cultural forces also shape how we interpret and value place (Lefebvre, 1991). Walker and Wehner (2009) found online information aided in the social construction of place, while Cramer, Rost, and Holmquist (2011) found similar results with LBS users. A direct connection, however, between use of LBS and sense of place has not been found in empirical research.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study addressed two research questions:

1. How are people using mobile devices in relation to place?
2. What is the potential of location-based services to improve sense of place?

METHOD

A web-based survey using open and close-ended questions was used. Recruitment used convenience and snowball sampling, drawing upon this researcher’s network via his blogs and social networking websites. The questionnaire was open to anyone over 18 with access to a mobile device (defined in the questionnaire as a “portable computing device with network connectivity”). Seventy eight people completed the questionnaire, with participants representing a cross-section of ages, education levels, residence, and type of mobile device used. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis and thematic coding.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Findings and discussion are organized by research question.

RQ#1 How are people using mobile devices in relation to place?

When asked if they had “discovered something new and valuable about a place via their mobile device”, 62.5% (40 respondents) indicated they had. The larger the device screen used (e.g., tablet versus smartphone) increased positive responses, indicating user experience may play a role.  

Based on a list of LBS functions provided, many respondents (86.3%) reported using at least one such function in the past month (see figure 1 for the breakdown). At the high end, 84.1% report finding proximal businesses or services, reading local news (74.1%), finding nearby sites (67.7%), and reading information about their location (66.1%).  

When asked if they had “used a mobile device to record notes, opinions, or memories of a place”, 40.6% of respondents replied that they had done so. These respondents were asked to elaborate on how this affected their relationship to a place. Their responses fell into the following categories: improved recall (75.0%), encouraged personal reflection (20.8%), enabled sharing of place experiences (20.8%), and augmented place experience (12.5%).

These place-related functionalities that mobile devices enabled were seen to work with other elements, such as personal experience, reflection, and social elements that have been found to foster a sense of place.

RQ#2: What is the potential of location-based services to improve sense of place?

Of 28 respondents who indicated they had a stand-alone location-based service application installed on their mobile device, 72.4% answered the question “How have location-based services affected, or not affected, your sense of place”, with responses that were interpreted as improving their sense of place.

One response exemplifies the improved place familiarity resulting from easy, ubiquitous access to geographically-relevant information:

"They have let me learn more about a place, quickly, while I am there - which has provided a greater depth of knowledge and let me ‘commune’ with interesting places more."

Another response captures the individual and social elements of sense of place:

"Location based services have, by bringing other peoples’ social gazetteers into consideration, made a sense of place easier to achieve. The ability to explore what is around me through LBS and to not only stand in relation to those places but also to assess them through the social gazetteers left by other users does allow a sense of place to develop in even the unfamiliar, and the process of making such inscriptions in the LBS database strengthens my own sense of place..."

Of those who provided details (21 of 78), the responses were categorized into themes related to sense of place, as listed in table one (responses can be grouped in more than one category).


These findings indicate that LBS can improve one’s sense of place.

CONCLUSION
This study provides groundwork for establishing the role location-based services play in fostering sense of place. Respondents reported using LBS to find and share geotargetted place information, which increased their place familiarity and personal and social connections to place – which are components of sense of place (Gustafson, 2001). Respondents using LBS indicated it improved their place appreciation, fostered a sense of belonging, and improved their sense of place.
LBS are rapidly evolving as new features and innovations continue. Along with this, the ability to deliver geographically relevant information increases. Improved understanding of user patterns and outcomes arising from the use of LBS can provide guidance for developing applications to better meet user needs and to foster individual and societal benefits.


REFERENCES
Cramer, H., Rost, M., & Holmquist, L. E. (2011). Performing a check-in:
Emerging practices, norms and “conflicts” in location-sharing using foursquare. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (pp. 57–66). New York: ACM.

Cresswell, T. (2004). Place: A short introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Gustafson, P. (2001). Meanings of place: Everyday experience and theoretical conceptualizations. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21(1), 5–16.

Kaltenborn, B. P. (1997). Nature of place attachment: A study among recreation homeowners in Southern Norway. Leisure Sciences, 19(3), 175–189.

Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Purcell, K., Raine, L., Rosenstiel, T., & Mitchell, A. (2011). How mobile devices are changing community information environments. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Local-mobile-news.aspx

Relph, E. C. (1976). Place and placelessness. London, UK: Pion.

Stedman, R. (2003). Sense of place and forest science: Toward a program of quantitative research. Forest Science, 49(6), 822–829.

Walker, D., & Wehner, P. (2009). Practicing place: Collective experience and
difference in an urban online forum. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 46(1), 1–16. Silver Spring, MD: ASIS&T.

Zickuhr, K. (2012). Three-quarters of smartphone owners use location-based services. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Location-based-services.aspx

Need Advice on Which Smartphone to Get

Last month, after three long years, my smartphone contract with Bell finally expired!

This contract had me locked away from the exciting developments in the mobile device market. Although not completely cloistered and clueless, I really need help in choosing my next device and carrier.

Device
I had a BlackBerry Curve for the last three years.  Although it served me well and I love its keyboard, I have found that accessing apps is often difficult with BlackBerry. As a mobile researcher, I need timely access to the popular and cutting-edge apps, so as reluctant as I am to not buy a Canadian company's product, I will not be going with BlackBerry.

I'm not an Apple fan for various reasons, so those devices are out.  Even though I've heard positive reviews of Microsoft's mobiles, I'm not convinced. So that practically leaves only Android phones.

I like the more open ecosystem of Android and the large number of apps on the platform.  What do you think, is Android the way to go?

I also don't have a tablet or netbook. I really like something highly portable so I'm not keen on those devices, but the new superphones seems to be a compromise between portability and decent screen size.  I am worried that superphones won't fit in my pocket as that's where I always carry my device (if I need to carry the phone separately  or in a knapsack, I'm not apt to always carry it with me).

I was drooling over the Samsung Galaxy in a store. Any one have any experience with this  - caveats or concerns?

Carrier
I will never lock in again!  I hate long-term contracts, so I won't deal with any carriers that don't offer a no-contract option.

My dealings with Bell's customer service have never been great and recently it has been horrible (it took 5 technicians visiting and over 12 hours on the phone over 3 weeks to get Bell to hook up my Internet access, telephone, and Bell Fibe tv).  Dealing with Bell was like having glass ground into my eyeballs. Their customer loyalty is also non-existence, so I'm eager to leave them behind.

I checked out prices and options and Wind Mobile seems to be the best. But I heard their network coverage is only good in major cities and even then conks out. Any one have any advice on Wind Mobile or other carriers to consider?


I'm presenting at the ASIS&T (American Society for Information Science & Technology) conference at the end of the month on my research on location-based services on mobile devices. I'd love to show up with the best new device so I greatly appreciate any help that will make it less difficult to get my next (heavenly) device.