The Social Cost of Locative Media
by Imran Ali
Prominent Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase, recently wrote about the implications of shared location data and it’s increasing awareness to others.
Chipchase explores the emerging trend of people seeking disconnection from one another in urban environments, despite the increasing economic dependence we all have on interconnectedness in all its forms.
As mobile and locative technologies are providing a new precision and pervasiveness in locating individuals, coupled with a rise in overlapping social networks, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain geo-privacy meaning that opting out of technology could likely mean opting out of culture and society - less a technology issue and more one of cultural gravity.
Though mobile elements of web services such as Dopplr and Yahoo’s FireEagle are looking at mechanising how we share, articulate and perform our locative data - no one is really exploring the social implications and social cost of non-participation in locative media.
Chipchase rightly doesn’t seek to offer answer, but encourages readers to articulate meaningful questions to explore the implications of our collective invention…an approach entirely appropriate to any emerging technology.
You can read Chipchase’s article here…
