The Focus on Locus: Symposium on Location Based Services - Columbia University


When: Friday, July 11, 2008


Where: 301 Uris Hall, Columbia Business School, 116th & Broadway, New York, NY

Hosted by: Columbia Institute of Tele-Information (CITI)


An LBS Symposium took place at Columbia University on Friday, 11th of July, 2008.
The event drew a range of key individuals from across the industry and considered the following:

A survey of news media suggests Location Based Services (LBS) are becoming compelling for both consumers and service providers alike.

LBS holds the promise of substantial new benefit and empowerment to consumers and new revenue, brand advantages and customer loyalty to service providers. However, many problems of technology, economics and policy exist.

What will it take for LBS-enabled mobile devices and services to become ubiquitous? How long until consumers and businesses routinely benefit from knowing the proximity of goods, services, and other people? When will users be able to routinely access and contribute to user-generated location-based information and media? What are the privacy constraints holding things back and what new business models does LBS enable?

The Symposium will be structured in four parts by type of contributor:

Speakers/Panelists Will Also Collectively Address:

Speakers/Panelists Include:

  • Columbia University,  Professor Eli Noam, Director, Columbia Institute
    for Tele-Information
  • Columbia University - Henning Schulzrinne - Professor of Computer Science and Department Chair
Mobile Operators, Device Vendors & Mobile Developers Session:
Public Policy & Consumer Protection Session:
  • AT&T, Dorothy Attwood, SVP - Public Policy
    and Chief Privacy Officer
  • CTIA-The Wireless Association, Michael
    F. Altschul    , Senior Vice President and General Counsel
  • EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center),
    John Verdi, Staff Counsel
  • Loopt, Brian
    Knapp    , Chief Privacy Officer, Vice President, Corporate Affairs
Advertising/Marketing
Players Session:
Web & Social Networking Providers & Content/Dataset Providers Session:


Conference Organized by Christopher Loh, Alison Lindland, John Heywood and Professor Eli Noam