You are here: Creating location based services

The ability to know where someone or something is, particularly when on the move, is a critical building block for the ubiquitous web. It allows us to build location sensitive applications, which in turn enable new models for social interaction.

But how do we actually go about determining our current location? And once we know where we are, what can we do with that information?

It’s commonly assumed that the increased availability of embedded GPS receivers combined with open data from the likes of Yahoo Local will provide everything needed to answer these questions. In practice, we find this only solves some of the problems.

This session will explore the available methods of determining a users current location and methods for converting that location into useful data for a range of end uses. We will also discuss some of the problems faced when implementing location based services, and some of the wider implications of the technology.