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

Symposium Content/Issues/Questions to Address


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

1. Mobile Operators, Device Vendors & Mobile Developers

2. Web & Social Networking Providers & Content/Dataset Providers

3. Advertising/Marketing Players

4. Public Policy & Consumer Protection

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Speakers will collectively address:

State of Play:

• What is the demand for LBS capable devices & applications/services?


• What policy differences in the US may be inhibiting service provision
and uptake?

• Technology, what is great and what is challenging?

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Monetization & Business Models:

• How are LBS ecosystem participants focussing on making money from new
products and services? What new monetization models are emerging?

• Are the paradigm shifts of Web 2.0 being sufficiently leveraged in emerging
LBS offerings?

• Social networking taken mobile and given location awareness: most of
us are on a social network, we all have cellphones: what's holding LBS-augmented
social networking back?

• LBS economics in the US versus elsewhere. What is different?

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Demand side:

• What are the things in the way of consumer acceptance?

• Is cost the major hurdle or are behavioral and cultural acceptance changes
required?

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Mobile Operators, Device Vendors & Mobile Developers:

• Mobile Developer Ecosystem - what is the interplay at hand between key
industry participants (e.g. carriers and mobile developers)?

• Carrier control and readiness and network readiness

• Carrier engagement

• Device readiness: Which mobile device vendors are most active on the
LBS front? Are they held in check by the carriers?

• How long will it take for entry-level LBS-enabled handsets to be available
and reach the adoption tipping point?

• Why does the iPhone not have a GPS central to its existence?

• What are the implications of the iPhone SDK?

• What are the LBS plans for Google's Android platform?

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Web & Social Networking Providers & Content/Dataset
Providers:

• To what extent is a competitive landgrab underway amongst the major
web players and what risks does the market face as a result? e.g. separate datasets/redundancy/lack
of standards etc?

• How can tier-1 social networks like Facebook & MySpace take advantage
of LBS?

• How is online mapping and mashups contributing to momentum in the space?

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Advertising / Marketing Players:

• Explore and assess LBS as a new channel for brands and ad networks
• Consider the transformation and extension of the social networking space
into LBS and its implications for advertising/marketing
• Consider new approaches in
proximity-based advertising
• Can location and
mobile-device encapsulated user information help improve advertising relevance?
• Can new services
help transform classified ads and message boards?

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Public Policy and Consumer Protection:

• What law enforcement, competition policy developments may be required
to keep pace with LBS? • What public policy would help to legitimize LBS and protect consumers
and businesses?

• "The point of privacy" - what are the social constraints to
service uptake?

• What are the hidden social implications: is there a dark side to LBS
leverage (what is the potential for criminal mis-use e.g. drug distribution
and prostititution)?

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