Urban Pilot A Handheld City Guide That Maps Personal and Collective Experiences through Social Networks

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of handheld mobile devices as personalized tools for city navigation that go beyond cartographic limitations and directory services. The volatile, unpredictable randomness of the city life and its ever-changing patterns need dynamic navigational means. Unfortunately, existing devices and their applications do not fully address the impelling potential of real-time interactivity generated by Wireless and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). This study proposes a tool, which encourages personal perceptions and collective experience of cities by providing a dynamic information space that overlaps the city with individual users. The tool is characterized by a three-tier structure of Personal Filtering, Social Networking and Information Layering. It filters the information through personalization, shares the personal perception through social networks and layers the information with collective experience. Hence it is designed as a regenerative information system based on social networks that allows for the creation of new patterns and interpretations.