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J. Raper, G. Gartner, H. Karimi, C. Rizos:
"A critical evaluation of location based services and their potential";
Journal of Location Based Services, Vol. 1 (2007), 1; 5 - 45.

This Editorial lead paper for the Journal of Location Based Services surveys this complex and multi-disciplinary field and identifies the key research issues. Although this field has produced early commercial disappointments, the inevitability that pervasive location-aware services on mobile devices will emerge means that much research is needed to inform these developments. The paper reviews firstly: the science and technology of positioning, geographic information science, mobile cartography, spatial cognition and interfaces, information science, ubiquitous computing; and secondly the business, content and legal, social and ethics aspects, before synthesising the key issues for this new field.