Don’t feel like going all the way to Amsterdam to see the videos? Gleam the right codes from here. Or just watch the original documentary it’s based on..

http://collabcubed.com/2011/11/01/the-tidy-street-project/

http://songline.nl/

For example, telecommunications in Libya has been made possible recently through a new network set-up by the rebels. It’s an interesting read. The systems, which fit in a briefcase, are made by  Tecore.

I first came accross this at Hacking At Random, a conference/festival for hackers organised in 2009. Visitors could connect to a local GSM tower and text each other for free, amongst other things.

One of my favourite artists, Henrik van Leeuwen, has created an artwork using the exact same technology. By ‘faking’ a real GSM provider he got mobile phones at the Sandberg Institute for Design to connect to his network, and then the fun started. Unfortunately, I can’t find any details on his website.

It’s a problem that is very similar to the problems that location based services like Facebook and Foursquare have: they are all independantly creating a database of places in the world. Restaurants, homes, workplaces.. any place where we check in with these services.

In digital space there have been similar initiatives to combine these databases into one standardised digital map. It’ll be curious to see how these commercial and governmental systems will interact. More on these commercial initiatives:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/17/open-database-places/

http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/08/place-database/

http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/gowalla-debuts-major-3-0-update-now-with-unified-checkins-synced-places-database-11618/

Traveling ethnographer David Kousemaker recently updated me about his travels. He had just returned from the Far East with a brand new iPhone.. or so it seemed. It was a fake, but an incredibly good fake.

I highly recommend a wonderful blogpost that describes his amazement at the work-shops he found there. He describes what he considers to be a distributed factory.

In this workshop we explore the various possibilities that new location-aware smartphones offer. New tools make creating these experiences as easy as drawing on a map!

A screenshot of a tool we can use, called Treasuremapper.

Contents
In this workshop we will

• Look at some examples of great location-based storytelling from around the world.
• Touch on some relevant concepts in this field, such as branched- and hypernarratives, traditional storytelling basics, and other interesting ways of thinking about it.
• Look at the available tools of the trade, and go hands on. We will mostly look at Broadcastr and Treasuremapper (HTML5), but you are free to use any of the other tools we will have available.
• Develop a first actual experience! At the end of the day your fellow workshop participants will form your first playtesters as they walk through what you have created.

The workshop should both inspire you and give you the means to continue exploring this field yourself.

Trainer
The workshop will be led by Tijmen Schep. Tijmen holds an MA in both Digital Media Design (HKU) and New Media and Digital Culture (UU). He is a co-founder of theNetNiet.org foundation and has worked in the field of location based digital art since 2006. He blogs at the Mobile City, is the developer behind Treasuremapper, and the artistic director of SETUP.

Participants
The workshop will be very valuable to those who already develop creative stories and experiences (artists, designers, writers, theater makers), but is also relevant to those who are involved in urban development or mapmaking.

Bring your own..

• Please bring any smartphones and GPS devices that you have. We will also provide some smartphones.
• Bring your laptop!
• And ofcourse: if you have any stories you’d like to tell in an urban context, please bring them!

Planning

00:00 – Introduction to locative media and its concepts and context.
00:20 – An introduction into spatial storytelling basics
00:40 – An introduction into the available tools
1:00 – Lunch
1:30 – Let’s rock! We’ll build some basic experiences. You can work in teams if you’d like, but it’s not compulsory.
4:00 – Prepare to ‘deploy’ your experience in public space.
5:00 – Done. Go and try out each other’s experiences if you’d like, or have a drink in the sun.