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1.
Mobilizing Community Networks
Authors:
Umer Farooq and John M. Carroll
Abstract:
Community networks are created to facilitate the development
and management of information and activity in a proximate
community. Porting community networks to different hardware
platforms, like handheld devices, will afford universal
channels of accessibility and enhanced opportunities for
collaboration. We argue that mobile community networks offer
richer interactions than just desktop-based systems. Mobile
community networks afford place-based interactions while
users are on the move. They can also facilitate local community
growth and build social capital. Mobile community networks
will eventually coordinate actions of groups in geographic
space and supplement social arenas. In support of our arguments,
we follow a scenario-based design process and surmise that
conflating mobile technologies and community networks will
create a new paradigm in community computing.
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2.
Managing
personal and work email in the same box: overcoming the
tensions through new metaphors
Authors:
Hilary Smith, Yvonne Rogers and Mia Underwood
Abstract:
We are all familiar with the seemingly endless task of sorting
through emails to keep on top of received messages; ploughing
through list and folder based file structures to find saved
emails and file attachments. It can be an ongoing headache.
In this paper we describe our approach to helping people
manage their personal emails and their accompanying attachments
using novel interface metaphors. An initial online survey
was conducted on people's email storage behaviour for both
home and work contacts. The findings suggest there is a
tension between how people currently manage the two and
how they would like to do this. Following this we explore
new ways of conceptualising storage and retrieval in terms
of person-centric storage systems.
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3.
Mobile Technologies and Boundaryless Spaces: Slavish Lifestyles,
Seductive Meanderings, or Creative Empowerment?
Authors:
Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick
Abstract:
According to the instrumental theory of technology, mobile
technologies - what McLuhan's refers to as electronic prostheses
- promise opportunities for greater freedom, creativity,
leisure, and productivity by enhancing organic bodily functions.
Correspondingly, as (Cavallaro, 2000) would argue, objects
such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs),
portable physiotherapy units, laptops, and portable stereos
- to name just a few - seem to impart a sense of solidity
to consumers' lives. Just like prostheses, they are inserted
into our everyday lives, helping our "inadequate" bodies
along in fulfilling practical tasks. Phenomenologically,
these kinds of mobile technologies supposedly support the
subject's sense of ontological completeness and security.
On the other hand the substantial theory of technology draws
together less optimistic commentators. Among a host of other
things, they stress the "panoptic" nature of new information
and communication technologies (Clarke, 1994; Marx, 1999;
Poster, 1995; Webster, 1995). The emphasis in these accounts
is on the potential for surveillance and monitoring that
these technologies place in the hands of the powerful. Mobile
technologies according to this view is but the latest incarnation
of capitalist (the Marxist view) or state (the libertarian
view) power and control fantasies. Far from empowered and
freed, the subject becomes captured and enslaved by these
mobile communication devices. Phenomenologically, the networked
worker and consumer subject is the disciplined and docile
slave of the information matrix.
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4.
Implementing
Mobile Access to Heterogeneous Home Environment
Authors:
Jan Lucenius, Jani Suomalainen, Piia Ventola
Abstract:
A wide range of standards and technologies exist both for
interconnecting appliances inside home and for remotely
accessing home services. This paper gives an overview of
these standards, and describes a trial implementation of
generic open architectural solution for adapting and integrating
various technologies. The trial implementation enables home
services to be accessible for mobile users. An extended
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is utilized for remotely
controlling and monitoring home appliances. Furthermore,
the paper discusses how existing appliance control standards
could complement Open Service Gateway initiative (OSGi).
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