‘Playful Identities’ research blog

Funny, yesterday I discussed my preliminary paper on mobile communication as gift-culture (following the well-known anthropological classic by Marcel Mauss) together with my colleague PhD students. At one point we were talking about the consequences of this gift-exchange view, whether this would mean that people not in the gift-circle (have-nots or want-nots) would be left out of the circle. I said yes, definitely. And here’s a post on textuality.org that seems to confirm this:

According to a new study, the new social outcasts are teenagers and young adults without mobile phones. The ;The Sydney Morning Herald; reports.

Mobile phones are the portals to friendships and social networks, the ultimate measure of social status and portable shrines to self-image, he says. And if no one’s calling, there’s little shame in programming your phone to ring you, checking for non-existent text messages or talking up a storm with an imaginary friend.

Katz says. “To not have a phone feels like social banishment. It really is an issue of being excluded, of being an outsider.”

Everyone knows mobile phones can be irritating as hell to others, especially in public places. But as soon as we ourselves are calling, we don’t care so much any longer about others near us, do we…?

SoMo is a cool & funny design project that questions our behaviour in public spaces, and gives us some sanctions to ‘enlighten’ others. 5 Different mobile phones have been designed:

- SoMo1 is the electric shock mobile.
- SoMo2 is the speaking mobile.
- SoMo3 is the musical mobile.
- SoMo4 is the knocking mobile.
- SoMo5 is the catapult mobile.

pic source: http://www.erational.org/netart/recallme/

news source: www.newsday.com

The ubiquitous presence of the mobile phone can be a nuisance during class, meetings, concerts, the movies, etc. USA company NaturalNano claims to refine and market a radio-frequency shielding paint that can block signals in spaces treated with the paint. It ca also be used to create private networks inside spaces. The technology works at the nano-level, of which I cannot say anything informed, but apparently leaves open some sort of selective access control, which means that some signals can be allowed through while others are being shielded. Legal problems may arise, as blocking radio frequency signals is illegal in some/most countries. I wonder whether this technological fix is more useful than social mechanisms for preventing unwanted phone calls?

With web 2.0 approaching, at least if we must believe the hype, the mobile world is lagging behind. I read this piece on mobile 2.0 in which the author, a mobile phone marketeer/consultant, sees the advent of a new era in mobile communications in which anything is possible. No clues on what mobile 2.0 will look like, only that the user is central. In a reply to this article, I wonder if ever this can be done in the same fashion as web 2.0, without moving to more open source platforms on the mobile:

What I see as a hindrance in the mobile world, as opposed to the web, is the lack of open standards and tools to build your own applications. Web 2.0 is based on user intelligence instead of technologies, i.e. by giving users smart tools that enable them to apply human semantics to information provided, you get a more intelligent web. This can only be done in a massive (thus useful) way with open standards and protocols thar are inclusive and inviting to everyone. Now, as I see it, this ‘open-source’ story is an aspect seriously lacking from mobile platforms. What do you think about that?

What _is_ happening right now is an increase in people moblogging their lives and sharing experiences with friends. This is likely the beginning of a convergence of digital media. There are some interesting applications already being made that are free (as in beer) or even open/free (as in speech):

NetoMat
Tinypictures
MobiLog
ShoZu

Yet the mobile phone as a platform remains closed, apart from having Java on board perhaps. Or are there alternatives?

(Pic taken in Berlin last year with my girlfriend’s phone, why don’t I have a camera-phone yet..? Should I start moblogging too…?)

BoingBoing posted an interesting article about an MIT project called Mobile Landscape that maps the way people move around in the city (in this case the city of Graz in Austria).

The project raises questions around the changing ways people may experience (urban) space under influence of new (pervasive) technologies.
BTW, it is certainly not true that ‘”For the first time ever we are able to visualize the full dynamics of a city in real time,” said project leader Carlo Ratti’: Waag Society has already done a project in 2002 called Amsterdam Realtime.

Here’s the MIT project site.