Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 about Location Based Services on Monday 14th March

Foursquare CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley will discuss how a new wave of location-based applications are changing the way we interact with our friends and surroundings. New mobile technologies combined with enhanced game dynamics are helping people experience the world around them in new and different ways. Dennis will walk through some of the foundational elements that feed into the current model, what this means for the future, and how foursquare can manufacture serendipity.

Previously, Crowley founded Dodgeball, one of the first mobile social services in the U.S., which was acquired by Google in 2005. He has been named one of the "Top 35 Innovators Under 35" by MIT's Technology Review magazine. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine and Newsweek. Dennis holds a Master's degree from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program and a Bachelor's degree from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

Interviewing Crowley will be Pete Cashmore, CEO and founder of Mashable.com, the online guide to social media. One of the top 10 blogs worldwide, Mashable is a hub for those looking to make sense of the online realm.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Location-based and Context-aware technologies are transforming the way we interact with our environments and the people around us. Following Pete Cashmore’s interview with FourSquare founder Dennis Crowley, join our panel of experts – Mike Schneider (Location-Based Marketing for Dummies), Amber Case (GeoLoqi) and Cali Lewis (GeekBeat.TV) – to discuss the implications of their presentation and other ideas on how gamefication, location-sharing, an other virtual tools are changing the way we experience the physical world.

Location-based services (LBS) are continuing to experience exponential growth, however, mass adoption is making the check-in ubiquitous. Sometimes lost in those discussions about technology and thousands and thousands of check-ins is the secret sauce behind these services – the basic and ever-present human desire to share. Josh Williams, co-founder and CEO of Austin-based Gowalla, will detail why he and his team have been looking beyond the concept of simply checking in at locations — and how people’s interest in sharing where they are and what they’re doing with friends, family, and the public-at-large is a stepping stone on the path to how people will continue to communicate and express themselves.

LEVEL: Beginner

Jiepang is the leading foursquare-like LBS service of China. Through many creative location-based marketing campaigns with global brands in China, we have observed that virtual badges can be a strong incentive for user check-in activities. In the case when the badge is associated with real-world benefits (e.g. discounts), such responses will be even more obvious. However, it is always controversial to measure the performance of a LBS marketing campaign. Jiepang will present an interesting model to analyze the online and offline results and also compare the difference between US and China LBS services.

I ran a workshop on Location Based Services [LBS] at SXSW Interactive 2010. The specific session I conducted was titled "LBS 101: Geolocation On The 'Horizon'" –http://sxsw.com/node/5016. LBS is still a highly relevant subject and given that people are still curious and learning about LBS, there's an opportunity for another LBS 101 session targeted towards beginners in the space, but this time we can dig a little bit deeper. Some of the topics I will address include: (1) Locating feature phones vs. smartphones -- can all phones really be located commercially? How? What are the differences between locating different kinds of phones from a technology standpoint, a privacy standpoint, a functional standpoint? (2) The economics of locating phones -- what does it cost? How are wireless carriers and handset manufacturers involved? How are advertisers involved? (3) Types of LBS apps -- are downloadable iPhone/Android apps the only LBS apps? What about SMS and voice apps which have a far greater addressable market and potential for ubiquitous usage? (4) LBS app use cases -- what are some compelling LBS use cases besides the obvious mobile advertising / marketing ones, e.g. fraud detection, roadside assistance, gaming compliance, security, etc. (5) The future of LBS -- who’s using LBS today and who will be using LBS in the coming months/years? With always-on location becoming more pervasive, what new and compelling services will we see? (6) Privacy -- how much transparency do end users have when sharing their location? What incentives are being offered to end users to share location constantly?

LEVEL: Beginner