Syllabus

Class schedule

Assignments

Students

Readings & resources

Weblog

There will be weekly readings. This is a reading-intensive course in which you will be asked to deal with material that is often quite challenging in its language and theoretical positions. You should expect to read about 60 pages a week, and write a brief summary/comment on each text you read. You are excused from writing your comment if you are presenting to the class. You are responsible for not only reading all the material assigned to you, but engaging with it before class in a way that prepares you to participate in class discussion. In order to do this, you will need to take careful reading notes and review your notes before each class. The readings shall be used not only for class discussion, but also to support your arguments on the mid-term exams, presentations, and final paper.

All texts are available online as PDF documents, through this Web site and the NCSU library online reserves. A few new ones may will be also available on the Web.

Note: All students must regurlary check e-mails, as well as the class Website, for messages and readings from this course.

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Textbooks:

Ling, R. (2004). The mobile connection: The cell phone’s impact on society. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman.

Rheingold, H. (2002). Smart Mobs: The next social revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.

In addition, the course will include selected readings from the following books:

Katz, J., & Aakhus, M. (2002). Perpetual contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, and Public Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ito, M., Okabe, D., Matsuda, M. (2005). Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile phones in japanese life. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Required Readings:

Abrahamson, E. (2003). Hear me now: Competition, regulation and innovation in mobile telephony in the United States: 1945-1983. Von Gremp Workshop in Economic and Entrepreneurial History. University of California, Los Angeles.

Benford, S., Flintham, M., Drozd, A., Anastasi, R., Rowland, D., Tandavanitj, N., Adams, M., Row Farr, J., Oldroyd, A. And Sutton, J. (2004). Uncle Roy All Around You: Implicating The City In A Location-Based Performance. Proceedings Of ACM Advanced Computer Entertainment (ACE 2004], Singapore, July 2004, Acm Press. Retrieved July 18, 2006, from http://www.amutualfriend.co.uk/papers/3.Uncle_Roy_at_ACE.pdf

De Souza e Silva, A. (in press). Cell phones and places: The use of mobile technologies in Brazil. In H. Miller (Ed.), Societies and cities in the age of instant access. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Fortunati, L. (2002). Italy: Stereotypes, true and false. In J. Katz & M. Aakhus, (Eds.), Perpetual contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, and Public Performance (pp. 42-62). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kasesniemi, E. L., & Rautiainen, P. (2002). Mobile Culture of children and teenagers in Finland [part 1] [part 2]. In J. Katz & M. Aakhus, (Eds.), Perpetual contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, and Public Performance (pp. 170-192). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kato, F., Okabe, D., Ito, M., & Uemoto, R. (2005). Uses and possibilities of the keitai camera. In M. Ito, D. Okabe, & M. Matsuda, (Eds.), Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile phones in japanese life (pp. 300-310). Cambridge , MA : The MIT Press.

Kohyama, K. (2005). A decade in the development of mobile communications in Japan. In M. Ito, D. Okabe, & M. Matsuda, (Eds.), Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile phones in japanese life (pp. 61-76). Cambridge , MA : The MIT Press.

Leonardi, P., Leonardi, M., & Hudson, E. (2006). Culture, organization, and contradiction in the social construction of technology: Adoption and use of cell phone across three cultures. In Kavoori, A., & Arceneaux, N. (2006). The cell phone reader: Essays in social transformation (pp. 205-226). New York: Peter Lang Publishers.

Licoppe, C., & Inada, Y. (2006). Emergent uses of a multiplayer location-aware mobile game: The interactional consequences of mediated encounters. Mobilities, 1 (1), 39-61.

Ling, R., & Yttri, B. (2002). Hyper-coordination via mobile phones in Norway [part 1] [part2]. In J. Katz & M. Aakhus, (Eds.), Perpetual contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, and Public Performance (pp. 139-169). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Matsuda, M. (2005). Discourses of Keitai in Japan [part 1] [part 2]. In M. Ito, D. Okabe, & M. Matsuda, (Eds.), Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile phones in japanese life (pp. 19-40). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Miyata, K., Boase, J., Wellman, B., & Ikeda, K. (2005). The mobile-izing Japanese: Connecting to the Internet by PC and Webphone in Yamanashi [part 1] [part 2]. In M. Ito, D. Okabe, & M. Matsuda, (Eds.), Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile phones in japanese life (pp. 143-164). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Plant, S. (2001, October 28). On the mobile: The effects of mobile telephones on social and individual life. Motorola Inc. Retrieved December 07, 2003 from http://www.motorola.com/mot/doc/0/234_MotDoc.pdf

Poster, M. (2003). Digitally local communications: technology and space. In Proceedings of the Conference on the Global and the Local in Mobile Communication: Places, Images, People, Connections, 1-12. Budapest, June 10-12. Retrieved July 18, 2006, from http://www.fil.hu/mobil/2004/Poster_webversion.doc

Puro, J.P. (2002). Finland: a mobile culture. In J. E. Katz & M. Aakhus (Eds.), Perpetual contact: mobile communication, private talk, public performance (pp. 19-29). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rao, B., & Minakakis, L. (2003). Evolution of mobile location-based services. Communications of the ACM, 12 (46), 61-65.

Weiser, M. & Brown, J. S. (1996). Designing calm technology. Power Grid Journal, 1(1). Retrieved April 07, 2005, from http://www.ubiq.com/weiser/calmtech/calmtech.htm

Weiser, M. (1994). The world is not a desktop. ACM Interactions, 1(1), 7-8. Retrieved April 07, 2005, from http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/ACMInteractions2.html

Movies:
Denise Calls Up (1995), directed by Hal Salwen
Cyberman (2001), directed by Peter Lynch

RESOURCES:

Software:
RSS Reader (http://www.rssreader.com/)
This is a software that allows you to subscribe to some rss feeders and receive daily news on your computer (not via email)

Popular press :
Wired News (http://www.wired.com)
Created by Nicholas Negroponte, this is one of the most popular technology and new media online magazines. Great source of information.

New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com)
Also good source of information on technology and internet.

The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/)
The Technology section has often very good articles.

InfoSync World (http://www.infosyncworld.com/)
Latest news and reviews on digital technology.

Technology Review (http://www.technologyreview.com/)
From MIT. Information on Emerging Technologies & impact on business & society. Check the Infotech section.

Mobile Technology Studies, News, Blogs:
(Note: This is a very small sampling of what is available. Rather than list everything possible please refer to these sites for additional links.)

Center for Mobile Communications Study (http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/ci/cmcs/index.jsp)
Established in June 2004 at Rutgers University’s School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS), The CMCS has information about new publications and relevant links.

Mobile Research Forum (http://mrf.ecdc.info/)
That's a site sponsored by the a site sponsored by the European Centre for Digital Communication, targeted at people involved in mobile research.

The Feature: It’s all about the mobile Internet (http://www.thefeature.com)
A project originally funded by Nokia and headed by Howard Rheingold. One of the best sources for mobile content. The archives are still online.

Smart Mobs (http://www.smartmobs.com/)

Howard Rheingold's website about mobile technologies.

Association of Internet Researchers (http://www.aoir.org/)
The Association of Internet Researchers is an academic association dedicated to the advancement of the cross-disciplinary field of Internet studies. It is a resource and support network promoting critical and scholarly Internet research independent from traditional disciplines and existing across academic borders. The association is international in scope.

Cell Phone World (http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/%7Ecang/socio.html)
The history and impact of the cell phone: medically and sociologically.

Privateline. Com (http://www.privateline.com/)
History of wireless, basic principles of cellular technology.

International Telecommunications Union (http://www.itu.int)
An excellent source of information on mobile telephony in all regions of the world.

Mobile Devices and the Cultural Worlds of Young People, Annenberg Center (http://www.annenberg.edu/projects/project.php?id=77)
A project investigating the sociological impact of mobile technology on youth.

Nalini Kotamraju's bibliography on Mobile Phone/SMS/Instant Messaging Research (http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/%7Enalinik/mobile.html)
An extensive bibliography of writing on mobile communication, SMS and instant messaging.

Mobile society list serv (http://forums.nyu.edu/)
A list serve dealing with mobile issues can be joined at http://forums.nyu.edu and enter mobile-society

Sociology of the mobile phone (http://socio.ch/mobile/index_mobile.htm)
A site sponsored by Sociology in Switzerland.

Society for Social Study of Mobile Communication (http://sociomobile.org/)
Material for a collection of mobile scholars.

Telenor (http://www.telenor.no/fou/program/nomadiske/artikler.shtml)
Articles and information regarding the use of the mobile telephone in a range of social contexts.

Receiver (http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/)
Vodafone's receiver magazine is a space where pioneer thinkers discuss future-oriented aspects of communications technologies. Started four years ago as a platform for exchange about how innovations in this sector affect societies worldwide.

Representative Academic Journals on Mobile Technologies and New Media:
Convergence (http://www.luton.ac.uk/Convergence/)

New Media & Society (http://www.new-media-and-society.com/)
New Media & Society is an international journal that strives to stimulate examination of the social dynamics of media and information change. New Media & Society encourages critical discussion of the key issues arising from the scale and speed of new media developments, drawing on a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and on both theoretical and empirical research.

Information, Communication, & Society (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1369118x.asp)
Information, Communication & Society (iCS) transcends cultural and geographical boundaries as it explores a diverse range of issues relating to the development and application of information and communications technologies (ICTs)

Space and Culture (http://www.sagepub.com/journal.aspx?pid=287)
Space and Culture's unique focus is on social spaces, such as the home, laboratory, leisure spaces, the city, and virtual spaces.

Mobile Games:
34 North 118 West: Mining the Urban Landscape. Spellman, N., Knowlton, J., & Hight, J. Retrieved March 09, 2005 from http://34n118w.net/34N

Backseat Games. (2005). Interactive Institute, Mobility Studio Stockhom, Sweden. Retrieved March 22, 2005 from http://www.tii.se/mobility/Backseat/backseatgames.htm

Botfighters. (2000-2005) Daydream. Retrieved March 09, 2005 from http://www.botfighters.com

Can You See Me Now? (2001-2004). Blast Theory + The Mixed Reality Lab, U.K. Retrieved March 09, 2005 from http://www.canyouseemenow.co.uk

Conquest. (2004). SS+K, Amsterdam. Retrieved March 22, 2005 from http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~dc788/conqwest/rules.php

Geocaching. (2001). Groundspeak Inc. Retrieved March 22, 2005 from http://www.geocaching.com

The Day of the Figurines (2006) Blast Theory + The Mixed Reality Lab, U.K. Retrieved July 17, 2006 from http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/bt/work_day_of_figurines.html

Frequency 1550. (2005) Waag Society, Nederlands. Retrieved March 09, 2005 from http://freq1550.waag.org

The Go Game. (2003). Wink Back, In. San Francisco. Retrieved March 22, 2005 from http://www.thegogame.com

The Journey II. (2005). Jakl Andreas Reinhard at Mopius, Austria. Retrieved March 22, 2005 from http://journey.mopius.com/

I Like Frank. (2004). Blast Theory + The Mixed Reality Lab, UK. Retrieved March 09, 2005 from http://www.ilikefrank.com

Mogi. (2004). NewtGames, Japan. Retrieved February 01, 2005 from http://www.mogimogi.com

Raygun. (2005). Glofun, USA. Retrieved March 22, 2005 from http://www.glofun.com/

Swordfish. (2005). Blisterent, Canada. Retrieved March 22, 2005 from http://www.blisterent.com/swordfish.html

Uncle Roy All Around You. (2003). Blast Theory + The Mixed Reality Lab, U.K. Retrieved March 09, 2005 from http://www.uncleroyallaroundyou.co.uk

Technical resources:
For APA Style
APA Style Guide (http://www.apastyle.org/),
Purdue online writing lab (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html)
The library also formats basic sources for you (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/lobo2/citationbuilder/citationbuilder.php)
And if you don't find what you're looking for in the web sources above, go to the library and get the old good physical book:
Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition.

For help with writing your final paper:
Purdue online writing lab ( http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/index.html)