Putting Systems into Place: A Study of Design Requirements for Location-Aware Community Systems

A number of innovative location-aware community systems have emerged; however, work to date in this area lacks a firm foundation. To remedy this, we present a conceptual framework and a series of studies into how socially-defined places influence people’s information sharing and communication needs. The first study identified a relationship between people’s place-related activities and their information needs. The second study clarified the connection between social networks, places and people’s interaction and information preferences. A third study, in progress, aims to expand upon and quantitatively assess the validity of our initial findings. Our findings argue that system design must factor in users’ activities and social networks, alongside place