I would start with McLuhan's work: The Media is the Massage and War and Peace in the Global Village. The rationale is that the cell phone is the communications technological extension of ourselves that McLuhan talked about,and it links us to the global village through voice,text,video,tv,gaming and the Internet. Googin (2006)has a book on cell phones that I used for my study. Also check out Prensky's work and Gee's work on video gaming since this is the direction that phones are going especially with the iPhone and smart phones that enable you to download games. In the future many of these games will be serious games which will be utilized with podcasts of classes to develop competencies for courses. In fact, China and many African nations are more wireless dependent than hard wired. Also look at studies on VOIP and iPTV, as well as flashed based sites like YouTube, Verizon's Fios, Sprint's Network and AT&T's video network. Packet switched networks like Cisco are promising places to look to. Check out the Rand Corporation and the International Telecommunications Union and the cell phone trade industry headed by former Congressman Steve Largent: CTIA. I am in Baltimore/DC working all the time and you can find the organization and their web site in DC. The White House actually sent out a directive on using text messages for amber alerts as well as using all electronic mediums to get out emergency messages since 911. Check out the White House site. Yes I conducted my research on convergence and I work in the federal sector with a lot of these folks. Go to the LOC (Library of Congress). You have a gold mine at your disposal by attending school in the DC area. All of the lobbyists are there too and they will probably be glad to provide you old, but recent data. Don't expect to get real immediate data with legislation pending a and an election coming up next year.All of the international organizations are in DC too. Check out the NTIS a branch of the Commerce Department. I've worked with them on several films and research for school. Most government agencies have reports on line now, and check out the Pew Institute for Internet Life. Move On.org and the RNC probably can give you great stuff too! Good luck! Maybe I'll bump into you when I'm working in DC. -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Patricia Lange Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 7:33 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] SMS and cell phone research I would recommend The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication by Horst and Miller. Patricia G. Lange, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow Annenberg Center for Communication University of Southern California --- Redante Asuncion-Reed <redantereed@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hello all

I am a graduate student in the American University School of Communications. I am doing my master's theses on the use of cell phones and sms messaging in activism, particularly in Africa by an NGO

called FAHAMU.

The broad question I seek to explore is if the use of social media technology by social activist organizations have made them more effective in their work? FAHAMU's use of cell phones and sms activism will be my case study to narrow it down to manageable size.

I have a lot of Internet websites and a set of mass market books I will use:

Momentum by Allison Fine Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

What I lack are scholarly and academic research to give me a theoretical framework to work with.I have been scanning Prof. Barry Wellman's web site and sense that some of his research on social networks and the Internet might be applicable but I can't identify a particular paper or book yet that is right for my research.

Can I ask the advice of the list members on what books, journal articles, and other scholarly sources might be helpful for my research?

Regards, Redante

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