[Air-L] Your Cell Phone Can Let Everyone Know Where You Are

Charlie Balch charlie at balch.org
Wed Dec 19 09:54:39 PST 2007


I've been reading some recent buzz in the popular press about the
implications of GPS enabled cell phones. 

Modern phones allow for some fascinating possibilities. The location of a
cell phone can be accurately and historically tracked with the possibility
of notification to other parties of excess speed or passing boundaries. For
instance, I'm not sure how the court case ended but there was a recent
conflict over traffic radar and the more accurate cell phone GPS speed
tracking. I'm sure the possibility of tracking persons of interest is not
lost on law officials and know that such options are marketed to parents. 

By the way, http://www.bitpim.org/ is cool cell phone software that I don't
think has anything to do with your location.

Charles Balch
Professor of Computer Information Systems
Arizona Western College

-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Richard Stevens
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 8:42 AM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] cell phone prevalence?

Hmmn. I don't know about evidence, but Paul Goldberger noticed this 
same shift in 2003:

Paul Goldberger, "Disconnected Urbanism," Metropolis, (November 2003).
http://faculty.smu.edu/stevensr/CCJN3325-001/docs/Goldberger-Disconnected.pd
f

I have my students read this article as part of a technology 
reporting class I offer every other year.

Cheers,

-Rick

>Folks,
>
>I recently did an interview with a smart reporter, Eric Weiner, from
>NPR (US National Public Radio). In it, I opined that one of the most
>prevalent Qs when people talk on mobile/cell phones is "Where are you"?
>
>Eric is wondering if there is any systematic evidence on this.
>He needs to know quickly, but I think other list members would like to
>know too, so please copy to the list (and to me, personally).
>
>eweiner at npr.org
>
>  Barry Wellman
>  _______________________________________________________________________
>
>   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC              NetLab Director
>   Centre for Urban & Community Studies           University of Toronto
>   455 Spadina Avenue          Room 418          Toronto Canada M5S 2G8
>   http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman            fax:+1-416-978-7162
>   Updating history:     http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
>          Elvis wouldn't be singing "Return to Sender" these days
>  _______________________________________________________________________
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-- 

-----------------------------

J. Richard Stevens, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Journalism
Southern Methodist University
P.O. Box 750113
Dallas, TX 75275

stevensr at smu.edu
http://jrichardstevens.com

"A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension."
  - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"The student of media soon comes to expect the new media of any 
period to be classed as pseudo by those who acquired the patterns of 
earlier media, whatever they may happen to be."
- Marshall McLuhan

"Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or 
for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is 
contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds 
contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; 
it invites anarchy."
  - Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States 277 U.S. 438, 485 (1928).

  "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a 
thought without accepting it."
  -- Aristotle

"The highest form of morality is not to feel at home in one's own 
home."  - Theodor Adorno
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