Like a poke on Facebook emergent semantics in location-aware social network services

Anders Kofod-Petersen
SINTEF ICT
S. P. Andersens vei 15b
7465 Trondheim, Norway

Rebekah Wegener
Centre for Language in Social Life,
Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University
C5A 441, North Ryde, Sydney, Australia

Location-aware social network services are set to be the next generation of social 
networking services. These services typically allow users to send and receive messages 
and icons. Iconic signs, which look like what they represent, may be said to have a 
commonly understood meaning attached to them. However, this is fluid, leaving them open 
to variation in meaning. More precise meanings are free to emerge within specific 
contexts and within particular social networks.

Within this chapter we explore the semantics that emerge for three icons used within a 
location-aware social network service. Using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), focus 
is given to the dominant speech function attached to each icon and the resultant meanings 
that emerge within social networks of the systems users.

This study allows us to better understand how users interact with each other in smart spaces 
and utilise location information in social network services. By understanding how icons are 
used to engage others and how the meanings attached to these icons develop, we are better 
placed to create systems that fit naturally and beneficially into the users' context.