Re the AoIR discussion on mobile tv: I experienced an app of mobile tv that scared the heck out of me. In Kyoto, Japan, the taxi driver's GPS system became a TV for him, and he watched soap operas during the entire trip. When I asked a friend, she said, "I do that every day on the drive to work, because I know all the streets." Dunno what the accident rate is. This strikes me as an outgrowth of the now-traditional custom (in Toronto at least) of taxi drivers being on their mobile phones while driving. Which is more immersive: 2-way audio phone chat or 1-way tv? Both scare me when I am passengering. Incidentally, modern Japanese car GPS systems rock. Using large screen divided into multiple information sources, and great, video game perspectives. But why do they have to show every Mcdonalds and 7-11 convenience store along the way? The integrated CD automatically converted my Oscar Peterson disc (patriotic Canadian present) to MP3 as it played. I'm here keynoting the Japanese Social Informatics conference, which has 600 attendees, from a wide spectrum of disciplines -- social sciences, math, physics, engineering. It seems the accessibility of web data has mobilized a number of new entrants to the field. Many have strong data handling skills. Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________