Yeah yeah, so much for participatory observation in research… I am finally on Twitter. Reading this article – which appeared a few months ago – convinced me to have a go and see what this “ambient awareness” thing is all about in practice. Now I gotta find some friends to twitter to…
Here is a great case of mobile phones playing a role in mass media reports, and their ‘playful’ characteristics in story-telling: Last Friday, December 19 2008, prime minister of Belgium Yves Leterme and his entire cabinet stepped down as an indirect result of the financial crisis. The mobile phone played a pivotal role in both the prelude, as well as in the media reports about this event. How did it all start? When Belgium bank Fortis was split up, many small-scale shareholders were left with virtually worthless shares. They went to court and successfully prevented the transfer to BP Paribas. […] Read More
(Sorry, in Dutch only..) Op zaterdag 13 december om 14.00 uur zal in in het theater in de kelder van Selexyz Donner, Lijnbaan 150 Rotterdam de boekpresentatie zijn van ‘De draagbare lichtheid van het bestaan’. Na een korte introductie op het boek door de redacteuren Valerie Frissen en Jos de Mul wordt het boek aangeboden aan Marie-José Klaver. ==update== Publiciteit komt los :). Vanavond (4 december) om 21:00 op Radio Hoezo! een gesprek met Jos de Mul over het boek. ==update2== Valerie en Jos zitten op 28 december 2008 in het TV programma Boeken van Wim Brands. Uitzending terugzien.
In the shameless plug department: “De draagbare lichtheid van het bestaan: het alledaagse gezicht van de informatiesamenleving” is a new book (in Dutch) about how new technologies have become part of our everyday use and experience. A group of mostly young researchers and PhD students, including myself, from various universities and institutions have contributed to this volume edited by Valerie Frissen & Jos de Mul. The book is aimed at a non-academic audience who are interested in understanding the role of new technologies in society. The topics of the various chapters range from ambient intelligence, mobile phones, web 2.0, open […] Read More
Tomorrow (Tuesday November 11 from 15:30 to 17:30) I will do a talk about the mobile phone in Indonesia and popular culture for the Studium Generale at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. I will say something about how the handphone in Indonesia is part of popular (urban) culture, and what we can learn from studying the handphone for a better understanding of popular culture. The session will be in Dutch. what: Studium Generale symposium “De popcultuur ontgonnen” where: Zaal B-3, Woudestein, Rotterdam time: 11 november 2008 15:30 – 17:30 who: dr. Stef Aupers (socioloog FSW), dr. Tonny Krijnen (communicatiewetenschapper FHKW), drs. […] Read More
Just for laughs. Philip Freriks presents the news on the Dutch public television. At the end of the news, during the weather news, his phone goes off…
An interesting question raised by Wired Magazine’s Gadget Lab (Via Textuality): “Is Text Messaging Making Subtitles Popular?” According to Actress Kristin Scott Thomas, the ubiquity of text messaging means that subtitled movies could gain acceptance. Granted, this is an extrapolation of one throwaway comment in a New York Times interview, but it does make an interesting point. People will now go to films with subtitles, you know. They?re not afraid of them. It?s one of the upsides of text-messaging and e-mail. Maybe the only good thing to come of it. People read a lot of on-screen text. You’re doing it […] Read More
Starting this academic year Jeroen Timmermans, Jos de Mul and I are teaching a new course called “Homo Mobilis: mobility, media & identity” at the Erasmus University Rotterdam as an international masters. The aim of the course is to acquire a deeper understanding of some of the main theories of mobility, and its place in modern history, and to critically rethink the influence of transportation- and (digital) communication mobilities on human identity. The 15-week course schedule looks like this: Introductory classes 1. First meeting, introduction, practical matters, course outline, syllabus, etc. Thematic overview of the course. 2. From movement to […] Read More
Dutch newssite nu.nl writes about a recent research by Hi, a telecom provider targeted at young people. According to this research involving 1017 people between 16 and 30 young people find it very hard to overwrite SMS messages on their phones when the memory is full. They inspect each message to see whether it is fit for deletion. Almost all people reread their messages. They especially keep text messages by lovers, family and friends. 8 In 10 women keep sweet messages, against 7 in 10 amongst men. 17 % Of men keep SMSses with which they can blackmail others. Most […] Read More
A recent ethnographic study done in France says young people have a different relation with their phone than most adults. Or rather, through their mobile phone young people relate to their peers, whereas for most adults the mobile phone is a very personal and private item. The researchers also looked at the practice of mobile sharing: “There is a growing trend of sharing with teenagers. Phones are more and more objects that circulate within a group, in particular when they have lost their own phone, when it is broken or stolen. The Gripic researchers were surprised to find that a […] Read More
I decided to rework the literature page from linking to other people’s work to featuring my own output. You can find some of my work so far on the page my writings. Happy reading!
This BBC article “The power of play on the internet” is interesting in the light of our overarching “Playful Identities” research question: How do new (group) identities appear or how are old identities articulated and experienced? What is the role of digital media in this proces? And how can this be understood as “playful”? The claim is made that online social networking is a type of game (not really a new idea). Impicitly it is suggested that gaming is the form of contemporary social bonding. Additionally, the relevance of online gaming for “real life” is underlined. This further undermines the […] Read More
Shoot-n- Share is a documentary made by two young students at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, Lieke van Pruijssen and Bieke Versloot. It is a film about the relation five inhabitants of Rotterdam have with their mobile phone. More specifically: how they use the camera on their mobile phone. The film was shown a while ago at a filmfestival in Groningen, and in Rotterdam April 28, 2008. The film is a mixture of documentary following a number of ‘Rotterdammers’ an their mobile cam use as well and interviewing the, as well as a showcase of the mobile phone movies and photographs […] Read More
[I wrote this blogpost earlier for The Mobile City] […continued from last post] Thursday May 22 2008 I visited the CHI conference The Web and Beyond: Mobility in Amsterdam. Keynote speakers were: Adam Greenfield (Everyware); Jyri Engeström (Jaiku); Ben Cerveny (Playground foundation, Flickr); Christian Lindholm (Fjord, Nokia). Jyri Engeström talked about how mobile technologies have become social objects. Social network theory is good in representing links between people, but not in the nature of these links, what their content is, or through what media these links are actually established. Jyri used the term “social peripheral vision” to describe how we […] Read More
[I wrote this blogpost earlier for The Mobile City] Thursday May 22 2008 I visited the CHI conference The Web and Beyond: Mobility in Amsterdam. Keynote speakers were: Adam Greenfield (Everyware); Jyri Engeström (Jaiku); Ben Cerveny (Playground foundation, Flickr); Christian Lindholm (Fjord, Nokia). I was particularly impressed with Adam Greenfield‘s presentation. He had a very rich and dense talk based on the material of the book he is currently working on called “the city is here for you to use”. Below some notes about his talk. Greenfield starts by stating his affiliation with the urbanist tradition of Jane Jacobs and […] Read More
[I wrote this blogpost earlier for The Mobile City] Just a few more or less recent items that I find interesting (cutting it up in multiple posts): Wired reports that hackers have attacked an online forum for epilepsy patients. They placed fast-moving images on the forum, which resulted in a number of epilepsy patient getting a seizure. Internet griefers descended on an epilepsy support message board last weekend and used JavaScript code and flashing computer animation to trigger migraine headaches and seizures in some users. What triggered me: The incident, possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on […] Read More
[I wrote this blogpost earlier for The Mobile City] The BBC reports that Cubans get access to mobile phones, as Raul Castro lifts the ban on possessing them: Cubans are to be allowed unrestricted access to mobile phones for the first time, in the latest reform announced under new President Raul Castro. … Some Cubans already own mobile phones, but they have had to acquire them via a third party, often foreigners. Cuba’s rate of cell phone usage remains among the lowest in Latin America. Now Cubans will be able to subscribe to pre-paid mobile services under their own names, […] Read More
[I wrote this blogpost earlier for The Mobile City] Dutch tech/nerd blog tweakers.net report that Hyves, Holland’s most popular social network, has struck a deal with operator KPN (the biggest telcom in NL) to add locational information to text messages Hyves users send to each other. According to KPN, questions such as “where are you?” and “what are you doing?” are often asked by mobile phone users. KPN customers can switch the service on by first registering for this service on Hyves. Whenever they send a text message containing information about what they are currently doing to a specific number, […] Read More
The Mobile City conference, which I organized together with Martijn de Waal, has been a great succes! The auditorium of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam was packed with around 200 people from various backgrounds and disciplines. Great speakers, workshops, interesting project presentations, a discussion panel, and a very lively atmosphere. Read more about it, watch photos, and see some video registrations at the conference website’s coverage area. [update: website structure changed: all content of The Mobile City ’08 now here]
I got this pic a little while ago from a colleague (thanks Tina!). I think it’s very funny. (source appears to be PersianHub.org).