ABSTRACT
While mobile phone-based location-aware services are not very widespread yet in rural China, there is an analog system of location-based services: handwritten and printed writings on walls, which advertise services of interest to rural residents. This simple and effective way to broadcast location-sensitive information corresponds with the ways rural residents gather and share information and with the social organization of villages. This chapter outlines five dimensions of “off-line” location-based services in three villages in Northern China (targeted audiences, cost, spatial range, unobtrusiveness, and information vetting) and reflects upon the consequences of these off-line practices for digital location-aware services.
