While a student at San Francisco State University, I collaborated on the creation of a location-based media experience which embedded contextual information about the 1906 earthquake into areas of Civic Center Plaza in downtown San Francisco.  The embedded media was played back on a PDA when the person entered a location which had been programmed for media playback.

I have worked on several mediascapes since then and I have learned quite a bit about the process.  Developing content is the hardest part.  Place-based media experiences can enrich the experience of the place, or it can completely remove you from it.  I have also found that the content does not need to be about the place itself.  You can effectively create another world, on top of the current world, if the cues that suggest the other world are subtle and intriguing.

City Hall, after the earthquake

Map of the mediascape that was given to visitors

The mediascape, inside of the editing software