The causes of the riots which tore apart the UK’s inner cities this week are unclear, yet a technological scapegoat is emerging which I couldn’t let pass by without comment.

My research interest is in the potential role of mobile technologies in overcoming social and digital exclusion in young people not in education, employment or training (or ‘NEET’) and this seemed like an opportune moment to share a snapshot of some unexpected findings from my Masters Research earlier this year.

The messaging service BlackBerry messenger has been blamed for providing a communications channel for rioters, leading to calls from UK MPs to shut down the service and a critical response from those concerned about the implications for UK civil liberties of such actions.

My recent research on mobile phones and the digital divide was carried out with young people from the same communities that were being ripped apart during last week’s riots. These committed, hard working and inspiring young men and women were designing and creating mobile apps aimed at tackling social issues in their communities, on an inspiring pilot course run by Apps for Good. 

Inspired by Rich Ling’s writing on the significance of mobile phone brands to young people, I explored technology choices with participants. They all spoke about the ubiquity of the BBM use amongst young people (which resonates with OFCOM research on smartphone use). To quote one of the young people:

“EVERY teenager from the age of eleven, not even twelve, eleven… I see kids younger than that with BlackBerry’s now…

Because of that… thats the appeal for them?

“The appeal is for the messaging.”

Because you can use it internationally as well?

“Yeah….Here and message to the States. And to me thats what every kid do. You go on the bus now and you see a kid thats over twelve you can see him with a BlackBerry typing…. They would be broke and still find money to put on their pin [referring to purchasing more credit for their BB messaging account]”

One participant in my study spoke about the need to buy a BlackBerry to exploit weak ties – in this case connections to colleagues in the music business with whom he was loath to share his mobile number but happy to share his messaging ID.

So what does this tell us?

Young people are tied into platforms which are compatible with their peer’s devices. In the case of the BlackBerry – the networks they are using are created by the manufacturers – and are limited to other people using the same device. But does that mean we should shut down the networks if they are abused for criminal purposes? The reductive technological determinism implied by this idea jars with the complex, ‘polymedia’ world inhabited by young people in inner city communities.

From a research perspective, it’s gratifying to note that ethnographic approaches can reveal unexpected and useful findings about our relationship with technology.

I’d love to discuss these issues further and share more information on my proposed research - if you’re interested please get in touch.

12:12 pm  •  14 August 2011

Loving this:

“In recent times, and for many people around the world this means the last year or two, (although we recognise for many other people this is still not yet the case) have finally reached a state where there exists a genuine proliferation of possibilities when it comes to communication between separated persons. Furthermore once the costs of the equipment and payment plan is spoken for, such as a computer, the ISP subscription or an annual phone plan, then the costs of any individual act communication itself becomes largely inconsequential. For almost any reader of this blog, but also for a typical school aged individual of a middle class income in pretty much any town anywhere, there may now exist a choice of mobile phone and internet based platforms such as voice calls, texting, email, instant messaging (IM), blogs, VOIP with or without webcam, photo and video sharing and social networking sites all readily available. New forms such as video messaging are on the horizon. We suggest that in such a situation the primary concern shifts from an emphasis on the constraints and affordances vis a vis a particular medium to an emphasis upon the social and emotional consequences of choosing between a plurality of media. The mere situation of polymedia changes the relationship between communication technology and society.”

12:07 pm  •  14 July 2011

Global mobile data traffic grew 2.6-fold in 2010, nearly tripling for the third year in a row. The 2010 mobile data traffic growth rate was higher than anticipated. Last year’s forecast projected that the growth rate would be 149 percent. This year’s estimate is that global mobile data traffic grew 159 percent in 2010. Last year’s mobile data traffic was three times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. Global mobile data traffic in 2010 (237 petabytes per month) was over three times greater than the total global Internet traffic in 2000 (75 petabytes per month).

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html

4:14 pm  •  8 June 2011

Non-white internet users continue to have higher rates of Twitter use than their white counterparts; indeed, the Twitter adoption gap between African-Americans and whites has increased over the past six months. In November 2010, there was an eight percentage point difference in Twitter use between African-American and white internet users (13% for blacks vs. 5% for whites). By May 2011, that gap was 16 percentage points—25% of online African Americans now use Twitter, compared with 9% of such whites. African-American and Latino internet users are each significantly more likely than whites to be Twitter adopters. Even more notable: One in ten African-American internet users now visit Twitter on a typical day—that is double the rate for Latinos and nearly four times the rate for whites.

11:06 am  •  2 June 2011

Interesting UI experiment from some great local (Brighton) developers. Really excited to have a play with it and test it out on some potential audiences; my two year old son and my 76 year old mum!

4:24 pm  •  6 May 2011

Reminding myself about reflexivity.

4:00 pm  •  19 February 2011

“It has seemed to me for a while that much of what passes for academic writing on ICTs is really high-class, generic advertising for “Big Tech”; its main purpose being to sustain stock-market enthusiasm, discipline the skeptics and generally keep the show on the road[1]. What I hadn’t appreciated till reading Wilhelm is how the technoptimist orthodoxy, plus “digital divide” logic, are helping Big Tech to do something quite unprecedented in the history of capitalism: turn the public sector into what might be called (adapting Marx’s phrase[2]) a “reserve army of consumption”: a large, captive market that can be relied upon to buy up surplus production at a nice, steady rate, at nice, steady, high volumes and prices.”

http://www.dustormagic.net/Papers/Make%20them%20eat%20chips.html

8:43 pm  •  7 March 2010

Each year around a hundred thousand 15-17 year olds get caught up in the criminal justice system. Once they come into contact with this system, many are likely to re-offend; to remain part of it and to go on to become part of the adult criminal justice system.

Simple web and mobile tools are great at connecting people in new ways and on their own terms. They can empower people to take more control of their lives by providing new ways of organising, mobilising and communicating.

Young people are early adopters and this technology provides a way of reaching people who previously were hard to access.

Let’s make the most of it.

http://jailbrake.org/about/

11:21 am  •  4 March 2010

“Designing mobile user interfaces grows ever more interesting. Device and network capabilities are improving, platforms are giving us more features to help the user, privacy and security are becoming more important, and device proliferation is both increasing and decreasing. This wiki aims to be the authoritative resource for all things related to the art and science of mobile user interface design”

— Main Page - Design For Mobile wiki, resources for designing and building mobile apps and sites

6:28 pm  •  19 June 2009

“# SMS is the technology that is the most easily accessible to NGOs, grassroots organizations and people seeking to deliver mobile services. However, in many cases, text can be a barrier (being inaccessible to people with low reading skills and being too limited for richer applications) and discovery is an issue.
# Voice applications are now attracting attention as they are providing a more natural way of interacting with people, and therefore lowering the barriers of ICT adoption. However, expertise, tools, and training are still lacking.
# Mobile browsing is now becoming a viable option to deliver richer content and develop more complex applications. Stable and reliable GPRS, when available, offers a relatively more affordable way of providing content to people. Richer applications, using images, and graphics such as icons, are also offering increased added-value services and easier access for underprivileged populations. Nevertheless, the lack of awareness both on how to use web technologies and build mobile web sites, and on the availability of tools is a blocking factor for a wider adoption by NGOs, grassroots organizations, and entrepreneurs. Roaming costs can also be seen as an obstacle in reaching the poorest sectors of the population.
# The lack of collaboration, cooperation, and sharing among people working in the field (NGOs, grassroots organizations…) is a major issue leading to the appearance of many competing systems and platforms to tackle similar issues. One - but not the only - major reason of this situation is the lack of visibility and awareness of what others are doing.”

—

Workshop Executive Summary

This document presents the output of the W3C Workshop on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social and Economic Development,

7:15 pm  •  27 May 2009