RE: [Air-l] space and place
There is another aspect of this topic that has been overlooked in this conversation. For the majority of the world, the first connection to the Internet, or even their first phone call is still yet to happen. Even among those that consider themselves Internet fluent, there are relatively few that have 10 years of experience. And consider the change in those last 10 years. We are at a point in time when normalization in the use of this set of media is likely in the early stages of genesis. Yet we are already seeing that over time, the way that people perceive and use the Internet changes as the newness wears off and their level of access increases (for those looking for empirical evidence I have included references to three Pew reports below). In the next 10 years, it is likely that within wealthy western nations there will be a dramatic swing towards ubiquity as the technology becomes less visible and more accessible (or less escapable). As our personal possessions such as clothing and vehicles become more context aware, I believe we are going to see a blurring between the spaces cyber and geographic. I would suggest reading some of the work that Barry Wellman and associates have recently produced, Howard Rheingold's "Smart Mobs" (2002), and Castells' "The Internet Galaxy" (2001). In these works we see the emergence of the idea that place does matter, and that the separation between cyber and geographic places is possibly just a transitional phase that results from the juvenile stage of these technologies. As for the space place question, maybe the term context should be investigated. It brings with it the individual and their subjective experiences, along with the socio-technical milieux. It seems strange to me to be referencing in an email, but what the heck, references to above items are listed below. Regards, Kevin W. Tharp Horrigan, J. B., & Rainie, L. (2002). Getting Serious Online. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Horrigan, J. B., & Rainie, L. (2002). The Broadband Difference: How online Americans' behavior changes with high-speed Internet connections at home. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Horrigan, J. B., Rainie, L., & Fox, S. (2001). Online Communities: Networks that nurture long-distance relationships and local ties. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. To see some of what is going on with context aware wearable computing http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/mithril/ Barry Wellman's Publications - http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/index.html Rheingold, H. (2002). Smart mobs : the next social revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Pub. Castells, M. (2001). The Internet galaxy : reflections on the Internet, business, and society. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
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Kevin Tharp