Associating places in the real world with digital content is an exciting development combining location technology with a new digital medium which has attracted a lot of activity but little critical mass. We’re exploiting the power of the ideas behind Web 2.0 and the huge improvements in mobile technology to accelerate the adoption of located media.

We are combining the web with mobile devices to allow publication and sharing of users’ perspectives on spaces. Users can author content either in the field or at their desk. Photos, video, audio and text can be associated with physical locations to create a ‘mediascape’. The mediascape can be downloaded onto a GPS device and experienced in situ as the user moves around the space. Mediascapes can also be published on the web for others to download and experience, and to annotate and extend. The mediascape can be displayed with or without a map, and the map can be user-supplied or remixed from another source.

Current use of GPS is highly focused on navigation; we are changing this paradigm to a focus on exploration, discovery, sharing and interaction. Conversely much mobile technology strives to be insensitive to physical location; we are augmenting this with additional location-specific content.