Locative Media & Media Used to Convey Place Information

As much research continues into how we use location based services on mobile devices to access geotargetted information, I've been considering other ways we can access information about place. There is a lot of buzz over the past couple years about locative media - with a frequent assumption that it is new technology. Humans have had ways to leave information about a place at the place for millennia. I'm not convinced that new technology has created an entirely new experience, but rather has facilitate access to this information.

I've found it helpful for my research to maintain a list of various forms of media used to convey place-related information.

The table below lists each medium, its corresponding modalities, the presence of user participation functionality, and the physical portability of the medium.

Medium	Modalities	User participation	Portability
Audio tours	Sound	No	Mobile
Billboards	Visual	No	Situated
Books and e-books	Visual	No	Mobile
Directories	Visual	No	Situated (if in phone booth), mobile otherwise
Films and videos	Visual, sound	Yes (if creating)	Situated - if viewing on tv or cinema Mobile - if viewing on mobile device
Flags	Visual	No	Situated
GPS devices (for cars or hiking)	Visual, haptic	Yes	Mobile
Graffiti	Visual	Yes	Situated
Guestbooks (physical)	Visual	Yes	Situated
Guides (human)	Visual, sound	Yes	Mobile
Help desks/info booths	Visual, sound	Yes	Situated
Interactive kiosks	Visual, sound, haptic	Yes	Situated
Maps, atlases, and charts	Visual	No	Mobile
Media facades and electronic billboards	Visual, sound	No	Situated
Mobile applications	Visual, sound, haptic	Yes	Mobile
Newspapers	Visual	No	Mobile
Pamphlets	Visual	No	Mobile
Photographs	Visual	Yes (if creating)	Mobile
Plaques	Visual	No	Situated
Posters	Visual	No	Situated
Sandwich boards	Visual, sound	Yes	Situated (somewhat mobile)
Sculptures	Visual	No	Situated
Signage (print & electronic)	Visual	No	Situated
Television shows	Visual, sound	No	Situated
Website	Visual, sound	Yes	Situated (unless viewing on mobile device)
Word of mouth	Visual, sound	Yes	Mobile

Let me know if I missed a medium or if there's another key dimension I should add to this table.