Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/29869
Friends? Social Networking in Social Spaces lWith college campus geofences, social-networking updates can be tagged as originating on or off campus. LBS opportunity. But people often cite privacy con- cerns, saying that as much as they want to stay in touch with friends, they don’t feel comfortable shar- ing their exact location. Further, although it may be mostly urban legend, many people have heard stories of someone being burglarized after posting that they were away from home. Adding Social Space Locations By adding options to reference social spaces, in addition to specific place points, social-networking services can address privacy and security concerns as well as allow users to add context and relevance to their updates. Expanding the ways in which loca- tion can be expressed in social networking recognizes that it’s about much more than a set of places where Mobility/GPS Special Issue people check-in; it’s also about the social spaces that surround them. Options to allow users to tag updates with more gen- eral geographic areas—rather than individual places— may also appeal to older users who are less likely to be interested in sharing their exact location. In short, enabling a new set of location services in social net- working based on the social spaces that are important to users will drive adoption of LBS features. Defining Social Spaces When it comes to social spaces and the geography that conveys cultural context, the neighborhood is the obvi- ous common denominator. More than half the world’s population lives in cities, and that portion is estimated to grow to 70 percent by 2050. Neighborhoods are A P R I L 2 O 1 1 / W W W . G E O P L A C E . C O M 23