However much time we spend in cyberspace, we still live our lives in the physical world. And one central aspect of that world is that it has spatial dimensions and variety. We move from place to place, and as we do our experience shifts. A supermarket is different from your kitchen, which is different from a restaurant, though you may be near food in all of them. Computers have traditionally lacked the ability to influence and be influenced by the surrounding environment. With the growth of loca- tion-sensitive services and applications, the physical and the virtual are merging. Location-based computing is becoming real thanks to advances in mobile devices, wireless connectivity and location-detec- tion technologies. In this issue, we examine several developments in this area, including mobile city guides; global positioning system (GPS) and wireless phone triangulation technologies; location-based e-commerce; and context-sensitive applications for cars, vending machines and elsewhere. We often use spatial metaphors to describe our computing experi- ences. We travel from our home page to another site on the Net. We open windows, enter chat rooms and explore virtual marketplaces. We click on the “back” button in our browsers, move from site to site, go into cyberspace, navigate. Despite this, the Net isn’t a place . . . at least not in the same sense as a real-world room or high- way. It may be self-contained for legal or other purposes (though this gets into sticky and unresolved jurisdictional issues). But it is different in important ways from physical reality. The conversation starts here. Release 1 . 0 Location-Based Computing: Wherever You Go, There You Are VOLUME 18, NO. 6 | 28 JUNE 2000 | www.edventure.com ESTHER DYSON’S MONTHLY REPORT INSIDE LOCATION-BASED COMPUTING 1 Coming Soon to a Location 3 Near You Where am I? Automatic Position Identification 6 Gee! No, GPS GeoDiscovery E911 requirements in the US Mobile Navigation Services 12 Vindigo CitiKey Airflash GeePS Box: GeoTouch Location-Centric Devices 18 Scout Electromedia GeoVector Context-Sensitive Services 22 InfoMove TeleVend Putting Space Back in Cyberspace 25 AT LAST. . .SHRUG: THE MICROSOFT VERDICT 27 A Word About Our New Look 29 Resources & Contact Information 30 Calendar of High Tech Events 31 { continued on page 2 } BY KEVIN WERBACH We’ve gone electronic! Visit us at www.release1-0.com.