[Air-l] road warriors

[Collette Snowden]

Hi, 

While I am not studying the phenomenon of 'road warriors' as such I am completing my PhD ( or rather, trying to!) which examines the use of mobile communication technology by media professionals, in particular journalists and public relations practitioners - who share some of the professional work practices of 'road warriors'. 

There is a fairly limited amount of research completed at present in this field, although not surprisingly researchers in the Nordic countries have paid far more attention to issues related to mobile communication than most others. However, the Digital World Research Centre at the University of Surrey seems to be leading the way in bringing together researchers from outside of the technical disciplines through its annual conferences. I was able to get to the Second one last year but sadly can't make it this year , for those who are interested in this area the Third Wireless World Conference on the Social Shaping of Mobile Futures is being held there on July 18 and 19 with the theme Location! Location! Location! For more details go to the conference web site

http://www.surrey.ac.uk/dwrc/wireless3.html

A complete set of conference papers from the first two conferences can probably be obtained from the DWRC. Some excellent papers have been presented but relevant papers from last year include:

Mobility and Participatory Status by Patrick G.T. Healey & Ahmad J. Reeves, Lecturer in Media and Communication & Ph.D. Student from the  Information, Media, and Communication Research Group, Dept of Computer Science, Queen Mary & Westfield College,University of London, E1 4NS 

ph at dcs.qmw.ac.uk

 & ahmad at dcs.qmw.ac.uk

 

Work Anywhere or Go Somewhere? The Career Dynamics of Mobile Working by Andrea Whittle of CRICT , Brunel University  ( sorry no contact details provided).

 

And my own contribution (if anyone is interested!)

What’s happening? And other moving questions. Implications for the production and delivery of news via mobile communication devices

Collette Snowden

Donald Dyer Research Scholar

The University of South Australia

Department of Communication, Information and New Media.

Magill 

South Australia. 

 




 


 
  Barry Wellman <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca> wrote: 
I am posting this query to both the Community list and the AOIR list,
because of its relevance to both.

I've been flying around a lot recently giving lectures and attending
conferences: to scholarly, governmental and corporate dot.com groups.

In so doing, I frequently encounter what _PC Magazine_ calls "road
warriors", albeit the opposite of Mad Max.

These are managers, professionals and technicians who spend a good deal of
time traveling, either between organizational offices, or to other
organizations or conferences. Modally, 2-4 days per week. They live by
computer-supported and 800-number contact back to their home base. If you
get into business lounges, you can see them pounding their laptops,
checking their emails, and talking via 800 numbers to their colleagues
elsewhere. They spend a lot of time in corporate hotels (e.g., the
misnamed Holiday Inn), bars, medium-priced restaurants, and airport
lounges.

Has anyone seriously studied such folks?
How do they sustain this mobile life?
What is their community, with work colleagues and friends -- and household
members?
Etc.

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
___________________________________________________________________


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