Internet Technologies

Copenhagen.


The next COST298 speaker is Ágnes Urbán, who wants us to move beyond innovators and early adopters in studies of Web 2.0 and other innovative developments. This builds on Rogers's diffusion theory and its extension in the context of new communication theory (network effects, user-led diffusion of ideas).

In Hungary, 41% of the population used the Net in 2007; another 7% have access to computers, but are not online. The rest of the population lag behind in technology adoption. What are the incentives and obstacles to their Internet usage, then? The study divided its focus on non-users with positive attitudes towards ICTs, non-users with negative attitudes, and light users who use computers and the Net,but have no access at home.

Copenhagen.


Lene Sørensen is up next at COST298, presenting on user demands for the next generation of social networking sites. Social networking is a very widespread activity now, and takes place across a large number of sites; it is no longer the domain of young users or a space for private activities only. Social network users engage in creative activities, and in self-management in relation to activities.

A number of further developments (towards Web 3.0 and Web 4.0) have already been foreshadowed by various authors - but what is it that actual users are interested in? To establish answers to such questions is non-trivial; for the most part, user expectations are limited by their knowledge of what is possible using existing information technology. Developers, too, operate mainly on their best guess of what additional features users may want.

Copenhagen.


Finally on to Selva Ersöz, who continues the Turkish theme at COST298. She notes the change in political discourse with the increasing use of the Internet - as some hope, Internet use may improve citizens' knowledge of political affairs, and enable them to participate in political processes more directly, while others fear misinformation, polarisation, and the continued domination of particular social classes.

Selva's study (during May/June 2007) examined the interactive features of four key political sites in Turkey, focussing on the question of whether they enabled better online political communication between citizens or whether they simply republished information available elsewhere. (Interactivity is divided here into user-to-user, user-to-document, and user-to-system interactivity.)

Copenhagen.

Next up at COST298 is Lelia Green, who shifts our interest to online participation by minors. The Net is often perceived as a risky place, but at the same time also as educational, fun, and communal - we must therefore consider what potential opportunities are cut off if the focus on risk comes to the fore.

A recent report from the US, for example, raises concerns about social networking sites; in February 2009, in fact, MySpace admitted the expulsion of 90,000 registered sex offenders during 2007-9 (out of a total number of 70 million members). EU Kids Online has similarly examined conduct, content, and contact online, and highlighted risks and challenges. In Australia, a 2007 Media and Communications in Australian Families report surveyed children aged 8-17 and their families.

Copenhagen.


The post-lunch session at COST298 kicks off with Lilia Raycheva, who notes that TV is still the most significant source of nformation in European households; they view an average of 3 hours per day, and by 2010 there will be some 120 HDTV channels. Analogue switchoff is supposed to be complete by 2012, but a number of European countries are lagging behind and may not meet that deadline. There is also a question whether current content regulations (diversity, local programming, etc.) will be able to be sustained in the new DTV environment.

Copenhagen.


And this pre-lunch session here at COST298 ends with Chantal de Gournay and Frank Thomas, who approach digital cities from a different perspective. Amongst the key issues for them are how to combine real, virtual, and social spaces, how to address local and global identities,communities, and neighbourhoods, and how to understand different modes of participation in the digital city.

Chantal highlights the possibility for a fifth screen (after TV, PC, videogames, and mobile phones) as urban spaces become augmented realities through the introduction of digital screens that allow both more traditional forms of broadcasting and new forms of 'egocasting', perhaps in response to people in the vicinity. This ubiquitous paradigm creates the 'seamless city', in which real and virtual life merge and different times and spaces blend into one. Potentially, in such spaces, everywhere is nowhere, and there is no sense of the here and now.

Copenhagen.


The first main session at the COST298 conference is on interdisciplinary design, and begins with a presentation by James Stewart and Laurence Claeys. They ask how speculative research for innovation can be conducted within interdisciplinary frameworks. Problem here include that different disciplines work within very different time scales (e.g. rapid prototyping vs. long-term observation of users), that they use different mental models, and that disciplines tend to under-value one another and misuse one another's research approaches.

Copenhagen.


Following the next09 conference last week, I've now made my way to Copenhagen, to attend the COST298 conference with the somewhat unwieldy title "The Good, the Bad, and the Challenging" - don't hold that against it, though: the actual theme of the conference (and of the COST298 EU research programme) is participation in the broadband society, so it should be interesting. (The two-volume proceedings alone are going to seriously push my luggage weight over the edge on the flight back.) Also, erm, interesting is the choice of location, at Aalborg University's campus in Ballerup on the outskirts of Copenhagen, almost an hour's metro ride out of town - I must say I much preferred the IT University campus, just cross from the city centre, where we held the AoIR conference last year.

Hamburg.


The next presentation here at next09 is by Rafi Haladjian from Violet, a company founded in 2003 in Paris. He says that the new frontier for future developments is no longer cyberspace, but meatspace - the physical world. There is a life after the PC...

But how do we get there? Violet's first step was to create the world's first Internet-connected, wi-fi, toy rabbit (think robotic, not fluffy). This also demonstrated that everything is now possible, no matter how absurd - if you can network rabbits, you can connect anything. In effect, the rabbit blinks, moves, speaks, reads, sings, hears and 'smells' (using RFID); it is an ambient information device which acts as a spontaneous information provider for short 'goot to know', real-time, information and snack media, and as a multi-expression messenger which can be controlled over the Internet.

Hamburg.


Day one at next09 ends with a humorous review of tweets on Twitter, by the team from TwitKrit, a German blog offering 'literary criticism' of Twitter posts. Those of you who are so inclined will know how to find #next09 comments on Twitter - or otherwise, pop in to the next09 community at SixGroups.

(Speaking seriously for a moment, though - a conference presentation compiled from random Twitter users' outstanding tweets raises some very interesting questions about the boundaries between public and private. Discuss.)