Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Catching up on Mobility

It's been a little while since I last graced these pages... so here is a look at some of the most promising posts I found stacked up in my FeedDemon box:

Local Cultures Connected Through a Global Network

Danah Boyd has written a fine essay on glocalization, networks and local cultures. Definitely worth the read:

"Glocalization is the ugliness that ensues when the global and local are shoved uncomfortably into the same concept. It doesn't sit well on your palette, it doesn't have a nice euphoric ring. It implies all sorts of linguistic and cognitive discomfort. This is the state of the global and local in digital communities. We have all sorts of local cultures connected through a global network, resulting in all sorts of ugly tensions. Designers who work with networks must face these tensions and design to take advantage of the global while not destroying the local. ...
"The digital era has allowed us to cross space and time, engage with people in a far-off time zone as though they were just next door, do business with people around the world, and develop information systems that potentially network us all closer and closer every day. Yet, people don't live in a global world - they are more concerned with the cultures in which they participate."



Future role for sensor networks

Anthony Townsend will be giving a paper at the annual Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management conference on May 16 at NJIT:

"It's about how the proliferation of sensor networks will dramatically change the way we investigate social behavior and and reconstruct timelines of disasters. We liken this shift to the development of forensic pathology following the technology revolution in criminal investigative techniques in the late 19th century."

Pdf here

The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom

Yochai Benkler has created a wiki to support and extend his new book, The Wealth of Networks. Note that the book is available for sale in a hardbound edition and also downloadable as a Creative Commons licensed PDF:

Welcome to the Wealth of Networks WikiNotes. This Wiki is an invitation to collaborate on building a learning and research environment based on Yochai Benkler's book, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom.

Collaboration spurs progress on networking technologies

A virtual research centre is fuelling collaboration that could help Europe take the lead in the field of computer networking. It’s goal is to pool the expertise of more than 40 European research institutes, universities and companies.
The E-NEXT project, which is being funded by the European Commission’s IST programme, has spurred cooperation on developing new technologies in areas such as mobile and ambient networking, self-aware and service-aware networking and content distribution.

New "Eco-estate" in London

According to Worldchanging: "London mayor Ken Livingstone has announced plans for a new 1,000-home eco-development in London, to be built in partnership with Greenpeace, BedZED architect Bill Dunster and the firm Arup and modeled, at least conceptually, off Dongtan:

Mr Livingstone made the announcement in Shanghai, while inspecting plans for Dongtan. He said: "London's zero-emissions development will demonstrate that we can also realise this kind of vision in Europe and that it is affordable and achievable to make all major new developments low-carbon."

Read post here


Ultra-Low-Cost Handsets and the African Future

NextBillion has a great overview of recent pieces exploring the implications of cheap handhelds in developing countries. Ultra-low-cost handsets are expected to pass 36 million in 2007. This has also had the effect of driving down prices for competing options, like refurbished phones, lowering the overall cost of access for those in the developing world:

'Everyone seems to have a mobile phone. Many have two or three, each tuned to a different network... In any big town you just have to look around and there will be a boy within hailing distance ready to sell you a top-up card. Girls are less likely to be scampering about in traffic jams with strings of cards. But give them a picnic table, a red, yellow or green umbrella, and a "make your calls here" sign, and they are set up in the telecommunications business.'

Read full Worldchanging post

Hope all that is a good read.... more to come, more to be mobile...

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