[Air-l] space and place

[Kevin Tharp]

There is another aspect of this topic that has been overlooked in this
conversation.  For the majority of the world, the first connection to
the Internet, or even their first phone call is still yet to happen.
Even among those that consider themselves Internet fluent, there are
relatively few that have 10 years of experience.  And consider the
change in those last 10 years.  

We are at a point in time when normalization in the use of this set of
media is likely in the early stages of genesis.  Yet we are already
seeing that over time, the way that people perceive and use the Internet
changes as the newness wears off and their level of access increases
(for those looking for empirical evidence I have included references to
three Pew reports below).  In the next 10 years, it is likely that
within wealthy western nations there will be a dramatic swing towards
ubiquity as the technology becomes less visible and more accessible (or
less escapable).  As our personal possessions such as clothing and
vehicles become more context aware, I believe we are going to see a
blurring between the spaces cyber and geographic.  I would suggest
reading some of the work that Barry Wellman and associates have recently
produced, Howard Rheingold's "Smart Mobs" (2002), and Castells' "The
Internet Galaxy" (2001).  In these works we see the emergence of the
idea that place does matter, and that the separation between cyber and
geographic places is possibly just a transitional phase that results
from the juvenile stage of these technologies.

As for the space place question, maybe the term context should be
investigated.  It brings with it the individual and their subjective
experiences, along with the socio-technical milieux.

It seems strange to me to be referencing in an email, but what the heck,
references to above items are listed below.

Regards,
Kevin W. Tharp




Horrigan, J. B., & Rainie, L. (2002). Getting Serious Online.
Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Horrigan, J. B., & Rainie, L. (2002). The Broadband Difference: How
online Americans' behavior changes with high-speed Internet connections
at home. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Horrigan, J. B., Rainie, L., & Fox, S. (2001). Online Communities:
Networks that nurture long-distance relationships and local ties.
Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.

To see some of what is going on with context aware wearable computing
http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/mithril/

Barry Wellman's Publications -
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/index.html

Rheingold, H. (2002). Smart mobs : the next social revolution.
Cambridge, MA: Perseus Pub.
Castells, M. (2001). The Internet galaxy : reflections on the Internet,
business, and society. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.