Week 13: Mobile Technologies
de Souza e Silva - From cyber to hybrid
In this article, Dr. Silva defines hybrid spaces by tracing out their historical precedence in other theories of space, and positing them in opposition to (or as an evolution of) our notion of cyberspace. Hybrid spaces are connected, mobile, and social spaces. They connect place to information and information to place; they allow mobility; and they also provide social interfaces to relationsips. Hybrid reality is defined as being a mix of (specifically mobile) social practices that occurs simultaneously in digital and physical spaces. These multiple connections engender an enfolding of contexts or a spatial hybridization of social, informational, and mobile flows.
Farley - Mobile telephone history
It's interesting that Farley identifies the publicness of the mobile phone as one of its defining characteristics (he compares it with earlier forms of mobile telephony from the 1930s, which were private services). I was definitely amused to rad that cellphone providers today are still facing the same troubles--not enough spectrum, too few channels--Bell Labs faced in 1947. I won't bother recapping the history here, but I think if one were to write a history of the modern cell phone, the switch from circuit-baed to packet-based switching is probably a good place to start, since that signals the primary shift from the mobile as a primarily voice device to an all-around information device.
Mann, Nolan, and Wellman - Sousveillance
Mann's approach to subverting surveillance networks seems akin to Enzensberger's idea that we can reverse the channel of communication (in this case, information) to fight the dominant ideology. However, as Baudrillard's critique of Enzensberger demonstrated, one cannot help but be coopted by the technology itself. Let me elaborate. Taking a cue from Galloway and Thacker's theory of networks from The Exploit, we can understand that the points of resistance to a network are in the connections between the nodes--the relationships established, that is--and in the protocol of the network, the protocol being the mode or rule by which information flows in a network. Exploits of, resistance to, hacks of a network all rely on using the protocol to disrupt the network. In Mann's case, I think the technology used to sousveill is already or certianly becoming part and parcel of the network. The ability to survey each other (e.g., other citizens) is already embedded in our technology and even encouraged through, for example, the New York City MMS-911 initiative, where you can send picture messages of a crime in progress to the police.
Dourish - The infrastructure of experience and the experience of infrastructure
So, in the intro, Dourish asserts that UbiComp is inevitable, so designers had better figure out UbiComp best practices. He suggests the way to do this is to (temporarily) forget about the computer and consider the "practical and cultural" logics of spatial organization. Cool. We're further encouraged to think about how space is organized culturally and to consider how UbiComp will function differently depending on the context (and must be designed differently). They conclude that we need to take an architecutral perspective on new ICTs and the design / use of the informational layers that will be mediated through those ICTs.