Geographical Perspectives on Location for Location Based Services

In this position paper the question of how location is employed in location based services (LBS) is considered. The importance of the notion of location is highlighted as a means of blurring the boundary between forms of experiences that are direct, and sensed in the environment, and those that are indirect, and learned from information. It is suggested that current methods for modeling location are limited by their lack of strong theoretical underpinning. To help bridge this gap the notions of Space, Place, and Region, from geographical theory, are proposed and implications of these for considering location in LBS outlined.