I have posted a preprint of a new article written with two of my students, Oren Livio and Lauren Sessions, that will be published in the Journal of Communication. This paper builds on the work I recently published in New Media & Society on wireless Internet use in public spaces. The most recent paper is based on behavioral mapping, ethnographic observations, and surveys of wireless Internet users in seven public spaces. It explores the importance of public spaces for social networks and democracy and the implications of wireless Intenret use for social interaction in these spaces.

Here is the abstract:
In recent years, changes to the structure of people’s social networks, the mass media, and urban public spaces may represent a confluence of social trends that constrain exposure to diverse issues, ideas, and opinions in the public sphere. Technological change that influences how we maintain social networks, access information, and use public spaces may advance or hinder this existing trend. This study examines one such technological change: the impact of wireless Internet use (wi-fi) on urban public spaces, wi-fi users, and others who inhabit these spaces. Through extensive observations of seven parks, plazas, and markets in four North American cities, and surveys of laptop users in those sites, we explore how this new technology is related to processes of social interaction, privatism, and democratic participation. Findings reveal that wi-fi use within urban spaces affords interactions with existing acquaintances that are more diverse than those associated with mobile phone use. However, the level of social diversity to which wi-fi users are exposed is less than that of most users of these spaces. Although urban public spaces are not a public realm for wi-fi users, the activities in which they engage do contribute to broader participation in the public sphere.

Download a copy of the preprint here.

There is a draft program available for the ICA 2009 pre-conference Mobile 2.0: Beyond Voice?. I am presenting a paper along with my students, Oren Livio and Lauren Sessions, reporting the results of the Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces project. The project was inspired by the work of William H Whyte and looks at WiFi use in 7 public spaces in four cities. The paper is currently under review by a journal. Here is the preliminary abstract:

This study examines the impact of wireless Internet use (wi-fi) on urban public spaces, wi-fi users, and others who inhabit these spaces. Through extensive observations of seven parks, plazas, and markets in four North American cities and surveys of laptop users in those sites, how this new technology is related to processes of democratic participation, privatism, and social interaction is explored. Findings reveal that wi-fi use within urban public spaces affords interactions with existing acquaintances that are more diverse than those associated with mobile phone use. However, the level of social diversity to which wi-fi users are exposed is less than that of most users of these spaces. Although urban public spaces are not a public realm for wi-fi users, the activities in which they engage do contribute to broader participation in the public sphere.

I have published a new paper with a former student, Neeti Gupta, in the journal New Media & Society (NM&S), on wi-fi use in cafes. This paper explores how wireless internet use influences community, the trend toward privatism, and the social life of public spaces. It is based on ethnographic observations of four coffee shops located in Boston and Seattle: free wifi cafes and Starbucks locations. The paper concludes with mixed findings; that there are two primary types of wireless users that offer divergent implications for community and public sociability: networked individualism and glocalization. This paper also explores the possibility of ‘contextual’ or ‘neighborhood effects’ within cafes, whereby the lack of sociability of some cafe users has the potential to reduce the overall sociability of a public space. We hypothesis about the implications of municipal wi-fi (muni wi-fi) projects for public spaces in general.

Coincidentally, this past weekend the New York Times Freakonomics blog posted an article that discussed similar findings to what we reported in our paper, that there is a tendency for cafe owners to view wi-fi users as ‘wireless squatters’ and to push them out. The Freakonomics blog post was based on a study of Paris coffee shops.

The NM&S paper was written a couple years ago and ends where a more recent project on the ‘Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces’ begins. This broader study of wireless Internet use is based on observations of over 1300 laptop users, book readers, mobile phone users, and users of other portable media in seven field sites (parks, plazas, and public markets) located in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Toronto. A paper based on this project is currently under review.

If you do not have access to the NM&S article but would like a copy, send me an email.