Tagciti: A practical approach for location-aware and socially-relevant information creation and discovery for mobile users

Tagciti is a novel location-aware and socially-relevant information creating and discovering service for mobile users. Instead of depending on commercially created location related information, Tagciti provides users the necessary means to become part of the information creation process. It enables the creation of dynamic, up to date, and socially-relevant shared information. Also, it provides an effective mechanism to discover created information in a socially-relevant and location-aware manner utilizing users’ social network and location information. We recognize the following as the key requirements for Tagciti: expressive, extensible and well defined data structure, correlation of information, self governing of the service, organic growth of the system with the community, and integration with existing technology. The initial system has been implemented based on the above requirements. Moreover, the mobile terminal implementation of the system is conducted using two separate platforms: Android platform of Open Handset Alliance and Japans’ Mobile-Internet. Based on user tests and feasibility evaluations, the effectiveness and relevance of such a service in a mobile environment is evaluated and also the improvements needed to be done in the next stage of system implementation is recognized.