Location-Based Mobile Collaborative Digital Narrative Platform Sicai Lin 1 , Tzu-Chieh Tsai 2 , Sheng-Chih Chen 1 , Shindi Lee 2 Master Program of Digital Content and Technologies 1 Department of Computer Science 2 National Chengchi University Taipei, Taiwan sicai720@gmail.com ttsai@cs.nccu.edu.tw scchen@nccu.edu.tw shindilee@gmail.com Abstract—This study is based on interactive design theory, supplemented by the concept of communication. We propose a "Mobile Collaboration Digital Narrative Platform", through which, with the aid of technologies, a user can, depending on his or her location, download one’s favorite collaborative narrative content, and also have the ability to add, edit or record what is happening around; thus, linking the narrative content and the location. Through the function of “collaboration”, the content can be made more diverse and rich and the reader can better immerse him or herself in it. The platform also can work in offline mode. Currently, the preliminary design of the system has been completed, and tests in different situations will be conducted and user behaviors will be recorded and then analyzed. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation and analysis of interface design, operational processes, system functions, and collaboration narrative content of the output are in progress. We believe that this study will be an important application of mobile content. Keywords-Location based; Digital Narrative; Collaborative Narrative; Mobile Technology. I. INTRODUCTION In the era of Internet and the rapidly changing technologies, the types of narrative have become diversified and rich. This also makes digital narrative have more different ways to create innovative and surprising content. One result of the Internet boom, Tim O'Reilly emphasized that the content generated by users, through user interaction with Web 2.0, results in diverse and rich content. This also makes the form of digital narrative has had a major change. The International Telecommunication Organization (ITU) indicated that in 2010, more than 90% of the worldwide population use mobile phones, of which 9.4 million are 3G users [16]. Meanwhile, the Institute for Information Industry (III) in Taiwan said that for the 3rd quarter of 2010, 69.5 % of mobile users have subscribed to mobile Internet service [1]. The above data imply that we are gradually entering the era of mobile Internet. Our daily lives are filled with a variety of mobile devices. Thus, we can also imagine that the future media narrative will be impacted by the new technology platform and people’s lifestyle changes. This will become a totally brand new outlook. This research is focused on the new media narrative for this trend, and develops a pilot platform design. To this end, the goal of our work is to design a location-based mobile collaborative digital narrative platform. This platform must have the features of ‘mobile’, ‘location-based’, and ‘collaborative’. The design is based on the user behavior and experience on using the mobile platform for digital narrative. With the designated collaboration features assisted by mobile communication technologies, users can create spark clashes with each other, and can even easily disseminate their ideas and record things with their surrounding stories. A. Why Mobile As mentioned earlier, data show that the number of mobile phones has exceeded 100% of the population, and mobile Internet subscription is also increasing at an exponential rate. Our lifestyle is thus changing: whatever we rely on computers to do before, is now being replaced by mobile devices. The other is being under the influence of globalization. The world is like a global village, and people moving for interchanging information become a trend. Therefore, high mobility device, has been become an indispensable tool for modern lives. According to the survey from a wireless service company in U.S., SinglePoint [23], the phone is the closest media to the user (Figure 1). We are in the age of speed and convenience; mobile phones are definitely becoming the best choice for users to get all the needed information. Figure 1. Relationship between media and users [23] 7 CONTENT 2011 : The Third International Conference on Creative Content Technologies Copyright (c) IARIA, 2011. ISBN: 978-1-61208-157-1