“Leighton Evans and Michael Saker provide an overview of the main currents in research on location-based social networks (LBSN), smartphone applications that allow users to broadcast their physical location and associate digital information with real-world places. ... Readers interested in LBSN and locative media will find plenty of thought-provoking material here, very much in line with the authors’ previous research.” (Will Payne, Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, Vol. 46 (5), 2019)
Leighton Evans is Lecturer in Digital Media Cultures at the University of Brighton and author of Locative Social Media: Place in the Digital Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Michael Saker is a Senior Lecturer in Broadcasting and Digital Creative Industries at Southampton Solent University, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton. His work has been published in journals including New Media & Society, Media Culture & Society, and First Monday.
“In this book Leighton Evans and Michael Saker declare that Location Based Social Networking is dead and loudly declare ‘long live LSBN’. As they explain, not only is there life left in LBSN and next generation location-aware social media, but they continue to raise important questions concerning the conception and use of space, time and identity. Drawing extensively on relevant literature, they provide a timely, fascinating and insightful analysis for those interested in understanding the full spectrum of social and spatial media.” (Professor Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland)
“Evans and Saker do a strong job examining the social impacts of location-based social networks (LBSNs). They link LBSNs to a variety of topics, including embodiment, spatiality, and temporality, and they exhibit extensive knowledge of both the history of LBSNs and the current application environment. Most importantly, they write in a way that will remain relevant even as new LBSNs enter the market and our use location information shifts with even newer mobile technologies.’” (Jordan Frith, Assistant Professor of Technical Communication, University of North Texas, USA)
“A highly readable and entertaining account of the life, death ... and afterlife of location based social networking. This book provides a history of services that may soon be forgotten - who remembers Lovegety? But more than this Evans and Saker show that these may be responsible for shaping how we experience space, time and identity long into the future as features that once defined stand-alone location based services are mainstreamed into the social media giants.” (Professor Susan Halford, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Southampton, UK)