In a followup to last week\’s posting on mobile phones and surveillance of personal networks, I was forwarded an article from the Penn State Digital Collegian on how Facebook is being used by campus police to identify students who \”rushed the field\” after a recent football game (as a Canadian not having experienced college football, I have no idea why this is illegal). Penn State has the largest number of students on facebook (52,016 students) and apparently a significant number had posted pictures of themselves and friends (often taken with mobile phones) on the field after the game. Students appear legitimately surprised that police and university administrators would access the site and view profiles that were \”only meant for fellow students\”. One of my undergrads recently pointed out to me just how much information people post on facebook about themselves. In particular she noted that student journalists regularly entered their political affiliation as part of their profile, she wondered how these future \”objective\” reporters would react when someone produced copies of their facebook profiles (from when they were in college) in response to an article. This also brought up memories of two recent articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education warning graduate students of the dangers of blogging, Google searches and being on the academic job market (article 1, article 2). Regarding the football game, according to the article, students found guilty could face up two years in jail, up to $2,000 in fines, and discipline from the university.
There have been two conferences on Communities and Technologies, one in 2003 and another in 2005. Both have produced excellent collections based on the conference proceedings (links to the books: 2003, 2005). This conference is probably the best single gathering of academics interested in the social aspects of computing, new media, mobile devices, etc., and I am pleased to announce that a third conference has been planned for 2007. Have a look at the conference website and the call for papers. I am a member of the program committee (along with a truly standout list of researchers) and would strongly encourage anyone doing research in this area to submit a paper.
An article from this weekend’s Financial Times covers it all: Internet addiction, WiFi hotspots, location-awareness, mobile phones, information overload, flash mobs, network individualism… and the kitchen sink. Probably the broadest news article I have ever read on the impact of new media on society, it includes references and quotes from some of my favorite sociologists, including Manuel Castells, Barry Wellman, and Mizuko Ito. Despite the ambitious attempt at breadth, it brings together some really interesting concepts and does a nice job of providing an overview of some of the most relevant research questions currently under study. In particular I want to pint out references to Mizuko Ito’s new edited book Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. I have been waiting for this book for some time. Ito\’s anthropological studies of mobile phone use amongst Japanese children are very revealing and contain numerous new and important observations. In particular, the use of mobile phones in maintaining a type of “full-time intimacy” or persistent social contacts, the obligations of cell phone use, and the role of text messaging in signaling availability for other forms of exchange.