IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2014 - 75

with none of the human processes
of placing, positioning, naming, or
tagging involved. This amplifies
the sense of an independent reality
of space, and the understanding of
place is usurped by recognition of
location as pure coordinate.

Bottom-Up Mapping
and LBSN
The databases used in GPS devices
are proprietary ones, owned and
controlled by the hardware manufacturers, or created by software
companies and licensed by the hardware manufacturer. The systems
are closed; the user cannot alter the
software or more importantly add
to the database. This kind of closed
system is in contrast to neo-geographical [28] software programs
like openstreetmap which allow
user-created content to build layers of information into maps and
locational software, and is also in
opposition to a series of user-created databases that are the product
of interactive geospatial tagging
applications for mobile platforms
such as the iPhone. These applications or location-based social networks (LBSN) - Foursquare, being
a popular example - build databases
of places by users creating "places"
and "checking-in" at those places.
Users are rewarded in a point-based
system for the creation of spots and
for checking-in to spots, and from
this a game environment is created
where users are encouraged to compete with others for high scores.
Users are also rewarded with badges
and titles for check-ins and creating
spots: Foursquare conveys the status
of "mayor" on users who have the
most check-ins at a spot. Users can
leave comments about spots they
check-in at and photographs of the
place. By checking-in to a place, a
list of nearby venues and places is
automatically generated, providing
the user with further information
on their location and their relative
position to other places and services. The database of places is built
using user-generated content (be

that geo-tagged places, comments
or recommendations) and as such
the database grows and develops as
a function of the use of the LBSN.1
While the use of game design
and gamification of location to
attract and maintain users is interesting, it is the user activity that is
more important and acts as a challenge to the hegemonic GPS presentation of space as pure coordinate.
Usage contributes to a user-created
database of places, including comments and photos that add a social
dimension to the database. Understanding the importance of this
requires an understanding of the
development of the technological
and computational elements that
contribute to its realization. The
shift in production enabled by the
use of code is significant as the
movement from top-down systems of production to bottom-up
systems. The process of mapping
has moved from an elite profession
concerned with the inscription and
consolidation of political and economic interests (and ordering the
world as resource to meet these
ideological desires) to the social
mapping of personal interests and
observations that are supported by
the opening up of resources and
techniques for mapping through
the process of digitization.

Top-Down and
Bottom-Up Mapping
In a top-down system the database is a
created, closed interface, without the
facility for user contribution or editing. In a bottom-up system, the users
of the application create the information held in the database. This open
form of database is contingent on
users: some areas can be expected to
have many spots, others none based
on the relative facilities available and
technological limitations (such as 3G
coverage). The action of the user in
creating the entry in the database is
1

Foursquare makes this database of places freely
available to programmers and application developers through the Foursquare API.

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SPRING 2014

therefore critical in the possibility of
there being a "place." Without the
encoding of a location the place will
not exist in the database and, as such,
is invisible if one is using the LBSN
to find locations and locate oneself in
a place.
In assessing the development
of mapping, such as the OS in the
U.K., the cartographic activity was
a project that satisfied the political
and economic wills of dominant
elites within British society. The
product of that process, the map, is
an inscription of the physical territory and an inscription that denotes
power relationships, and ascribes
power to specific territories within
the territory mapped. The function
of the representation is not just to
locate oneself and to find out where
one might want to go as the map
serves as an inscription of power in
the world. When one creates a place
on Foursquare, there is not a topdown power relationship in the cartography. The creation of a gazetteer
or database entry is both from the
users of the network (and therefore
distributed rather than concentrated
in the hands of a cartographer) and
is immediately turned over to the
network as a bottom-up (i.e., users
creating the database rather than
being "given" the information) form
of activity. The map is not a static
representation of the territory: the
user can add to the map, and change
the gazetteers that have already been
created on the map. The method of
creation and the role of the user have
been changed with the role of the
map itself. Maps were representations of territory but with a computational device, maps are something
with which we can navigate the
world socially and add to, in order to
aid others that aim to navigate that
physical space. In doing this, the
user is actively involved in a transformation of physical space into
social place, through the activity of
mapping and navigating.
The development of a database of
places is indicative of a movement
from i) representation of location to
|

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2014