Today, I presented at IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society on my research on locative media and sense of place.
Below is my presentation. To access my speaker notes click the gear-like icon on the bottom right.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
Putting Locative Technology In Its Sense of Place
I'm presenting on my research with locative technology and our relationships to place at the IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society this Saturday (June 29). Here's the highlights of my paper:
ABSTRACT:
As we interact and learn about places, we bestow meaning on such places, forming the mental concept of a sense of place. Mobile devices and location-based services (LBS) may alter our everyday relationships of place. This paper reports on an exploratory survey study conducted on the elements that comprise sense of place and the role of (LBS). It was found that sense of place arises from diverse information sources, is multimodal and individualistic. Findings also suggest LBS can improve sense of place by enhancing people’s familiarity, personal engagement, and social connection to place. Respondents also identified barriers to their use of LBS.
I. INTRODUCTION
Whether a newcomer or a long-time resident of a given place, experiencing a place in cognizant fashion results in a sense of place. Sense of place can be created anew from a first time encounter or be continuously renewed. Heidegger argues for the primacy of direct experience of the world as a way of knowing, as he states “space can only be understood by going back to the world” [1, p. 105]. This view formed an experiential basis for future place scholars, such as Relph [2], Tuan [3], and Seamon [4].
Humans have created and shared information about place since prehistoric times, often in the forms of crude maps or oral narratives [5]. As technology evolved, information about place could be more readily documented and shared more broadly through such media as books, maps, pamphlets, photographs, films, and websites. Current information and communications technology, however, is making it easier to access information about a given place while at that particular place. Although the term LBS is still relatively recent, Brimicombe and Li offer a definition of LBS noting that it delivers “data and information services where the content of those services is tailored to the current or some projected location and context of a mobile user” [6, chap. 1.1). LBS have grown in number and popularity over the last three years [7].
People are using mobile devices to learn about the places they frequent, but prior studies have not fully examined how using such technology affects people’s everyday lives and their relationships to place. This paper reports on a small-scale, survey study exploring the role of information and LBS in shaping sense of place. Four research questions were posed:
To articulate humans’ relationship to their surroundings Tuan notes, “What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value” [3, p.6]. The scale of what this term encompasses, however, is often vague in place discourse; it can be a country or a corner of a room [3]. Cresswell [8] notes that place is a spatial unit that is perceived by an individual as bounded by unifying traits.
The aspects of a place from which meaning arise for us can be summarized as self, others, and environment [9]. Sense of place is the meanings an individual has toward a place [e.g., 2, 8, 10]. Such meaning can be comprised of personal feelings or memories, involving the sensual, aesthetic, experiential, or affective, and any associations or characterizations of place received or perceived by an individual. Sense of place arises from the physical and representational aspects of a place, such as the natural and built setting, inherent and transactional sociocultural factors, and utilitarian, affective, and hedonistic experiences. Sense of place is both a mental end-state and a process in flux changing based on one’s new place experiences, information, or perspective.
Sense of place has been studied in various disciplines and found to have numerous benefits. From a social perspective, sense of place has been found to lead to place attachment [11, 12]. Place attachment is seen as not only central to one’s identity [11] but it also assists in the formation of a sense of community [13] and aids people in caring for and protecting their places [14] of particular importance in heritage conservation and urban planning.
The importance of studying the role information and representation of place in the formation of sense of place is of particular importance to ICT practitioners and scholars. After all, to apprehend and then comprehend our world we must perceive information available about the physical world directly through our senses and indirectly through the accounts of others. Relph [2] and Tuan [3] are critical of the value of accounts, but their claims are not supported by empirical evidence. In contrast, one study of a LBS prototype found that people valued the place accounts of others and wanted to draw upon “the experiences of others rather than starting from nothing. In this way they are adding to the continuity of other peoples’ stories as well as enriching their own” [15, p.288]. Gay argues that “A system that includes social maps and annotation of space with notes allows users to leave traces in physical space that would otherwise have no record of who was present and what went on before” [16, p. 13]. Stewart, Hayward, Devlin, and Kirby [17] found people’s individual goals and profiles affected their use of geotartetted information, classifying people from those who actively want geotargetted information to those actively avoid it.
Empirical studies, however, that specifically examine how accounts impact the formation of sense of place could not be found. There are studies that demonstrate how sense of place can be transmitted or discerned through mediated accounts.[18, 19]. The work of anthropologists, such as Ryden [20], has examined how people use a variety of genres and media forms to share and interpret sense of place, but Ryden studied this at a cultural level rather than at the individual level.
Accounts and experiences of place are often transient and invisible. Emerging technology can reveal elusive yet geographically relevant information [21] and thereby may be able to improve people’s sense of place. Current LBS have a diversity of information sources, genres, and modalities as well as interactive and user-generated content features that offer the potential for deep and diverse information and experiences of and with place. In one study [22] researchers observed and interviewed LBS users and found that people virtually annotated place with their life events, fostering place connection. Locative media, through features as point-of-interest ratings and reviews and proximal and category searches, facilitate users’ ability to see, learn from, and act upon the experience and advice of others. Studies of LBS usage have found that people use it for such social navigation [23, 24].
Schwarzer, however, cautions on how LBS can be both an advantage and a disadvantage:
III. METHOD
To investigate this research problem a web-based survey was conducted. The questionnaire included 21 questions, 6 of which were open-ended and 15 which were close-ended. Recruitment used convenience and snowball sampling. Using Dey’s method of qualitative data analysis [26], data were first coded based on categories established from literature and as emerged from the data. Categories were further refined using Dey’s method of splicing, splitting, linking, and connecting categories. The quantitative data, being predominantly nominal was analyzed to discern response rates, frequency and percentage totals.
IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The findings and discussion are organized based on the four research questions.
A. Research Question 1: What Is the Nature of Relationships People Have With Places ?
When asked “Sense of place refers to the meanings and feelings people have for a place. Are there any places for which you have a strong sense of place?” 96.2% of respondents indicated they had such a place. The high response rate to this question suggests the pervasiveness of sense of place.
Respondents were instructed to check any of eight characteristics of place that “makes a place meaningful to you”. These characteristics had been identified from place literature. Table 1 shows the percentages and number of respondents who checked each characteristic.
Three out of the eight characteristics were reported by more than 75% of respondents: personal experiences that occurred in a given place (79.5%), aesthetic qualities of the place (76.9%), and social dimensions that have or continue to happen at the place (75.6%).
Participants also noted how these characteristics work together to create sense of place. When asked to “describe a place or places in which you feel a strong sense of place”, one participant connected various qualities:
B. Research Question 2: How Do People Use Information in Forming a Sense of Place?
Several questions were asked about the information sources and processes people use to learn about places. When asked how they “learn about the features, history, or social dimensions” of a place they previously identified as meaningful, respondents reported using multiple information sources (almost half reported using two or more sources) and different types of information sources. The most frequently reported source was word of mouth (24 respondents), followed by print material (18), television and film (11), and the Internet (7). The use of a variety of information sources about place is best reflected by this answer:
Over 50% of respondents (37) reported using a mobile application when visiting a new place, with 40% of this total using it for short visits (28) and 30% (21) for extended visits. Mobile applications may be more popular for short visits than long visits as they are well-suited to providing information useful in daily lives such as location or contact information and may not be used as extensively for extended visits (such as vacations) due to high data roaming costs charged by mobile carriers.
When asked if “having access to information (regardless of source) while at a given location is valuable” all respondents agreed or strongly agreed. Overall, respondents can be seen to use various information sources to learn about a place, which add “layers of information” to their sense of place.
C. Research Question 3: How Do People Use 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 the improved user experience of tablets may play a role.
Many respondents (86.3%) reported using their device to access at least one function in the past month. At the high end, 84.1% reported finding proximal businesses or services, reading local news (74.1%), finding nearby sites (67.7%), and reading information about their location (66.1%). The leading place-related functions used by respondents are directions and proximity searches for nearby businesses or events. Reponses such as “The location of a gas station when you are low on fuel is valuable information” or simply “It helped me get un-lost!” exemplify this functionality and its value to respondents.
As LBS applications become more commonly used, it will be interesting to see whether people will also start using other types of information that LBS can provide, such as historical and multimedia content, which received the lowest usage responses. Although “history of location” was reported by the lowest percentage of respondents, that some people were using mobile devices to seek historical and other factual place information, as reflected in the following comment:
D. Research Question 4: What Is the Potential of LBS to Improve Sense of Place?
Of the 28 respondents who used a LBS, 72.4% answered the question “How have location-based services affected, or not affected, your sense of place”, with responses indicating LBS usage had improved their sense of place. One response describes this improvement as resulting from the easy, ubiquitous access to geographically-relevant information that LBS facilitate:
TABLE II. HOW LBS HAVE AFFECTED SENSE OF PLACE BASED ON OPEN TEXT RESPONSES
To meet the needs of users improvements to LBSs or mobile technology in general are needed, as less than half of respondents (47.3%) indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with information provided by LBS. Respondents were asked “What can be done with mobile technology to improve your ability to learn about the places you encounter?”. Over 60% (47) of respondents offered suggestions, with five categories receiving the most responses: better or more content (31.9%), improved user interface and features (25.5%), improved personalization features (21.2%), greater geographic coverage of content (17.0%), and lower network carrier costs or roaming fees (14.8%). Despite barriers, the overall findings suggest that LBS play a role in sense of place and may be able to improve it.
V. CONCLUSION
This study provides groundwork for understanding the various elements that comprise sense of place and how LBS can address these. This study supports findings from place scholarship in affirming that sense of place arises is individualistic and is a continuous and active process. The survey confirmed the importance of personal experience as a valuable means to form a sense of place, as posited by place theorists. This study contributes to place scholarship by specifically identifying the role information plays in sense of place. Participants were found to draw upon a diverse range of information sources and media. Information was valued in forming a sense of place. Among participants using LBS, they indicated that it augments their current experience of place, enhances their sense of place, and improves their place attachment.
Greater understanding of the role LBS play in sense of place can assist in fostering a better understanding of user motivations and interactions. This can be used to contribute to the delivery of improved application interfaces and to the provision of more fulfilling and socially-relevant user experiences. Mobile, locative technology that captures and preserves a diverse range of information on place, virtually ties it to that place, and broadcasts it to others, can help people feel not only more informed but also more connected to their surroundings.
Aspects of locative media, such as its rich features to engage users with place, multiplicity of content, spatial awareness, and ubiquity of access have the potential to transition locative media from its initial focus on way finding to fostering deeper relationships to the everyday places we encounter. For LBS to meet the place-related needs of users, this research has identified the following recommendations for LBS apps:
Despite claims that mobile technology mentally removes people from their physical world [27], this study offers evidence of the potential of LBS to positively impact people’s relationships to their places.
VI. REFERENCES
[1] M. Heidegger, Being and Time. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.
[2] E. C. Relph, Place and Placelessness. London, UK: Pion, 1976.
[3] Y. Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
[4] D. Seamon, A Geography of the Lifeworld: Movement, Rest, and Encounter. London, UK: Croom Helm, 1979.
[5] M. Corson and E. Palka, “Geotechnology, the U.S. military, and war,” in Geography and Technology, S. D. Brunn, S. L. Cutter, and J. W. Harrington, Eds. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic, 2004, pp. 401–427
[6] A. Brimicombe and L. Chao, Location-based Services and Geo-information Engineering. Chichester, UK: Wiley, 2009.
[7] K. Zickuhr. “Three-quarters of smartphone owners use location-based services,” Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, 2012. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Location-based-services.aspx.
[8] T. Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004.
[9] P. Gustafson, “Meanings of place: Everyday experience and theoretical conceptualizations,” J. Environ. Psychol., vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 5–16, March 2001.
[10] B. Jorgenson and R. Stedman, “Sense of place as an attitude: Lakeshore owners’ attitudes toward their properties,” J. Environ. Psychol., vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 233–248, September 2001.
[11] P. Morgan, “Towards a developmental theory of place attachment,” J. Environ. Psychol., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 11–22, March 2010.
[12] K. Williamson and J. Roberts, “Developing and sustaining a sense of place: The role of social information,” Library & Info. Science Res., vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 281–287, October 2010.
[13] A. Williams, P. Kitchen, L. DeMiglio, J. Eyles, B. Newbold, and D. Streiner, “Sense of place in Hamilton, Ontario: Empirical results of a neighborhood-based survey,” Urban Geo., vol. 31, no. 7, pp. 905–931, October 2010.
[14] J. Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, NY: Vintage, 1992.
[15] J. Paay and J. Kjeldskov, “A gestalt theoretic perspective on the user experience of location-based services,” In Proc. of the 2007 Australasian Comp.-Human Interaction Conf.. Adelaide, Australia, 2007.
[16] G. Gay, Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–62, January 2009.
[17] E. J. Stewart, B. M. Hayward, P. J Devlin, and V.G. Kirby, “The ‘place’ of interpretation: A new approach to the evaluation of interpretation,” Tourism Mgmt., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 257–266, June 1998.
[18] C. Buchanan, “Sense of place in the daily newspaper,” Aether: The J. of Media Geo., vol. 4, March 2009. http://130.166.124.2/~aether/volume_04.html.
[19] T. Rantanen, “The new sense of place in 19th-century news,” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 435–449, 2003.
[20] K. Ryden, Mapping the Invisible Landscape: Folklore, Writing, and the Sense of Place. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 1993.
[21] A. Gazzard, “Location, location, location: Collecting space and place in mobile media,” Convergence: The Intl. J. of Res. into New Media Tech.,vo. 17, no. 4, pp. 405–417, 2011.
[22] L. Humphreys and T. Liao, “Mobile geotagging: Reexamining our interactions with urban space,” J. of Comp.-Mediated Comm., vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 407–423, 2011.
[23] M. Bilandzic, “A review of locative media, mobile and embodied spatial interaction,” Int. J. of Human-Comp. Studies, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 66–71, 2012.
[24] L. Evans, “Location-based services: Transformation of the experience of space,” J. of Location Based Services, vol. 5, no. 3-4, pp. 1–19, 2011.
[25] M. Schwarzer, “Sense of place, a world of augmented reality,” Design Observer Group, June 8, 2010.
[26] Dey, Ian, Qualitative Data Analysis: A User-friendly Guide for Social Scientists. London, UK: Routledge, 1993.
[27] K. J. Gergen,The challenge of absent presence.” in J. E. Katz and M. Aakhus, Eds., Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 227-241.
ABSTRACT:
As we interact and learn about places, we bestow meaning on such places, forming the mental concept of a sense of place. Mobile devices and location-based services (LBS) may alter our everyday relationships of place. This paper reports on an exploratory survey study conducted on the elements that comprise sense of place and the role of (LBS). It was found that sense of place arises from diverse information sources, is multimodal and individualistic. Findings also suggest LBS can improve sense of place by enhancing people’s familiarity, personal engagement, and social connection to place. Respondents also identified barriers to their use of LBS.
I. INTRODUCTION
Whether a newcomer or a long-time resident of a given place, experiencing a place in cognizant fashion results in a sense of place. Sense of place can be created anew from a first time encounter or be continuously renewed. Heidegger argues for the primacy of direct experience of the world as a way of knowing, as he states “space can only be understood by going back to the world” [1, p. 105]. This view formed an experiential basis for future place scholars, such as Relph [2], Tuan [3], and Seamon [4].
Humans have created and shared information about place since prehistoric times, often in the forms of crude maps or oral narratives [5]. As technology evolved, information about place could be more readily documented and shared more broadly through such media as books, maps, pamphlets, photographs, films, and websites. Current information and communications technology, however, is making it easier to access information about a given place while at that particular place. Although the term LBS is still relatively recent, Brimicombe and Li offer a definition of LBS noting that it delivers “data and information services where the content of those services is tailored to the current or some projected location and context of a mobile user” [6, chap. 1.1). LBS have grown in number and popularity over the last three years [7].
People are using mobile devices to learn about the places they frequent, but prior studies have not fully examined how using such technology affects people’s everyday lives and their relationships to place. This paper reports on a small-scale, survey study exploring the role of information and LBS in shaping sense of place. Four research questions were posed:
- What is the nature of relationships people have to places?
- How do people use information in forming a sense of place?
- How do people use mobile devices in relation to place?
- What is the potential of LBS to improve sense of place?
To articulate humans’ relationship to their surroundings Tuan notes, “What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value” [3, p.6]. The scale of what this term encompasses, however, is often vague in place discourse; it can be a country or a corner of a room [3]. Cresswell [8] notes that place is a spatial unit that is perceived by an individual as bounded by unifying traits.
The aspects of a place from which meaning arise for us can be summarized as self, others, and environment [9]. Sense of place is the meanings an individual has toward a place [e.g., 2, 8, 10]. Such meaning can be comprised of personal feelings or memories, involving the sensual, aesthetic, experiential, or affective, and any associations or characterizations of place received or perceived by an individual. Sense of place arises from the physical and representational aspects of a place, such as the natural and built setting, inherent and transactional sociocultural factors, and utilitarian, affective, and hedonistic experiences. Sense of place is both a mental end-state and a process in flux changing based on one’s new place experiences, information, or perspective.
Sense of place has been studied in various disciplines and found to have numerous benefits. From a social perspective, sense of place has been found to lead to place attachment [11, 12]. Place attachment is seen as not only central to one’s identity [11] but it also assists in the formation of a sense of community [13] and aids people in caring for and protecting their places [14] of particular importance in heritage conservation and urban planning.
The importance of studying the role information and representation of place in the formation of sense of place is of particular importance to ICT practitioners and scholars. After all, to apprehend and then comprehend our world we must perceive information available about the physical world directly through our senses and indirectly through the accounts of others. Relph [2] and Tuan [3] are critical of the value of accounts, but their claims are not supported by empirical evidence. In contrast, one study of a LBS prototype found that people valued the place accounts of others and wanted to draw upon “the experiences of others rather than starting from nothing. In this way they are adding to the continuity of other peoples’ stories as well as enriching their own” [15, p.288]. Gay argues that “A system that includes social maps and annotation of space with notes allows users to leave traces in physical space that would otherwise have no record of who was present and what went on before” [16, p. 13]. Stewart, Hayward, Devlin, and Kirby [17] found people’s individual goals and profiles affected their use of geotartetted information, classifying people from those who actively want geotargetted information to those actively avoid it.
Empirical studies, however, that specifically examine how accounts impact the formation of sense of place could not be found. There are studies that demonstrate how sense of place can be transmitted or discerned through mediated accounts.[18, 19]. The work of anthropologists, such as Ryden [20], has examined how people use a variety of genres and media forms to share and interpret sense of place, but Ryden studied this at a cultural level rather than at the individual level.
Accounts and experiences of place are often transient and invisible. Emerging technology can reveal elusive yet geographically relevant information [21] and thereby may be able to improve people’s sense of place. Current LBS have a diversity of information sources, genres, and modalities as well as interactive and user-generated content features that offer the potential for deep and diverse information and experiences of and with place. In one study [22] researchers observed and interviewed LBS users and found that people virtually annotated place with their life events, fostering place connection. Locative media, through features as point-of-interest ratings and reviews and proximal and category searches, facilitate users’ ability to see, learn from, and act upon the experience and advice of others. Studies of LBS usage have found that people use it for such social navigation [23, 24].
Schwarzer, however, cautions on how LBS can be both an advantage and a disadvantage:
“Our sense of place is augmented by information wired from the World Wide Web. Part of the information comes from media conglomerates. Much of it streams at us from our social networks and online acquaintances. The information allows us to peruse unseen depths of the place we’re in. We have the opportunity to gain a better or different sense of place anywhere we travel within the network’s reach. … We approach, apprehend and adjust to the world around us by carrying another world with us. We stroll with a docent at our side, answering our every query. Everyday place is curated like museum space, the most banal streetscape brought to comparative life… [17, para. 25].”Although Schwarzer raises concerns about the implications about how LBS may affect sense of place, there is a dearth of empirical research on the role of LBS in relation to sense of place.
III. METHOD
To investigate this research problem a web-based survey was conducted. The questionnaire included 21 questions, 6 of which were open-ended and 15 which were close-ended. Recruitment used convenience and snowball sampling. Using Dey’s method of qualitative data analysis [26], data were first coded based on categories established from literature and as emerged from the data. Categories were further refined using Dey’s method of splicing, splitting, linking, and connecting categories. The quantitative data, being predominantly nominal was analyzed to discern response rates, frequency and percentage totals.
IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The findings and discussion are organized based on the four research questions.
A. Research Question 1: What Is the Nature of Relationships People Have With Places ?
When asked “Sense of place refers to the meanings and feelings people have for a place. Are there any places for which you have a strong sense of place?” 96.2% of respondents indicated they had such a place. The high response rate to this question suggests the pervasiveness of sense of place.
Respondents were instructed to check any of eight characteristics of place that “makes a place meaningful to you”. These characteristics had been identified from place literature. Table 1 shows the percentages and number of respondents who checked each characteristic.
TABLE I. CHARACTERISTICS OF PLACE PARTICIPANTS DEEMED MEANINGFUL
| Characteristic | Percentage of respondents | Number of respondents |
| Past personal experience | 79.5% | 62 |
| Physical qualities | 76.9% | 60 |
| Social dimension | 75.6% | 59 |
| History | 65.4% | 51 |
| Familial connection | 57.7% | 45 |
| Cultural significance | 57.7% | 45 |
| Usefulness | 53.8% | 42 |
| Spirtual connection | 34.6% | 27 |
Three out of the eight characteristics were reported by more than 75% of respondents: personal experiences that occurred in a given place (79.5%), aesthetic qualities of the place (76.9%), and social dimensions that have or continue to happen at the place (75.6%).
Participants also noted how these characteristics work together to create sense of place. When asked to “describe a place or places in which you feel a strong sense of place”, one participant connected various qualities:
“The first place that came to mind is the big flat rock behind the family cottage in Muskoka. From that rock nothing could be seen except trees, ferns, and sky. Sometimes a boat could be heard in the distance, but during the week the lake was usually pretty quiet. All sorts of pretend games were played on that rock. Secret trysts with boyfriends were held there.”The importance of personal experience can best be demonstrated from another participant’s response to the same question:
“Another place with a strong sense to it is an ordinary intersection up along the airport strip, where I was told ‘I love you’ for the first time, in the romantic sense. The relationship the words went with is long since over, but the spot is still very dear!”This response also illustrates that the qualities of sense of place, particularly those involving personal experience, are often unavailable to others but are nonetheless important to participants. Overall, these findings confirm that various elements comprise sense of place and that the interplay of these elements varies across individuals.
B. Research Question 2: How Do People Use Information in Forming a Sense of Place?
Several questions were asked about the information sources and processes people use to learn about places. When asked how they “learn about the features, history, or social dimensions” of a place they previously identified as meaningful, respondents reported using multiple information sources (almost half reported using two or more sources) and different types of information sources. The most frequently reported source was word of mouth (24 respondents), followed by print material (18), television and film (11), and the Internet (7). The use of a variety of information sources about place is best reflected by this answer:
“By physically being there [a forest] and feeling the ground beneath my bare feet, by feeling the warm breeze on my (mostly) bare skin. By using all my senses. The history of the place I obtained by reading tales of the first peoples of Canada, by learning the lore of the area through talking to others, and by imagining what it must have been like to have been a Native North American.”A subsequent check-box question asked respondents “When do you consult the following sources of information when visiting a new place” and to check whether they used a source based on visit duration with options for “short visit (less than 1 day)”, “extended visit (more than 1 day)” and “never”. Social network / word of mouth, websites, and pamphlets were among the top five mediums for both short and extended visits. Consistent with place literature, many people value the information about place gathered from one’s social network. Social networks were identified as the most popular information source for short visits at 71.1% (54 respondents) and the second most popular at 78.9% (60) for extended visits.
Over 50% of respondents (37) reported using a mobile application when visiting a new place, with 40% of this total using it for short visits (28) and 30% (21) for extended visits. Mobile applications may be more popular for short visits than long visits as they are well-suited to providing information useful in daily lives such as location or contact information and may not be used as extensively for extended visits (such as vacations) due to high data roaming costs charged by mobile carriers.
When asked if “having access to information (regardless of source) while at a given location is valuable” all respondents agreed or strongly agreed. Overall, respondents can be seen to use various information sources to learn about a place, which add “layers of information” to their sense of place.
C. Research Question 3: How Do People Use 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 the improved user experience of tablets may play a role.
Many respondents (86.3%) reported using their device to access at least one function in the past month. At the high end, 84.1% reported finding proximal businesses or services, reading local news (74.1%), finding nearby sites (67.7%), and reading information about their location (66.1%). The leading place-related functions used by respondents are directions and proximity searches for nearby businesses or events. Reponses such as “The location of a gas station when you are low on fuel is valuable information” or simply “It helped me get un-lost!” exemplify this functionality and its value to respondents.
As LBS applications become more commonly used, it will be interesting to see whether people will also start using other types of information that LBS can provide, such as historical and multimedia content, which received the lowest usage responses. Although “history of location” was reported by the lowest percentage of respondents, that some people were using mobile devices to seek historical and other factual place information, as reflected in the following comment:
“During a business trip, I saw a historical structure in the distance. Once I had Wifi access, I looked it up via Google Maps. Once I knew the name of the structure, finding out more information on it was easy.”More pragmatically, some respondents are using their mobile device to find factual information about a place beyond directions, as exemplified by this comment:
“I found out recently not to use a public car park ... after dark. The Foursquare entry had a tip that car thieves were targeting the car park.”Mobile devices are more than just information seeking devices, as they also enable the ability for users to record and share their own experiences and information about places. 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 place memories. Their responses fell into the following categories: improved recall (75.0%), encouraged personal reflection (20.8%), enabled sharing place experience (20.8%), and enhanced place experience (12.5%). One respondent put it simply as he/she was able to “strengthen the moment” of their place experience, while another provides more detail:
“The process of inscribing your thoughts on a place while at that place is very useful in concretising your thoughts on that place. I think the practice of reflecting on the place to compose an entry requires a thinking about that place, and an ordering of thoughts about that place that gives meaning to the place.”These findings offer support for the ability of mobile devices to enable a person to engage individually and socially with a place. Mobile devices are thus seen to offer dimensions of place information and interaction that have the potential to affect one’s sense of place.
D. Research Question 4: What Is the Potential of LBS to Improve Sense of Place?
Of the 28 respondents who used a LBS, 72.4% answered the question “How have location-based services affected, or not affected, your sense of place”, with responses indicating LBS usage had improved their sense of place. One response describes this improvement as resulting from the easy, ubiquitous access to geographically-relevant information that LBS facilitate:
“They [LBS] 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...”Four themes surfaced from responses to this question as shown in table 2 (some responses included more than one theme).
TABLE II. HOW LBS HAVE AFFECTED SENSE OF PLACE BASED ON OPEN TEXT RESPONSES
| Themes related to LBS and sense of place | Percentage of respondents | Number of respondents |
| Improves familiarity or knowledge of place | 45.4% | 10 |
| Aids social connection | 38.0% | 8 |
| Improves appreciation of place | 27.2% | 6 |
| Fosters sense of belonging or connection to place | 19.0% | 4 |
To meet the needs of users improvements to LBSs or mobile technology in general are needed, as less than half of respondents (47.3%) indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with information provided by LBS. Respondents were asked “What can be done with mobile technology to improve your ability to learn about the places you encounter?”. Over 60% (47) of respondents offered suggestions, with five categories receiving the most responses: better or more content (31.9%), improved user interface and features (25.5%), improved personalization features (21.2%), greater geographic coverage of content (17.0%), and lower network carrier costs or roaming fees (14.8%). Despite barriers, the overall findings suggest that LBS play a role in sense of place and may be able to improve it.
V. CONCLUSION
This study provides groundwork for understanding the various elements that comprise sense of place and how LBS can address these. This study supports findings from place scholarship in affirming that sense of place arises is individualistic and is a continuous and active process. The survey confirmed the importance of personal experience as a valuable means to form a sense of place, as posited by place theorists. This study contributes to place scholarship by specifically identifying the role information plays in sense of place. Participants were found to draw upon a diverse range of information sources and media. Information was valued in forming a sense of place. Among participants using LBS, they indicated that it augments their current experience of place, enhances their sense of place, and improves their place attachment.
Greater understanding of the role LBS play in sense of place can assist in fostering a better understanding of user motivations and interactions. This can be used to contribute to the delivery of improved application interfaces and to the provision of more fulfilling and socially-relevant user experiences. Mobile, locative technology that captures and preserves a diverse range of information on place, virtually ties it to that place, and broadcasts it to others, can help people feel not only more informed but also more connected to their surroundings.
Aspects of locative media, such as its rich features to engage users with place, multiplicity of content, spatial awareness, and ubiquity of access have the potential to transition locative media from its initial focus on way finding to fostering deeper relationships to the everyday places we encounter. For LBS to meet the place-related needs of users, this research has identified the following recommendations for LBS apps:
- allow personal experience to be recorded privately and publicly
- offer personalization features
- consider affect
- draw upon various information source types (e.g. videos, text, photographs)
- offer different types of information (news, accounts, events)
- ensure content is available across many locations
Despite claims that mobile technology mentally removes people from their physical world [27], this study offers evidence of the potential of LBS to positively impact people’s relationships to their places.
VI. REFERENCES
[1] M. Heidegger, Being and Time. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.
[2] E. C. Relph, Place and Placelessness. London, UK: Pion, 1976.
[3] Y. Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
[4] D. Seamon, A Geography of the Lifeworld: Movement, Rest, and Encounter. London, UK: Croom Helm, 1979.
[5] M. Corson and E. Palka, “Geotechnology, the U.S. military, and war,” in Geography and Technology, S. D. Brunn, S. L. Cutter, and J. W. Harrington, Eds. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic, 2004, pp. 401–427
[6] A. Brimicombe and L. Chao, Location-based Services and Geo-information Engineering. Chichester, UK: Wiley, 2009.
[7] K. Zickuhr. “Three-quarters of smartphone owners use location-based services,” Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, 2012. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Location-based-services.aspx.
[8] T. Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004.
[9] P. Gustafson, “Meanings of place: Everyday experience and theoretical conceptualizations,” J. Environ. Psychol., vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 5–16, March 2001.
[10] B. Jorgenson and R. Stedman, “Sense of place as an attitude: Lakeshore owners’ attitudes toward their properties,” J. Environ. Psychol., vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 233–248, September 2001.
[11] P. Morgan, “Towards a developmental theory of place attachment,” J. Environ. Psychol., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 11–22, March 2010.
[12] K. Williamson and J. Roberts, “Developing and sustaining a sense of place: The role of social information,” Library & Info. Science Res., vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 281–287, October 2010.
[13] A. Williams, P. Kitchen, L. DeMiglio, J. Eyles, B. Newbold, and D. Streiner, “Sense of place in Hamilton, Ontario: Empirical results of a neighborhood-based survey,” Urban Geo., vol. 31, no. 7, pp. 905–931, October 2010.
[14] J. Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, NY: Vintage, 1992.
[15] J. Paay and J. Kjeldskov, “A gestalt theoretic perspective on the user experience of location-based services,” In Proc. of the 2007 Australasian Comp.-Human Interaction Conf.. Adelaide, Australia, 2007.
[16] G. Gay, Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–62, January 2009.
[17] E. J. Stewart, B. M. Hayward, P. J Devlin, and V.G. Kirby, “The ‘place’ of interpretation: A new approach to the evaluation of interpretation,” Tourism Mgmt., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 257–266, June 1998.
[18] C. Buchanan, “Sense of place in the daily newspaper,” Aether: The J. of Media Geo., vol. 4, March 2009. http://130.166.124.2/~aether/volume_04.html.
[19] T. Rantanen, “The new sense of place in 19th-century news,” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 435–449, 2003.
[20] K. Ryden, Mapping the Invisible Landscape: Folklore, Writing, and the Sense of Place. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 1993.
[21] A. Gazzard, “Location, location, location: Collecting space and place in mobile media,” Convergence: The Intl. J. of Res. into New Media Tech.,vo. 17, no. 4, pp. 405–417, 2011.
[22] L. Humphreys and T. Liao, “Mobile geotagging: Reexamining our interactions with urban space,” J. of Comp.-Mediated Comm., vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 407–423, 2011.
[23] M. Bilandzic, “A review of locative media, mobile and embodied spatial interaction,” Int. J. of Human-Comp. Studies, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 66–71, 2012.
[24] L. Evans, “Location-based services: Transformation of the experience of space,” J. of Location Based Services, vol. 5, no. 3-4, pp. 1–19, 2011.
[25] M. Schwarzer, “Sense of place, a world of augmented reality,” Design Observer Group, June 8, 2010.
[26] Dey, Ian, Qualitative Data Analysis: A User-friendly Guide for Social Scientists. London, UK: Routledge, 1993.
[27] K. J. Gergen,The challenge of absent presence.” in J. E. Katz and M. Aakhus, Eds., Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 227-241.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Blogging is the Best Revenge
I love the Internet! I'm so glad to work and study this field for so many reasons. It really has made publishing much more open and egalitarian. And it has finally given consumers some power when companies treat them like crap. Yes, I'm not above online revenge and it tastes sweet!
A few months ago I was moving to a new place. As everyone who has moved there is an infinite amount of work to do, and dealing with transferring one's utilities should be the least of one's challenges. Well, as I blogged about dealing with Bell Canada to get our phone, TV, and Internet hooked up was living hell - see my post Dealing with Bell Canada is Like Having Broken Glass Ground Into My Eyes.
Without exaggeration not only did Bell easily waste 40 hours of my life during an incredibly busy, stressful period while I was on hold trying to get them to hook me up, but they also treated me with an incredible amount of disrespect and unprofessionalism. Bell, it turns out uses the euphemisms of "transferring a call" to hang up on customers and "following up" as forgetting and ignoring someone in perpetuity.
Big and small companies nowadays get the power of social media and try to do some "community outreach" or rather damage control. Not Bell apparently as they seem oblivious to the power of word-of-mouth.
As I was having problem-after-mindnumbing-problem with Bell, I told them I would be blogging and tweeting about my experience and telling all my social network never to deal with Bell. My blog has some following and turns up decently on Google for key terms. Regardless, Bell should care what is being said about them online, yet at no time have they ever attempted to contact me or set things right.
So I recently checked out my blog's visitor statistics and revenge is mine! My blog posts detailing Bell's customer service crimes have generated thousands of page views!
I may have gone through hell with Bell, but if I have warned Canadians away from Bell and helped draw public attention to their despicable service then I am smuggly satisfied.
Thank you Internet!
A few months ago I was moving to a new place. As everyone who has moved there is an infinite amount of work to do, and dealing with transferring one's utilities should be the least of one's challenges. Well, as I blogged about dealing with Bell Canada to get our phone, TV, and Internet hooked up was living hell - see my post Dealing with Bell Canada is Like Having Broken Glass Ground Into My Eyes.
Without exaggeration not only did Bell easily waste 40 hours of my life during an incredibly busy, stressful period while I was on hold trying to get them to hook me up, but they also treated me with an incredible amount of disrespect and unprofessionalism. Bell, it turns out uses the euphemisms of "transferring a call" to hang up on customers and "following up" as forgetting and ignoring someone in perpetuity.
Big and small companies nowadays get the power of social media and try to do some "community outreach" or rather damage control. Not Bell apparently as they seem oblivious to the power of word-of-mouth.
As I was having problem-after-mindnumbing-problem with Bell, I told them I would be blogging and tweeting about my experience and telling all my social network never to deal with Bell. My blog has some following and turns up decently on Google for key terms. Regardless, Bell should care what is being said about them online, yet at no time have they ever attempted to contact me or set things right.
So I recently checked out my blog's visitor statistics and revenge is mine! My blog posts detailing Bell's customer service crimes have generated thousands of page views!
I may have gone through hell with Bell, but if I have warned Canadians away from Bell and helped draw public attention to their despicable service then I am smuggly satisfied.
Thank you Internet!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
It's Personal with Shoppers Drug Mart
I don't have time to read flyers - print or online. But I do love specials! So I frequently sign up for companies' email newsletters to keep an eye out for good promotions or new products. Most corporate emails, however, are often dull and irrelevant. So I rarely make the time to read them.
Ever since I moved to my prior residence, I relied on Shoppers Drug Mart as the only store available to buy our groceries, health and general supplies (you'd think we lived in the boonies - it was actually mid-town Toronto). I greatly benefited from their Optimum loyalty program (it's kept us happily stocked with electronic goodies: Wii and DS consoles and games, SLR digital camera, HD television, back massager, etc.) So I appreciated their email newsletters to help me save money and maximize my loyalty points.
But since we moved to a new place better serviced by stores, I haven't been closely monitoring my Shoppers' emails. Until recently.
A few weeks ago, I noticed that my Shoppers email newsletter was personalized to me. It wasn't just my name included in the email (which does not make me feel the email is targetted to me). The email was based on my purchasing history and included promotions for items that I'm actually interested in. Granted, book sellers have for a long time been sending me product recommendations based on my purchase history and others who bought similar items.
Shoppers emails were different as: 1) it included items I had purchased in the past and 2) items were on sale!
I was so impressed by this effort, that I contacted Shoppers and asked if they could tell me more about their email marketing, as well as plans for using mobile media.
Tammy Smitham, Vice President, Communications & Corporate Affairs, answered my questions, as follows:
Glen: Recent email newsletters I received from Shoppers are personalized. Is this a new initiative?
Tammy: In late 2012, we began a pilot of personalizing emails with targetted offers to 150,000 customers in Ontario. These offers were based on their shopping behaviours and preferences. For example, if they were a frequent cosmetic buyer they would get an offer with respect to items within cosmetics as well as an offer on the total category and finally we highlight for them relevant offers from that week's flyer based on products they had purchased in the past.
It is a sophisticated process to pull the data and create the relevant offers. It is proprietary technology. We worked with a company called Sagarmatha who specialize in this. They matched the offers with the customer's purchase behaviour. We are starting the roll out in English Canada over 6 - 8 weeks beginning April 2013.
Glen: What has been the response to these emails?
Tammy: The response was excellent. In fact, we saw open rates increase by 1,000 basis points and 50% of those who opened the email bought something featured in the email offer. We also saw an increase in both basket size and trip frequency from those who received the personalized email.
Glen: What are your future plans for personalizing and other innovative uses of email communications?
Tammy: The customer feedback has been very positive and as a result we embarked on a national roll out of these personalized emails beginning in April 2013. Once we reach critical mass (about 1.2 million active email addresses) we will proactively promote this element of our loyalty program. We have over 10 million Shoppers Optimum members but only have about 2 million email addresses so there is tremendous opportunity to grow the program's reach.
Glen: Any plans to enable coupons received via email to be redeemed by mobile device?
Tammy: We are working on a pilot for mobile for our Optimum loyalty program, which should begin later this summer. This will allow members to have a mobile Optimum card. Alongside with that pilot, we are working on making specific offers targetted to them via their mobile device. We hope to roll that out nationally in 2014.
Glen: On the topic of mobiles, can you share any future aspirations for reaching customers via their mobile. (For example, are you considering using geo-fencing?)
Tammy: Our major focus at this time is on making the Optimum card and relevant offers available via the mobile device. We know it is something our customers are demanding.
Glen: I also receive postcards in the mail from Shoppers. Can you discuss your use of old and new media in your media mix?
Tammy: We recognize our customers want to interact with us in different ways - whether it be through our weekly flyer, through personalized emails, via Facebook or through direct mail or our website (we have between 250,000 and 500,000 views of our flyer online per month). Our direct mail programs are also very successful. Given the ability for us to target our customers based on the information we have in the Shoppers Optimum database. We also know that Shoppers Drug Mart customers have greater smartphone penetration at 66% vs the Canadian population at 54% so we recognize that is an important medium for us to be engaged with.
At the end of the day we are focusing on the omni-channel to ensure that our presence is consistent across all mediums to keep our customer engaged with our brand and our offering.
***
As a PhD student and father with a young family, both my time and finances are constrained. So I greatly appreciate efforts by companies to save me both time and money. Too many corporate, digital marketing efforts don't really get my constraints (which I'm sure many people share). As far as I'm aware, Shoppers recent personalization efforts are among the first in Canada, but I hope they prove a model for other Canadian businesses.
Ever since I moved to my prior residence, I relied on Shoppers Drug Mart as the only store available to buy our groceries, health and general supplies (you'd think we lived in the boonies - it was actually mid-town Toronto). I greatly benefited from their Optimum loyalty program (it's kept us happily stocked with electronic goodies: Wii and DS consoles and games, SLR digital camera, HD television, back massager, etc.) So I appreciated their email newsletters to help me save money and maximize my loyalty points.
But since we moved to a new place better serviced by stores, I haven't been closely monitoring my Shoppers' emails. Until recently.
A few weeks ago, I noticed that my Shoppers email newsletter was personalized to me. It wasn't just my name included in the email (which does not make me feel the email is targetted to me). The email was based on my purchasing history and included promotions for items that I'm actually interested in. Granted, book sellers have for a long time been sending me product recommendations based on my purchase history and others who bought similar items.
Shoppers emails were different as: 1) it included items I had purchased in the past and 2) items were on sale!
I was so impressed by this effort, that I contacted Shoppers and asked if they could tell me more about their email marketing, as well as plans for using mobile media.
Tammy Smitham, Vice President, Communications & Corporate Affairs, answered my questions, as follows:
Glen: Recent email newsletters I received from Shoppers are personalized. Is this a new initiative?
Tammy: In late 2012, we began a pilot of personalizing emails with targetted offers to 150,000 customers in Ontario. These offers were based on their shopping behaviours and preferences. For example, if they were a frequent cosmetic buyer they would get an offer with respect to items within cosmetics as well as an offer on the total category and finally we highlight for them relevant offers from that week's flyer based on products they had purchased in the past.
It is a sophisticated process to pull the data and create the relevant offers. It is proprietary technology. We worked with a company called Sagarmatha who specialize in this. They matched the offers with the customer's purchase behaviour. We are starting the roll out in English Canada over 6 - 8 weeks beginning April 2013.
Glen: What has been the response to these emails?
Tammy: The response was excellent. In fact, we saw open rates increase by 1,000 basis points and 50% of those who opened the email bought something featured in the email offer. We also saw an increase in both basket size and trip frequency from those who received the personalized email.
Glen: What are your future plans for personalizing and other innovative uses of email communications?
Tammy: The customer feedback has been very positive and as a result we embarked on a national roll out of these personalized emails beginning in April 2013. Once we reach critical mass (about 1.2 million active email addresses) we will proactively promote this element of our loyalty program. We have over 10 million Shoppers Optimum members but only have about 2 million email addresses so there is tremendous opportunity to grow the program's reach.
Glen: Any plans to enable coupons received via email to be redeemed by mobile device?
Tammy: We are working on a pilot for mobile for our Optimum loyalty program, which should begin later this summer. This will allow members to have a mobile Optimum card. Alongside with that pilot, we are working on making specific offers targetted to them via their mobile device. We hope to roll that out nationally in 2014.
Glen: On the topic of mobiles, can you share any future aspirations for reaching customers via their mobile. (For example, are you considering using geo-fencing?)
Tammy: Our major focus at this time is on making the Optimum card and relevant offers available via the mobile device. We know it is something our customers are demanding.
Glen: I also receive postcards in the mail from Shoppers. Can you discuss your use of old and new media in your media mix?
Tammy: We recognize our customers want to interact with us in different ways - whether it be through our weekly flyer, through personalized emails, via Facebook or through direct mail or our website (we have between 250,000 and 500,000 views of our flyer online per month). Our direct mail programs are also very successful. Given the ability for us to target our customers based on the information we have in the Shoppers Optimum database. We also know that Shoppers Drug Mart customers have greater smartphone penetration at 66% vs the Canadian population at 54% so we recognize that is an important medium for us to be engaged with.
At the end of the day we are focusing on the omni-channel to ensure that our presence is consistent across all mediums to keep our customer engaged with our brand and our offering.
***
As a PhD student and father with a young family, both my time and finances are constrained. So I greatly appreciate efforts by companies to save me both time and money. Too many corporate, digital marketing efforts don't really get my constraints (which I'm sure many people share). As far as I'm aware, Shoppers recent personalization efforts are among the first in Canada, but I hope they prove a model for other Canadian businesses.
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