The Digital Media, Location Awareness, and the Politics of Geodata project (DP180100174) is a completed research project funded by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects scheme.
Project overview and aims
With near-ubiquitous levels of smartphone use in Australia, digital media have become integrated within everyday lives. These services, however, rely on access to an individual’s location, raising privacy and cybersecurity concerns over this sensitive datapoint.
The Digital Media, Location Awareness and the Politics of Geodata project critically examined the increasingly pervasive role of location metadata (or geodata) in Australian smartphone practices and cultures and the implications this has for users, industry, and public administration.
The project’s primary aim was to develop resources to enhance public understanding of geodata and geoprivacy, as well as industry and policy recommendations that address the crucial issue of ‘location awareness’ in everyday digital media use.
For the project’s outcomes, please see our publications and presentations and media.
Project team
Led from QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre and Design Lab, the project brought together a multidisciplinary and international research team:
Chief Investigators:
- Prof. Peta Mitchell, Digital Media Research Centre, QUT
- Prof. Marcus Foth, Design Lab, QUT
- Prof. Markus Rittenbruch, Design Lab, QUT
Partner Investigators:
- Dr Tim Highfield, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield
- A/Prof. Agnieszka Leszczynski, Department of Geography, Western University
- Prof. Paul Dourish, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine