Mobile communication devices, peer to peer methods, and a computation-pervaded environment are making it possible for groups of people to organize collective actions on a scale never before possible -- smart mobs, for better and for worse.
- Howard Rheingold
In Chapter 1 Howard Rheingold takes the reader to Shibuyu,in Tokyo where he realizes that people are using mobile media in novel ways.
According to Rheingold "Smart mobs emerge when communication and computing technologies amplify human talents for cooperation" (http://www.smartmobs.com/book/book_summ.html).Through interviews with an anthropologist, a strategist behind Japans highly successful wireless Internet service, marketers, teenage texters and others Rheingold introduces us to some of the issues raised by the emergence of smart mobs and the technology that make them possible. In each section of Chapter 1 we see an example of of what smart mobs look like now and what they might look in the future.
Thumb Tribes -
In Tokyo Rheingold interviews dozens of young people on the street about mobile-texting and keitai (mobile phones) and seeks out an anthropologist Mizuko Ito who specializes in how youth use mobile phones.
" Ito believes that moblile phones triggered a trans generational power shift in Japan because they freed youth from the tyranny of the land line shared by inquisitive family members, creating a space for private communication and an agency that alters the possibilities of social action" (Rheingold, 4)
She goes on to say that the home and parents are no longer quite the regulating forces they once were and that young people through keitai now have more access to private intimate space as well as a 'right of assembly' that they simply did not have access to before such technology.
Ito and her assistant have also noted that concepts of "presence" and time have changed since over 90 percent of teenagers in Tokyo have cell phones (6). Communicating by text message is being present. Arriving on time is now included to mean arriving after the agreed hour but in contact by text.
While manufacturers are doing huge amounts of business with teenagers those same teenagers have also pushed the boundaries of what the manufacturers intended their product to be used for and turning to alternative applications and sites.
iMode Uber Alles -
One factor in the huge number of teenage cell phone users in Tokyo is the i-mode. The telecommunications company NTT DoCoMo designed, developed and marketed (and markets) the i-mode cell phone specifically for and to youth. In marketing the company hired an employee with a background in launching magazines. The result has been that cell phones have been marketed and bought as both fashion and technology.
The phones and the basic service also come at an affordable price have an easy to use interface and access to lots of lifestyle content (reservations, ringtones, fortune telling services)developed by others. They like to think of of the cell phone as a "remote control for your life" (11) instead of a phone.
Virtual Helsinki and the Botfighters of Stockholm -
In Helsinki "Different forms of mobile-enabled culture are emerging in public and in the marketplace - from Arena 2000
to Helsinki Virtual Village to Aula, from adolescent subcultures to transformations in business practice." (18)
- A group of Finns in their twenties funded by an American entrepreneur (who was looking to fund a net cafe) are are building what they call a 'shared urban living space' that is made up of " a physical location, a virtual community, a mobile social network, and a cooperative organization"(17) A year later they had 300 members.
- In Sweden a company called Its Alive created the first location-based mobile game called Botfighters which uses location sensing technologies involving mobile phones and membership at a website. How else might this be used?
- Parties are also being organized by small groups of people sending out text messages to everyone in their address book. In order to enter the party you have to show the message.
- Fare-jumpers in Stockholm are also using sms to keep each other informed about where and when train conductors are checking tickets.
Reading these examples brings to mind the question of how prevalent smart mobs are in the rest of the world.
In the United States during the WTO protests in Seattle where people used SMS, mobile phones and the Internet to organize and publicize for a political purpose. That of course is not unique, In Spain, Burma, Manila and Kosovo mobile communications technology and the Internet were used for political organization with great success.
Is smart mob technology changing and/or enabling collective behavior on a wider level? On a societal level?
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Chapter 1: Shibuya Epiphany
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6 comments:
RE this:...young people through keitai now have more access to private intimate space as well as a 'right of assembly' that they simply did not have access to before such technology.
Teens will (and I would suggest always have) find a way around the regulating forces of the adults. When I was a teen my community of peers and I discovered that if we each dialed our own phone number we would hear a busy signal - and that in the silent spaces between the beeps we - could - talk - to - one - another - as - a - group. Perhaps not a smart mob but at least a marginally curious and inventive one:-)
"Is smart mob technology changing and/or enabling collective behavior on a wider level? On a societal level?" ---
I am positive that smart mobs are enabling new kinds of collective behavior. The effect of these kinds of behavior is the real question in my mind. Are these methods as effective as former protests? Does something get washed out in the virtual presence? Surely organized smart mobs can easily affect polls, sales of items, political stances, etc. but can they impress on our history the same way? Can they make their mark or will they be erased as quickly as they are generated. With such a mediated, fast forward environment how can history stand up to the histories we've studied.
around 2000, when cell phones were starting to take off in the states, I , like many of my leftist friends, vowed never to own one. they were seen as bourgeois - as taking personality and intimacy out of communication. when i arrived in europe i was shocked to see crusty punk rockers with cell phones, and my conscious decision of not wanting to be available all the time began to change, and now, five years later, i also don't know what i would do without my cell phone.
I like to liken cell phones to devices which facilitate telepathic communication, and in that sense, now think that they almost embody "ideal" communication in the sense that as long as there is a network access (and, unfortunately, the funds to pay for the phone) one isn't restricted to location in order to communicate with someone, and text messaging is even closer to the ideal because you don't have to talk to the person you want to communicate with, and i personally find written communication often more intense because it needs to be thought out beforehand, for better or for worse.
and then again, as far as "collective behaviour" goes...rheingold talks about how people organized themselves via sms in the phillipines, and during the seattle wto protests - while this may work for spontaneous demonstrations, any activist knows to turn their cell phone OFF during planning sessions, meetings, etc. because of the fact that they are connected to a network, which essentially makes them homing devices - and any activist knows not to bring their cell phone, or at least not their personal cell phone, to demonstrations, because if the cops have that, then they have all your friends and associates - whoever is saved in your address book inside your phone.
Is smart mob technology changing and/or enabling collective behavior on a wider level? On a societal level?
I do believe that smart mob technology is changing and enabling collective behavior on a wider level. The fact the technology is being used to organize parties and to keep others informed of wrong doings in the community I believe proves this. Smart mob technology is becoming a party of societies…as olga mentioned 5 years ago she vowed never to own one, and now she can’t think of life with it out. In just 5 years these smart mob technologies have changed her behavior and most likely most of the rest of the population. It’s very interesting to me how other countries and societies are not at the same place in terms of technology. How some are behind, some are advanced, some refuse it all together. Eventually will societies that refuse to conform to modern technology, eventually be forced to use it? Can they survive in this world without it?
I tend to agree with you all. In ways I yet can't even imagine I'm sure new developments and insights will be emerging leaving us to wonder how did
we ever manage without this before? I can't help but think back when personal computers were just springing up with a communications program called email and how that streamlined the ability to contact others without cumbersome paper filing or leaving phone messages that never got returned.
And...kudos to you for an excellent presentation. Very impressive and so narrow broadband techi
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