Geographic Relevance in Mobile Services

In this position paper we describe the concept of geographic relevance and its potential for mobile location-based services employing the mobile Internet. We argue that existing LBS have a too limited concept of location and its application for filtering geographic content. We propose an approach for geographic relevance that extends LBS and location-aware web applications and aims at better supporting mobile users' decision-making based on geographic information. After a short description of an ongoing project, we discuss the different roles of location and the different conceptions of space that can be involved in assessing and representing geographic relevance. Finally we provide a few concluding statements that aim at stimulating a cross-disciplinary discussion about location and its importance for relevance.