Annotative Locative Media and G-P-S: Granularity, Participation, and Serendipity

This article outlines a model for the design of annotative locative media based on three key principles: serendipitous exploration, open participation, and flexible granularity. These keywords sum up the features required of a design that aims to utilize the full potential of location awareness and spatial annotation. The model is based on experiences from the author's own project, textopia, a humanities-based media research project aiming to explore the intrinsic qualities of locative media through practical design experiments as well as on analysis of a wide array of attempts at facilitating literary expression in locative media.

► textopia: An experimental design for experiencing literary texts in locative media
► Three main design principles/challenges: Granularity, Participation and Serendipity
► Serendipity: The system should help users find things they are not looking for
► Participation is essential for locative media, in order to fit into users’ everyday spaces
► Granularity: Spatial annotation creates a fine-grained structure of texts