Location Based Services Confront The Empty Room Problem

As in the Internet, one popular use of mobile technology is likely to be user created data. The problem is that if there is no content in the system already then people won’t feel the urge to contribute themselves: “If there is no data in the system, no one’s going to step up and add any data as it doesn’t seem worthwhile. No one will use it. It’s the catch-22 of any system that requires lots of users to input data. If there isn’t an initial data set it’s hard to jumpstart the effort”.
However some groups have worked out that it’s sometimes possible to automate the process — for example a group of inline skaters have developed a system based on GPS and mobile technology that automatically records the trails the skaters go on, and the skaters can add comments later. This has two benefits: The database is filled almost automatically (skaters only need to have the system on them while they skate) and people begin to get used to inputing data.

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