A geographical messaging system for the EPFL community as a segway to an ontology of spatial communication
ShoutSpace enables users with WiFi mobile devices (PDAs and notebooks) to see their position on the EPFL campus and to leave messages to other users. The message is then dispayed on the map at a desired location. Multiple threads are displayed graphically with connections among the messages. The system is used as a testbed to understand the cognitive implications of providing spatial references into a simple text messaging system, and as a segway into a general study on the links of geographical attributes and cognition. Particularly we are interested in the interconnections of place and meaning, where location signify something to the content and where it is signified by the context.