The Mobile City

Author: Michiel de Lange

  • CFP: mSociety + mGOV + mDevelopment 2-3-4 September, 2009, Barcelona, Spain

    Three paralel conferences are organized in Barcelona Spain: 1) mSOCIETY 2009: The 2nd International Conference on Mobile Society 2) EURO mGOV 2009: The 4th European Conference on Mobile Government 3) mDEVELOPMENT 2009: The 1st Int. Conference on Mobile Development These conferences will be held during 2-3-4 September, 2009, in Barcelona, Spain as part of Mobile…

  • CFP: ACM2009 “Everyday Life in the Ubiquitous Era” 30 Sept–2 Oct 2009 Tampere, Finland

    Academic MindTrek 2009 Call for Papers, Tutorials and Workshops We are pleased to invite you to the Academic MindTrek conference from September 30th – 2nd October, which brings together a cross-disciplinary crowd of people to investigate current and emerging topics of media in the ubiquitous arena. Media to be discussed range from business, social and…

  • The map as metaphor

    John Markoff wrote an article in the NY Times “The Cellphone, Navigating Our Lives”. He calls the cellphone “the world’s most ubiquitous computer”, since the 4 billion subscriber mark has been reached recently – or even a while ago according to another research agency. Although it is a fact that most of these 4 billion…

  • Review: “Portable Objects in Three Global Cities” by Mimi Ito et al.

      Mimi Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Ken Anderson have an interesting chapter in the edited volume by Rich Ling & Scott Campbell (2009) “The reconstruction of space and time: mobile communication practices” which recently came out. The chapter is called “Portable Objects in Three Global Cities: The Personalization of Urban Places”. The authors explore how…

  • BBC radio: computer generated building design

    The BBC has a 5-minute radio item about computer generated architecture. Architect Thomas Witzke (?) at Zaha Hadid‘s office talks about paralel computer modeling in building design. He says computer programs originally used for the animation industry and car design and ship building are now used by architects. So projects are now entirely conceived in…

  • Mobile media ‘optimizing’ physical mobility

    (image source: Vabellon) Clearly, the mobile phone is used to ‘optimize time’ – at least, this idea of “making the most of NOW” is one of the strong rhetorics about mobile media: to do something useful with in-between moments that is ‘lost time’ otherwise. Increasingly, is seems mobile media are being deployed to optimize spatial…

  • 3rd Situated Technologies pamphlet out: Situated Advocacy

    Situated Technologies Pamphlets 3: Situated Advocacy A special double issue featuring the essays: Community Wireless Networks as Situated Advocacy – Laura Forlano and Dharma Dailey Suspicious Images, Latent Interfaces – Benjamin Bratton and Natalie Jeremijenko Download a free PDF here, or buy a printed copy from Lulu.com Advocacy is the act of arguing on behalf…

  • Urban Play: designing the urban landscape

    Saturday November 1 2008 I attended the closing debate of the Urban Play project that took place during ExperimentaDesign 2008 themed “Space and Place: design for the urban landscape”. The event explored the role of designers in shaping the urban landscape, and the Urban Play project – organized by Droog Design – specifically focused on…

  • Interview with Adam Greenfield on designing for urban computing

    Adam Greenfield is one of the most interesting thinkers on many of themes that we regularly address at The Mobile City. He is head of design direction for service and user-interface design at Nokia, and is currently working on a book called “The City Is Here For You To Use: Urban form and experience in…

  • Announcement: workshop in Edinburgh “Placema(r)king:Brands v. Tags”

    James Steward sent us an email announcing the following workshop, which might be of interest to The Mobile City readers: “Placema(r)king: Brands versus Tags” 16-17 October 2008 placemarking – placemaking: brands versus tags This workshop pits brands against tags and explores their respective roles in facilitating or hindering social interaction and meetings between people. A…

  • PICNIC ’08: The Visible City session

    Wednesday Sept. 24 I went to one of the sessions at PICNIC ’08 called “The Visible City”. This session was about ways of visualizing mobility patterns in the city. From the announcement: What if an entire city could be visible from above, like we see it from an airplane? Not simply buildings and squares, but…

  • Gait analysis by satellite

    source: http://technology.newscientist.com Here’s a new project in the surveillance race: gait analysis by using satellites that can identify people’s shadows. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California are working on developing this technique that should be a next step in fighting terrorism. ‘Normal’ gait analysis is done by CCTV (closed circuit television). Where camera’s must…