Report found here.
According to “Challenges and Business Models for Mobile Location-based Services and Advertising,” by Subhankar Dhar and Upkar Varshney, location-based services, or LBSs, are “services that depend on and are enhanced by positional information of [a] mobile device” (122). These services have become increasingly effective as support for mobile platforms has become more common. There are many different kinds of LBS, and frequently they are the main enabler for a number of applications. There are also several protocols and standards in place to allow LBSs to work as intended (e.g. across networks) and protect user privacy, among other goals. However, the growth of LBS faces challenges in the forms of “emergent technologies, suitable applications, and business models” (122). For instance, because this technology was slower to enter the market than expected, location has largely become a way to “enable services” rather than LBSs being the standard. On the other hand, there is also potential for development in spaces such as mobile advertising, that will take advantage of characteristics unique to mobile platforms. In general, I do believe these main points. First, because this paper was published several years ago, there has been confirmation of some of the predictions made. These include the fact that mobile advertising is targeted to a user’s personal internet history, and that privacy concerning location has become a significant issue, especially with cases such as Snapchat’s Snapmap or Google Maps’ location history. Furthermore, many of the aspects considered when listing advantages and disadvantages of a mobile platform versus other platforms were taken into account when my group and I first decided on a design to pursue. All in all, much of what was described in this paper was informally discussed already within our design process.
After reading this paper, I wish we had considered the privacy aspect more. While we did decide to focus on anonymous discussions within our application, we did not fully discuss the amount of privacy a user would be afforded. This may partially be because different users gave us conflicting opinions; some users indicated a preference for full anonymity while other were more inclined towards a social aspect. Our design as of now allows users to create social groups, but also gives users the option to forego using this function if they so choose. I hope this is a happy medium between the two extremes of total anonymity and social network. I also do not think that we have designed something that has improved on this paper; by building an application that is entirely dependent on location, we are testing the waters for an LBS that is more social or learning based, rather than revenue based. We have largely ignored the business model side of this app, which is what this paper chooses to focus on.