My Network Awareness project made its debut in an article by Jennifer Saranow in today’s Wall Street Journal Online. The article is a nice summary of the various types of friend finder, online dating, and social network applications that have become popular over the past year (e.g., Friendster, MatchMobile, etc). The article discusses some of the possible social implication of these technologies and includes a brief review of some developing social network technologies, including my own work and what looks to be some exciting stuff from Eric Paulos and Elizabeth Goodman at Intel Research Berkeley.
A short article by Howard Rheingold on location aware technologies for mobile phones. Nice discussion of some privacy issues, design considerations, and a glimpse into ongoing development by some U.S. carriers. THEFEATURE
Stephen Graham”s (Newcastle University”s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape) new book The Cybercities Reader was released late last week. I have been waiting for this contribution to hit the book shelves for some time, not just because I wrote one of the 25 chapters, but because this is one of the first collections of mostly empirical work related to the study of how ICTs impact urban life and form. The list of contributors is very impressive and too long to list in entirety here, but includes: Philip Agre, Anne Beamish, Manuel Castells, Martin Dodge, Mark Gottdeiner, David Holmes, David Lyon, William Mitchell, Harvey Molotch, Saskia Sassen, and Nina Wakeford. My contribution is a short summary of the Netville findings. Stephen’s other two books are among my favorites: Telecommunications and the City: Electronic Spaces, Urban Places, Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition