Judy Wajcman - (Life in the Fast Lane - British Journal of Sociology) - straying from submitted abstract
Impact of mobile phones and new forms of social relations - two sides: perpetual contact (boo) or perpetual contact (yay!). The question is the permeability of work and play that these devices encourage - but Wajcman suggests that this is mostly a discursive trope. She's mostly interested in the idea of mobile phones as tools of coordination between family members and their practices.
"Family practices as mutually configured by mobile devices." The question is the transformative nature of these technologies.
Few researchers focus on the role of gender and mobile phones - unlike traditional landline-based studies (me: Claude Fischer's America's Calling.
Sample: 1000 households - time diary, survey, phone log. Calls on mobile are mainly for social/family reasons. Women's calls on mobile phones are predominantly social - even if you take into account employment status. People said that the mobiles were often used for coordination. Men were twice as likely as women to take their phones on vacation.
Interestingly, Wajcman found that people were able to control the boundaries between work and play - contrary to popular discourse around the blurring of these boundaries.
(me: Yikes, 1 hour for four papers is totally crazy....)
MOGI players - Christian Licoppe
GPS-enabled phones - players view a map on phone that shows collectable objects and other players. The idea is for Web-based players to guide mobile phone players in the field.
Location in this community becomes a public resource. "Unusual locations" become mentionable and often form the basis of interactions. There are also MOGI-specific form of greetings - not simply formulaic or void of meaning.
Of course, this has implications for studies of surveillance and privacy.
Making Work Public - Laura Foriano (Columbia U.)
(Thriving Office - CD for home businesses with sounds of business being conducted)
Wifi hotspots as mobile workspaces.
Some theories:
Ritual view of communication - Carey
ANT - Latour
Innovation Space -Moultrie
Foriano surveyed people with NYCwireless and Ile Sans Fils (Montreal) - also some responses from Budapest.
In NYC, top spaces: Starbucks, Bryant Park, NYC Public Library, and independent cafes.
Budapest, top spaces: Other/independent locations, McDonald's (McCafe), Burger King, etc.
Montreal: Other/independent locations are at the top.
Wifi is a reason for folks to visit these locations. People stay 1-4 hours and are typically there between 12-9pm. Many people want to get out of their home and office.
Interviewed with various people - one was an SEO.
Feeling of being in a public space (surveillance) makes them feel more productive.
Paper forthcoming in Mobile Work and Technology.
Cultivating memory - enhancing the human with mobile recording devices - Lina Dib (Rice U.)
CARPE (digital computer systems that can supplement the human memory)
"What counts as remembering?" - archiving, rather than deleting
(me: again, my battery is dying. great session, though.)
