Final Present

Sarah Olofsson Æ Veronica Carlsson Æ Jessica Sjo¨ lander

The friend locator: supporting visitors at large-scale events

Received: 1 March 2005 / Accepted: 29 June 2005 / Published online: 19 August 2005

Springer-Verlag London Limited 2005

Abstract According to festival visitors, the best way to experience a music festival is to be together with friends. However, when at a crowded festival, visitors tend to lose each other especially when a lot of people are in motion. This paper reports upon findings made in an ethnographic field study that was carried out during Sweden’s largest music event, the Hultsfred Rock Festival. The study was part of an international research and development project, called the Wireless Festival, which focuses on solutions for large-scale events. The aim of our study was to determine who the typical visitor to the festival was, identify what was important for festival visitors and finally to observe the visitors use of mobile phones. Our findings imply the festival visitors’ need for a friend locator appliance. An early design solution for such appliance is discussed in relation to the findings made.

Keywords Ethnography Æ Ubiquitous computing Æ Mobile service Æ Interactional issues Æ Festival

1 Introduction

In an ongoing research and development project, called the Wireless Festival,¹ the use of mobile phones at large-scale events, e.g. sport events and music events, is explored. This paper reports upon findings from an ethnographic field study that was carried out during the largest music event held in Sweden, Hultsfred Rock Festival (in Swedish: Hultsfredsfestivalen). The aim of the study was threefold; to determine who the typical visitor to the festival was, to find out what was important for the visitors during the festival and finally to

S. Olofsson (&) Æ V. Carlsson Æ J. Sjo¨ lander Work Practice Laboratory, Department of Interaction and System Design, School of Engineering, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Box 520, 37225 Ronneby, Sweden ¹ The Wireless Festivals project site is available at: http://projects. celtic-initiative.org/DB/

observe how (when and where) the visitors use their mobile phones during the festival. By conducting observations of the actual work practice of the visitors, we created a valuable understanding of the setting and the activity within it. Based on this knowledge we have developed a design proposal that will support the visitors during large-scale music events—we call it the friend locator.

The typical visitor tends to move around the festival area within a small group, they visit concerts together and they also camp together. However, every now and then the visitors tend to lose each other in this crowded setting. We made several observations of this and we also interviewed visitors that had temporarily lost their group, which confirmed our observations.

The use of mobile phones at this specific youth music-event turned out to be ubiquitous. However, few studies have been done exploring mobile services in large-scale events. This type of events tend to be built up temporarily, often they last only for a short period during each year. The settings as well as the activity within it are often mobile. This placed special demands on the technology. With this paper we aim to contribute with our ethnographic findings concerning large-scale events and also to explore our findings in relation to a design suitable for this context.

2 Related research

According to Brown [ 1], social and cultural aspects often determine the success of mobile technology; he therefore highlights the importance of studying the use of mobile technology where it is actually being used. We have not been able to find any related research on the use of mobile phones in large-scale events, such as music festivals. However, there is a growing body of research on mobile technology supporting social interaction in other settings that we can draw upon here.

A wearable computing device, called Hummingbird,

[ 2 ] is used in a study where the authors explore how communication can be supported by giving users continuous awareness of the presence or absence of other team members. The device hums when members of the same team are about 100 m or less apart. A display shows the identity of the members who are nearby. In [ 3 ], the authors explore how tactile cues, with their device called TactGuide, can be used for navigational assistance. They conclude that the best result was achieved when the users were navigating with the combination of the tactile cues and other cues from the environment.

Weilenmann and Leuchovius [4 ] have been looking at the everyday practice of locating others with focus on how people communicate their positioning when talking to each other on a mobile phone. They argue that location-based services should describe location in ways that are more relevant for the user than a map with geographical coordinates. Future location-based services should enhance and support the current positioning practice rather than replace it, which we aim to draw upon with the friend locator service for festival visitors.

3 The ethnographic study

Every summer around 25,000 visitors arrive at the small city of Hultsfred to attend their annual rock music festival, which is a non-profit event that is conducted for 3 days in mid-June. During the festival, the normal population is nearly doubled and almost all the inhabitants are in one way or another involved in the event.

Fig. 1 A map providing an overview over the festival area with its different stages, camping areas and entrances. Courtesy: the program booklet

Some rent their house to visitors and others engage themselves with various work such as being guides or guards, at the festival. Around 6,000 volunteers work in shifts, they are also counted as visitors and they trade work for a festival ticket. According to a parallel study that Goldstein and Goldstein carried out, also within the Wireless Festival project, approximately 44% of the visitors at Hultsfred Rock Festival are first time visitors and 43% are second to fifth time visitors. Most of the visitors are in their teens (Fig. 1).

3.1 The festival visitors

A common sight when observing the use of mobile phones during the festival was that of a lonely looking visitor, as the following excerpt shows: A guy is standing alone with his mobile in his hands. He is holding it on his right hand and is pushing buttons on it with his right thumb. We ask him what he is doing. He answers: ‘‘-I’m feeling rather alone’’, and tells us that he was writing an SMS to his friends whom he had lost somewhere at the festival. He had messaged where he was so that his friends could find him. Excerpt from field notes dated Thursday June 17 2004. Is this SMS-technique working satisfactory for the visitors? How long does he have to wait until his friends find him? Could this be solved in a more flexible way? Those were the questions we faced in the beginning that triggered the thought of an alternative solution for locating lost friends at the festival.(Fig. 2). when we went to the Hultsfred Rock

Fig. 2 A photo of a visitor that lost his friends and now is trying to reach them by sending an SMS about his location

Festival, we soon found out that mobile phones were almost ubiquitous. Therefore we had no problem finding usage of mobile phones for observations. The problem we encountered instead was the fact that it was difficult to determine from a distance what exactly a user was doing with the phone, when using it. We solved this by encountering the persons using the mo bile from time to time after observing them for a while, from a distance. During those informal interviews, it was apparent that the visitors were there to have fun and to enjoy the festival together with their friends rather than giving the concerts, the first priority. None of them expressed any interest in the technology of mobile phones. Instead all of them were interested in using mobile phones as tools or medium in order to get in touch with each other. Based on this, we conclude that a mobile service for this user segment has to have a clear purpose (such as locating friends), in addition to being easy for them to use and to understand.

3.1.1 Group significance

Being at a festival is a social event; visitors go there with their friends to enjoy the festival together. The group significance is important. We saw several examples of groups where its members dressed in similar fashion or used a common symbol to identify with each other. Some used flags with their symbol and team name. They camped together at the camping area, mostly in small communities more or less visible, again some teams put them self on display by showing flags that marked out their group. Most visitors seemed to move around the festival area in groups on at least two persons or more. When we observed visitors who appeared to be alone, almost all had a common factor in that they looked lonely, insecure or restless. Lonely visitors tried to reach their friends in order to continue to enjoy the festival experience. However, the decibel levels being high, both because of the music and due to the murmur, it was therefore hard to hear even if your phone ringing. When on the phone, it was still harder to hear what the other person was saying. We observed several visitors who held their mobile phone in one hand and covered their free ear with their other hand in order to block out the music. We also observed phone conversations that ended abruptly due to the overload of the mobile phone net. This problem seemed to occur mostly just before, during or directly after one of the larger concerts, when very many visitors were on the move.

Today some visitors decide upon a place to meet in case they get separated. Others place their faith on the technology and try to solve the problem by sending SMS or make phone calls. But this will not work satisfactory all the time and the visitors end up wasting a considerable time alone, looking for each other, instead of having fun together (Fig. 3).

3.2 Summary

Firstly, the festival area is crowded; you easily get separated from your friends. You end up alone and feel insecure, you might stand out lost, as a loser. Group identity is important for the visitors. They do not like to be on their own because they feel lost among a sea of people. The visitors spend a lot of time looking for each other. Secondly, it is difficult to try to contact or to be contacted. The decibel levels are pretty high and it is hard to hear what people say and it is harder still to hear your own phone ringing. Your phone calls also get disconnected. Thirdly, the festival area is large and distributed. It is difficult to be aware of all the things that are going on and if you get separated from your

Fig. 3 The photo shows two visitors that are trying to hear what is said over the mobile phone

friends, you might end up alone, simply waiting while all the others are having a good time.

Mobile phones are ubiquitous at the festival, and it is one of the precious pieces the visitors always carry around with them, never leaving them in the unattended tent. With this in mind, we started to brainstorm around a possible solution that would be applicable in this specific context.

4 The friend locator

One major incentive for the friend locator is that the visitors do not solely come to the rock festival to enjoy the music, but to enjoy the time spent there, with their friends. Being there is a social event. Due to several different reasons the visitors sometimes separate from their friends as it invariably happens, especially in a floating population. When they get separated from each other, they want to meet as soon as possible, which was evident when a lot of visitors called each other to ask: Where are you? Where will you go now? Or saying: I’m at Pampas (a stage at the festival area). Our aim is to help the visitors to minimize the wastage of time that they spend alone. This is what we aim to support with the friend locator.

We base the friend locator design concept on the assumption that visitors do not want another item to carry around. Since they already bring their mobile phone with them wherever they go, it would be a good thing to integrate the friend locator as a mobile service within their phone.

4.1 Service description

The friend locator is a service, the festival visitors can use in order to find their lost friends in a rather crowded festival area. The idea is to limit the time when visitors feel lonely due to their having been separated from their group of friends, by helping them to locate each other as quickly and smoothly as possible. When elaborating with this service-concept, different techniques have been in focus. From global positioning system (GPS) or triangulating positioning (GPRS or GSM) to a push-totalk (P2T which works a little like walkie-talkie where you push a button to communicate) based solution. However, since Sweden doesn’t have a roaming agreement that is needed for a functional triangulating between different operators net, as yet, and also because the precision of this techniques positioning would not be adequate enough in a crowded and limited festival area, this is not a viable option. Push-to-talk is neither an option because of the context specific setting i.e. festival area transmits high volume. Instead we are currently working on a solution that builds upon GPS equipped phones. We would like to point out that the technology per se, whether it is GPS or other is not the main issue for us, we would rather prefer, to discuss some interactional issues in relation to the friend locator concept.

4.2 Interactional issues

There are several interactional issues to be borne in mind when designing new services for a mobile phone. We would like to highlight and contribute with three aspects that we believe are of significance when designing a friend locator mobile service in order to make it usable for the festival visitors.

4.2.1 Positioning practice

Studies of people’s mobile phone positioning practices [ 4 , 5] started coming in. Some aspects might be similar and useful in this festival event setting as well, however

Fig. 4 A photo showing an overview of all visitors in front of one of the stages at the festival

there are some points worth mentioning. Imagine 10,000 visitors standing in front of a stage. If you are there in the middle of the crowd talking to a friend who wants to find you, simply saying ‘I’m at the Hultsfred Rock Festival’, will not be enough. Nor will telling your friend that ‘you are at the Pampas stage’ be, but it would certainly be a better directional cue to start with. There is a need for a more precise positioning. In this setting, verbal descriptions are not functioning satisfactory even though they could be precise enough. Nor does SMS, due to the overload on the mobile phone net. Instead we aim at permitting the technology to present a precise location and shall then proceed to dilate on some important aspects of the ways to represent the location for the visitor (Fig. 4).

4.2.2 Representing location

A phone’s graphical user interface (GUI) is rather limited in size, which makes it difficult to display visuals such as a map over an area in a usable overview. It is important to present the relevant aspects about the location accurately in the representation. If this is not done correct, the representation might instead be misleading [ 6]. We believe that being able to display parts of a map with the location of your friend visible on it in relation to your own position at the festival would be a good solution. By navigating with a joystick or something similar, one could move up, down, left or right in order to view other directions. There should also be distinct and well-known points of reference on the map, such as the stages, camping areas and the food court. In combination with the visuals, a text could provide important information for the visitor, e.g. distance and direction. However, we think that it is important that the describing text should relate to known things in the area such as e.g. ‘‘-Your friend David is located 50 m in front of you at the hamburger stand’’, or other area connected symbols. When relating to (familiar) things in the vicinity, coupling is supported to create meaning [7 ] for the visitors in order to help them understand and interpret the location of each other.

4.2.3 Dealing with integrity

The article [8 ] describes an area of which a child is allowed to move within. There are two ways to set the boundaries of this area either around a fixed object or around a moving target. When the child leaves the area, both the child’s and the parent’s GPS phone alerts through audible signals. By using this method, the festival area could be defined and making positioning only possible within it in order to handle integrity. In combination with this, the phone of the person being located could vibrate as a tactile awareness reminder when someone is trying to determine your location. The friend locator should only be usable in a rather small and predefined group, so that not everyone could position anyone without having asked for permission first. Since group constellations are likely to change at a festival, there should also be the possibility to alter the list of friends by simply removing or blocking a person from being able to determine your position, and it shall be possible to add new friends and give them permission to locate you. To top it all, there is always the possibility to turn the GPS on your phone off when you want to be left alone for a while (Fig. 5).

5 Concluding remarks

The friend locator discussed in this paper is still in the design-concept phase, and not yet tested. Today the visitor segment, for e.g., at the Hultsfred Rock Festival do not yet have the phones needed for this service, but GPS equipped phones are starting to become more common. Our expectations are that within a couple of years, the service described could be implemented for public use. The friend locator could also prove to be a usable tool for organizers, who often work in teams during large-scale events. For example by finding a certain team member quick in a distributed area or by getting out messages fast to a specific group, i.e. if instant messaging with multiple recipient function is included as a feature in the service.

We believe that the friend locator also would be usable at other types of large-scale events e.g., at a rally it could be used to see where a specific competitor’s car is located, and the distance remaining until it passes the position of you as a spectator could be measured in order to estimate the time left. When the competitor moves between the different stages again, the GPS could be turned off to prevent a surprise from the fans. At large football tournaments for children, a team could be allowed more freedom if the coach could easily communicate and locate the entire team through a friend locator. However, further research concerning the use of mobile phones, visitor segment and positioning practice in those settings are needed to identify possible differences between various events, work practices that might be important for the design of the friend locator service.

Our observations show that being at a crowded and distributed festival with your friends results in losing contact with them from time to time. According to the visitors, a festival experience is best when experienced together with friends. Being left alone is therefore not a desirable option. We would like to point out that there is a need for a way to locate friends in this setting, in order to limit the time spent alone. We believe that a friend locator service for a mobile phone can be a suitable solution for achieving this.

Acknowledgements We wish to thank Prof. Bo Helgeson, Hans Tap and Ma˚ rten Pettersson at the Blekinge Institute of Technology for valuable comments. We also wish to thank all project members within the Wireless Festival, official title Eureka-Celtic DB Wireless Woodstock Services, for inspiring meetings and brainstorming sessions among other things. Research was funded by Celtic Programme grant, Vinnova and Tekes.

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