In a Tech-Savvy World, the Word of God Goes Mobile

These palm-size gadgets "can take on a mystical significance," said James Katz, who studies the cultural and social impact of cellphones at Rutgers University, where he is the director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies.

In focus groups and interviews around the world, Katz has noted evidence of what he calls a "talismanic" connection many people have with their phones: screens adorned with spiritual scenes, Catholics who text-message their atoning Hail Mary prayers, Muslims who carry "Islamic phones" loaded with a Global Positioning System function that points them to Mecca.

See also:
Rutgers University Mobile Links

W3C Workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries

The "Digital Divide" is defined as the gap between those with regular, effective access and ability to use digital technologies and those without. An important step in the direction of filling this gap has been the deployment of mobile networks all around the world. For example, as of today, more than 80% of the world's population is covered by GSM, and more than 2 billions of people own a mobile phone (source: World Bank). With one million additional people newly subscribed every day, it is expected that by the end of 2010, almost 4 billions will have a mobile phone.

However, even if accessing phone services is very important, the gap will be more completely filled when access to a higher level of information technologies will be widespread. Now, with the availability of high speed mobile data networks, and the appearance of increasingly-affordable web-enabled phones, one can imagine that the potential to help bridge of the divide has increased, in that people with access to a mobile phone would be able to access the Internet and the Web. However, it is fundamental to understand the needs and the expectations of the people, and the specific challenges and issues of accessing the Web from a mobile phone as a primary and often sole platform, so that the potential of resolving the gap becomes reality.

Interesting initiative! On this blog there are quite a lot of comments coming from people from the so-called emerging markets. So I guess, we can say, that we definitely see the potential.

Mobile Interaction with the Real World

I found The Mobile Phone as a Universal Interaction Device – Are There Limits? (part of the proceedings pdf) by Christof Roduner particularly interesting:

This project prototyped two interactions with consumer products where the mobile phone replaced some of the physical interfaces that otherwise would have been part of the product themselves. They tested out the suitability of the mobile phone for these kinds of interactions.



Information Provision
When an exceptional situation occurs, the appliance can support the user by providing
detailed information on his or her personal mobile device. For example, by opening the relevant section in the appliance’s manual on the user’s mobile device, a laser printer could instruct him or her to check the network cabling instead of just showing an error code on its integrated display.

User Interface Provision
Functions that are rarely needed and are thus not easily accessible through the actual
appliance’s user interface are offloaded onto the user’s personal mobile device, without completely replacing the traditional user interace. In this way, a GUI based on familiar widgets can be built to, for example, program an oven’s timer, while keeping the haptic user interface for the everyday tasks of switching the oven on and off.

(See also Ilario Musio (ETH Zurich) and Alan Ganguillet (School of Art and Design Zurich) for the implementation and visual design of the demonstrator.)

All information about the workshop, the papers and the proceedings are available at the website of the workshop http://www.hcilab.org/events/mirw2006/.

Thanks to Jérôme and Marco: feed2mobile is live. It's an early beta, but should prove quite useful for all the non-Kaywa blog users which are looking to mobilize their weblogs and/or RSS-Feeds.

Useing it is plain simple:

1. Go to feed2mobile.kaywa.com
2. Put in your RSS-Feed. If you don't know about RSS feeds, go to Wikipedia for an introduction
3. See the mobile result on the left side
4. Scan the QR Code with any QR Code Reader (download the Kaywa Reader, if you haven't got one)
5. Continue reading on your mobile phone

MDCN launches Wi: Journal of the Mobile Digital Commons Network

Welcome to Wi, the journal of the Mobile Digital Commons Network (MDCN). Wi publishes the latest in Canadian mobilities research, encompassing disciplines such as design, engineering, computer science, communications and media studies.

Currently focusing on the research work of MDCN projects, Wi aims to expand its purview in the coming months to include other national and international scholarship, artistic productions and design research on mobility, wireless technologies, and digital media.

Our focus is broad, from the use of digital technologies in research to the definitions of mobile gaming in the commercial sphere.

Via Anne

Wrist Computer (1984) and TV-Watch (1983)

Via Girl Net Door

Something to chew on...

The Mobile Life Report 2006, How mobile phones change the way we live (PDF)

The Mobile Youth Report 2006

Via Heike I just stumbled upon CuteCircuit's Identity Service. There is not that much to read, but it reminds me of some of our ideas we pursue with the Kaywa ID.

Not much to see there yet, but every ID already has it's personal QR Code. So if you already want to check out an ID, scan that code:). In a few more days, I'll talk about some of the things you can do with your ID. Stay tuned.



Related:
Single-Serve . Reminds me of our several ID discussions: one ID, different personas. We haven't resolved it yet.

Researching the immediate world (16 March 2006)

Rich Ling: Mobile Phones and Bounded Intimacy (PDF)

This presentation will consider the impact of mobile phone use, including text messaging, on communication by young people. The methods and challenges to research in this area of communication will be highlighted.

Nicky Shaw: Mobile phone use – a social network perspective (PDF)

This presentation describes an investigation of student networks in first year management and medical students for peer-learning and socialisation. The use of different communication media (from face to face, to internet live web-chats) is contrasted.

Via Forum Oxford

Joe Trippi in Vote 4 Me

"People are moving away from just television to blogs and text messaging, and I'll experiment with all of that. The party that doesn't master these techniques over time is going to falter."

Via SmartMobs