Interviews in Switzerland

The last weeks I conducted three interviews in Switzerland at the ‘Unternehmen Mitte’ in Basle – which is a café as well as a centre where cultural projects and events take place (v. www.mitte.ch ). The persons I interviewed, A., J. and B., are all male and between 25 and 30 years old. I found two of them (A and B) at the ‘Mitte’ itself where I saw them, at different times, using their laptops. Both are already for some time WLAN users. The third person, J., had heard about my interviews and was interested to take part in the project himself. When I interviewed him he also had also become a WLAN user.

Bridges between different places
A. is Italian and came to Switzerland less than a year ago. He lives in town together with his girl friend. Currently he is planning to do his PhD in humanities and is working in different jobs (as a language teacher and as a waiter). As he has close friends in Italy he also often travels between the two countries, or some of his friends come to Switzerland. These travels ‘bridge’ somehow a part of the different places in A.’s life. The same thing is true for communication services such as email and Instant Messaging. A. accesses the internet from home as well as from the ‘Mitte’. However the ‘Mitte’ is for him not only a hotspot, but also a place to socialize etc. It is a multifunctional open place, a ‘piazza’, as A. says. A. usually carries his laptop with him between these different places, i.e. between home and the ‘Mitte’ as well as between Switzer-land and Italy.

No ‘inflationary communication’, but ‘connected by connection’
In regard to his use of communication technology A. is not very typical of Switzerland or Europe: Unlike most young people A. does not use a cell phone - except when he is in Italy (where mobile telephony is particularly omnipresent). He sees this as a way to prevent ‘inflationary’ communication and to limit technology: For him technology should be just a means in order to keep in touch in a simpler way.
He enjoys, on the other hand, using WLAN. This is particularly true for the ‘Mitte’, because this place offers a kind of a private athmosphere and at the same time the social character of a public place. WLAN use can also be the subject of conversations with other people who come and ask when they see someone working with the laptop, e.g. people that are looking for wireless connection. WLAN can therefore be a shared interest with others - ‘you are somehow [socially] connected by this connection’.

A patchwork of places and activities
J. is a 30-years-old psychologist who will finish his PhD soon and is currently also working part time in a psychiatric institution. He lives alone in a small appartment in town. However his appartment is not a really important place to J. and he does not spend much time there. He rather sees his life as a patch work of places which are relevant to him and which he is actively choosing. Examples for such places are libraries restaurants or cafés – e.g. the ‘Unternehmen Mitte’. All these places are characterized mainly by certain ac-tivities, e.g. studying/reading and writing, meeting friends or entertainment. At a lot of these places J. knows the owner or people that work there.

Work related technology and ‘social continuity’
For J. the laptop and WLAN are rather related to work, i.e. to his studies – although he does use his laptop sometimes for private purposes, e.g. for communication with friends and relatives. (He also thinks about buying a small apple camera to be able to do videoconferencing). He could imagine to work even more at the ‘Mitte’, because the place is big enough and not too full of people.
The cell phone, in contrast to the laptop, is for J. a device which is rather a part of his private life; it is an important means to keep in constant touch - even if there are a lot of places where he has usually switched it off. The cell phone is a social device: it gives him the possibility to contact others, always and everywhere. It represents a ‘social continuity’ independent of situations, e.g. independent of whether he is on holiday at a remote place or at home.

Village life and global relationships
B. is an assistant event manager at a cultural centre in a village near Basle where he also lives, sharing a part of a house with several other people. B. is German and came to Switzerland about five years ago. Be-sides his work at the centre itself B. is involved in cultural projects throughout Europe and therefore has to travel regularly. Until about a year ago he travelled even more because he was also organizing youth meet-ings at different European cities. Some of these cities are of particular importance to him, mainly because of close friends who live there. However B.’s daily life is mostly taking place within the village where a big part of his collegues live and where he usually meets a lot of people. Being in town he likes to be more anonymous, e.g. at cafés or similar places such as the ‘Unternehmen Mitte’.

Mobile reachability, but no ‘computer dependency’
For B. the cell phone is the main device of contact and reachability. He always takes it with him, where ever he goes. He has his calendar stored locally on the cell phone (although he would like to have it connected to the laptop, but has not yet taken the time to find out how to do so). B. uses his cell phone also at home: As everyone in the house has a mobile phone, they do not use the landline phone anymore.
B. often also carries his laptop around, at least between a lot of places – e.g. between home and work in the village or sometimes also to the ‘Mitte.’ He also started to use WLAN in other cities, although he encountered some problems to access the web e.g. in parts Eastern Europe. However there are certain situa-tions where he deliberately does leave the laptop at home. He does not want to become ‘dependent on the computer’ in his private life.

Internet Systems Developer Interview

Last week I conducted an interview with a 31-year-old Internet systems developer, N. He works for an Internet related business in central Tokyo and used to work for NTT, including early WiFi work in the late nineties. Most of his work time is spent at his desk or at the offices of his business partners and clients. He forwards his email to his phone filtered to only allow work and important personal communication through. He recently switched from a PHS mobile phone to a new au mobile phone with GPS. He does not respond to his email via mobile phone but when he gets to the office or partner office he immediately checks and replies to email. At home, he has an ADSL connection and his runs his own server. He often works at home, particularly now, as he is working on a book and is very busy. He lives with his wife in Tokyo. He does not have much separation between work and home.

Wired Workplaces

N always takes his laptop when out and expects that there will be a net connection that he can use at the other offices. He often has materials on a server that he expects to access during his meetings, so it is a problem if there is no net connection. He is online throughout his meetings with his laptop as are his colleagues. At the first part of the meeting he is generally checking and replying to mail while keeping one ear open to the meeting.

It used to be the case that he had to use his PHS/Air H card to access the net while at other offices, but after mapping out his personal places he realizes that WiFi connectivity has become the standard. He rarely has to use the mobile phone connection for Internet access now.

Wired Travel

When he is traveling, about 4 times a year, he expects to be connected at airport lounges and hotels. His company selects hotels based on Internet connectivity. He does not care if it is WiFi or Ethernet. Before he unpacks his bags, he connects to the Internet. His boss travels very frequently, and he communicates with him regularly on IM when he is away from the office.

Limited “Inbetween” Times and Place

Because of his busy schedule and the fact that he travels from office to office, meeting to meeting, he N has relatively little dead time. He showed me his schedule and it was extremely full, with even transit times closely accounted for. Transit times are generally short, and he does not usually use his laptop. On the occasions when he does travel longer distances he does usually open his laptop.

When he is visiting a client or potential client the schedule is tight. At partner businesses that he visits more frequently, he can connect to the net and work if he arrives early or has to wait. On the rare occasions that he gets somewhere early he stops for a cup of coffee or goes to an electronics store to browse. He goes to Starbucks to get coffee several times a week, but does not use it as a place for WiFi connectivity.

Reflections on WiFi

When N was working on WiFi at NTT in the late nineties, it was extremely expensive to set up. In 1997 a card costed over a thousand USD and the base stations over three thousand. At that point, they realized that price was a huge obstacle and felt that it was probably only universities that could afford to implement WiFi. The introduction of .11b in 1999 was a turning point and WiFi suddenly became affordable. He is surprised that WiFi has become so popular. He never would have guessed just a few years ago.

His parents had resisted using a dial-up connection, but they are now happily using WiFi after he set it up for them. N says that there is a real sense of more casual and easy use when connectivity is through WiFi.

Even as early as 1997 there was discussion of spreading WiFi through cafes near train stations. But N feels that there are still barriers to this kind of dissemination. Places like MacDonalds rely on fast turn-around and are not WiFi friendly. High-end cafes seem more likely, but there are still relatively few people that frequent these places who are technically literate enough to be mobile laptop users.

University Student Interview

Last week, one of my students and I conducted an interview with a 23 year-old graduate school student “M” at a private university outside of Tokyo, he use his laptop (Macintosh ibook) and mobile phone (FOMA P2102V that has video phone function) very often in the greater Tokyo area. He goes to his university just outside Tokyo three times a week (Monday, Thursday, Friday) to attend classes and research meetings. He usually has a meeting related to one of his research project in Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday. One the weekends, he goes shopping, hangs out in cafés and play tennis. M lives in central Tokyo with his parents. It takes him about one hour to get to the university by the train. He is never completely disconnected form the Internet, navigating multiple wireless access methods including his mobile phone, a wireless card for toll wireless connectivity, and wireless LAN connectivity.

The Wireless Campus

His university is fairly unique. Almost all students have their own laptops. During lectures, students are checking e-mail, using IM, and surfing the Web. It is taken for granted that students can use WiFi connectivity everywhere in the university. If connectivity is disrupted for some reason, it is a source of frustration. When he goes to a new classroom he checks first to get into WiFi. Campus-wide WiFi was implemented in 2001. He says that compared to 2000, he has attends class more regularly because he knows he can access WiFi in the classroom. Almost every class and project team he joins has its own mailing list. IM and email has become central to academic and research life.

Navigating Different Places

At the different places that he works, his uses wireless connectivity. At home, he has a cable modem connected to a WiFi network. His entire university is wired with WiFi, including his lab. He also likes to go Starbucks in central Tokyo because he can has wireless connectivity and he likes the coffee. He hangs out in the trendier city centers of Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi, and Harajuku, and frequents the Starbucks at these locations where he likes to hang out. He avoids them on the weekends because they are always crowded. During his one-hour commute time, he has Personal Handyphone mobile (Air H”) connection that he can use in the train. Like professor D or K who we interviewed earlier, he forwards his email to his mobile phone, excluding mailing list traffic. Sometimes he replies to email from his mobile phone.

It is subtly different how he uses his PC by location. At his university and home, he uses WiFi connectivity for Web surfing, blogging, e-mail, working on his Website, and IM, usually at his research lab. These are working places where he focuses on more complex and intense work. In the train, he blogs, checks e-mail, and surfs Web. Because of unstable connectivity, he does not use IM. He spends his Starbucks time doing activities similar to those on the train. Sometimes he has to do serious work at Starbucks, but he more often considers Starbucks a relaxing space (mattari space) like D who we interviewed earlier.

Despite these subtle differences, however, he finds that it is difficult to draw boundaries between home, university and Starboucks. The blogging and web work he does at Starbucks and on the train is part of his research project work at the University. His hobbies and recreation are tied into his school work so it is hard to define a boundary between work (study) and play.

System Administrator Interview

Last week Daisuke and I conducted an interview with a 30-year-old freelance system administrator, C. C works two days a week at an Internet related business where he supports the server and network infrastructure. He deals with issues as they arise throughout the week, but works at home on the other days of the week. He lives with his parents, grandmother, and two younger brothers in Tokyo. He is also trying to set up a new business with 5 other former classmates, and meets with them at restaurants in central Tokyo, in Shibuya or Akasaka. At home he uses a desktop PC but everywhere else he uses his laptop. He always carries his keitai, most of the time his laptop, and occasionally his PDA.

Managing Email Identities and Priorities

When he leaves the house, he forwards email to his work email address to his keitai. He does this by logging into a web interface as he leaves his house. He has five other email addresses that he uses for mailing lists and other purposes, and these addresses he does not forward to his keitai. He sees his work communication as a priority because he does technical support, but he does not feel it is necessary to be in touch with all his email while in transit and out.

Car Oasis

C uses his car to get most places. He notices as email arrives to his keitai while he is driving, but does not usually bother to check as each email arrives. He takes the car to go even short distances, and he often has a bit of time to kill before meetings. At those times, he will stop in at a café, but he does not connect with his PC at the café. Instead, he will bring his coffee back to his car and connect to the net via his PC and Air H card from his car parked on the street. He likes the privacy of the car, and the fact that he can listen to music. He connects to the net at these times not out of a sense of urgency that he needs to check his email, but to kill time and surf before a meeting.

Prioritizing Social Over Technological Context

His meetings with his former classmates generally happen in the evenings, over dinner, at a small restaurant in Akasaka, or another family style restaurant in Shibuya. Neither of these places has WiFi connectivitiy, and the Akasaka restaurant does not even have good keitai/Air H connectivity. He says that they generally take their laptops to the meeting, and often want to connect to the Internet, but often can’t at the Akasaka restaurant. The business they are working on is net related so they are technology-intensive meetings. This is not enough motivation for them to change to a WiFi wired location, however.

The Akasaka restaurant is a small place, and they know somebody that works there. So it is comfortable place that they can hang out at for long periods of time. And there is good food, which is a reason to select that place over say Starbucks. The place in Shibuya also does not have WiFi connectivity, but they can access the net with their Air H cards. In other words, they priorize the social context, ambience and food over the ability to connect with WiFi. C says it is hard to imagine the six of them sitting at Starbucks for several hours with their laptops. He says it would take some special attraction to draw them away from their comfortable spot at the Akasaka restaurant to a new regular spot, and WiFi is not enough. He says maybe if he was living on his own and had to eat out a lot by himself, he could imagine selecting places based on WiFi connectivity.

WiFi versus Mobile Internet Connectivity

The relatively good connectivity through Air H is a disincentive for selecting places based on WiFi alone. C says that occasionally he will get a large email that is a problem with his Air H card connectivity, but other than that, it is generally adequate for the kinds of things he does with his PC while out of the house. This was the case with other Air H users I have spoken to as well.

Interview 2: Mobile University Lecturer

Last week, one of my students and I conducted an interview with a 29 year-old university lecturer, “D.” Although D has a full time position at a national university just outside of Tokyo, he is a highly mobile worker, with jobs at 4 different colleges and universities in the greater Tokyo area. He goes to his primary university three times a week to do mostly administrative work, and the other three schools once a week each. At one of these schools he teaches three classes, at another, he teaches one class, and at a third, he is part of a research project.

He travels by car, and takes his PC with him (a Vaio laptop), as well as documents and books necessary for his work for that day. Like professor K who I interviewed earlier, he forwards all of his email to his mobile phone, and it is his communication lifeline. He checks it frequently though he generally replies to emails on his PC. At all of his workplaces, his connectivity situation is different. At home, he has a dial-up connection. At the college where he teaches one class, he has no connectivity. At his primary university, he has a shared office space with an Ethernet connection. At the college where he teaches three classes, he has to borrow the office and Ethernet connection of another professor. He prefers to go to a local Starbucks (pictured here) or Mos Burger to catch a WiFi connection in his break between classes. At his research university, the entire university is wired with WiFi, including his lab (pictured here).

I describe two primary insights from this interview, the transformation of experience with the advent of WiFi connectivity at the café and the lab, and the role of “mattari” (just hanging out) places or “ikinuki” (down-time) places.

WiFi Transformation

D first used a WiFi connection at his research university lab. Soon after he started working there, about a year and a half ago, he noticed the students using wireless cards in the shared open space and had wanted to try. He borrowed one of the loaner cards from the lab manager to give it a try. A few months later, he got his own card. Having the wireless card has enabled him to get into what he describes “that world” of wireless LAN connectivity. He has a small office on the second floor of the lab. He says he uses it much less now that he can stay connected anywhere in the lab. Before, he would have to go upstairs to plug into Ethernet. Now he does not bother to use the Ethernet connection.

Instead of the connection determining where the work is to be done, the social context determines whether he works in his office or in the shared lab space. If he needs to work alone, he goes upstairs. If he is working with others, he uses the shared first floor space. In the past, he sometimes had to cram into the tiny office with others to do work together that required an Internet connection.

WiFi connectivity has also enabled access to the hotspots that have recently started to open up in cafes, fast food restaurants and airports. D says he was “outrageously happy” when he first got wireless connectivity at the Starbucks near his teaching college. One of his colleagues happened to log onto IM at the time of his first Starbucks WiFi connection, and he remembers it as a thrill. He finds himself taking on the persona of a “high tech operator” and is now thoroughly enjoying his work breaks. Starbucks, in contrast to the Mos Burger is more conducive to this image, so he tends to go to there. In the past, eating lunch on his own, he would hide behind a book and dread running into his students. Now his break time has become a social and interactive space, occupied with email, chat, and web surfing.

He is actively seeking out other hotspots in areas that are convenient to him. When he made a recent overseas trip, he immediately got a WiFi connection at the airport Starbucks in Narita, and then again at his connecting airport in Copenhagen. His primary university just added WiFi to the library, so he plans to start using that space as well.

Mattari Kuukan (Places for Just Hanging Out)

Near the end of our interview, as we were probing the particular role of the WiFi enabled Starbucks, we had an interesting discussion about what he called an “ikinuki” (down-time) space or a “mattari kuukan,” a place for just hanging out, or a low-pressure social setting. He described how the Starbucks, when he has a WiFi connection, plays this unique role. Unlike the formal workspaces of the various colleges, where he has to deal with ongoing work requests and feels that he should not be doing lightweight online chat or web surfing, Starbucks was a place for these more playful and less goal-directed forms of net usage. He does not do heavy-weight work at Starbucks, but answers email or checks the web, and is happy when he sees a friend appear on IM.

I ask him whether there are other spaces that become mattari kuukan, like when he has a coffee break with colleagues at work. He says that at his primary university, the students go out and get lunch or coffee and they take breaks in the shared office. So in a sense, this is “ikinuki” down-time. But in these instances, the dominant mode is direct face-to-face interaction. He is socially “on” in a way that he does not have to be at Starbucks. They are explicitly “doing” coffee breaks together. So it is not a mattari kuukan.

By contrast, at his research university lab, he says the shared lab area has more of this mattari kuukan feel because of the presence of WiFi. During coffee breaks, his colleagues and students are generally looking at their laptops, and they may chat to one another, but they don’t feel that they need to. He says that this is a very relaxing and comfortable social modality, to be sharing the same space, but not necessarily in direct face-to-face interaction. When somebody wants to engage more seriously, they generally ask, “Can I interrupt for a moment?” attesting to the primacy of the online over the face-to-face modality in the WiFi enabled lab. Thus even within the context of a workspace, the presence of WiFi can create certain “third place” microclimates.
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Interview 3: Mia, model hooked on wi-fi

Mia is a 24 year old a professional model. She has worked as an international model for the past 5 years. For a while she lived out of her suit-case, traveling constantly to different photo-shoots and fashion shows. Lately, she has cut back on work assignments and now lives most of the year in Helsinki. She has chosen to work 4-5 days a month because that’s all it takes to pay the bills. She likes to have free time.

I found Mia by asking the staff at Café REX if they knew of any of the wi-fi users who came there. One of the staff contacted Mia and asked if she was interested in being interviewed. She accepted.

Insight 1: Important to have a base outside of home

Mia loves to spend her free time at Café Rex. Mia could not imagine life without Café Bio Rex, there would not be any other place in Helsinki that could replace it – it’s a combination of friends, atmosphere, architecture, central location and wi-fi availability that make it a special place for her.

It was initially because her friends worked there that Mia started to come to Café Rex. From hanging out at the place she learned that it had wi-fi. When it came time to buy a laptop she made sure it came with a wi-fi card so she could use the wi-fi in Café Rex.

Café Bio Rex is a base for her from which she can go do things, carry out chores and to which she returns to relax. She prefers to end her day there or right next door in m-bar before going home.

Insight 2: “My house is your house…but my computer is a different matter”

Mia enjoys entertaining friends at home. As she describes it she has an “open door” policy with her friends, meaning that they can come visit her almost anytime without prior notice.

She allows her friends to use her parking space, her computer and lets them crash at her place on week-ends since most of them live out of town.

Though Mia is generous with her possessions she does expect her friends to respect her computer when they use it. As she puts it “If my friends do not show the same respect as I do I’m not going to allow them to use it.”

Insight 3: Laptop as enhancer of atmosphere and social prop

Mia often takes her laptop with when she leaves home. At work she likes to play music she has downloaded. She hates the music photographers like to listen to at the studios. Bringing the laptop to the studio gives her a license to play her own music in the studio. She often gets complimented on her choice of laptop (an Apple G4).

At her favorite place, Café Rex, she is conscious about alienating herself from the rest of the people in the place because of her computer so she does things with it that do not require her full attention. She sits at the bar with the laptop open on the counter and has conversations with whoever is working there that time. She uses the laptop to download music and programs from the Internet over the wi-fi connection. She prefers to do this in the company of friends rather than at home when alone. Moreover, she feels that gives her an excuse to talk with her friends. If she reads something interesting in an e-mail or on the net she will tell her friend about it.

She has befriended a nerd because they share an interest in Apple computers. Her friend showed her how to set-up wi-fi and is now her trusted computer support. If she has a problem with her laptop she goes to him. Sometimes she goes to his place and they download programs and try them out. Her friend has wi-fi at home and it the signal reaches the backyard of where he lives. During the summer when he is not home she goes to his backyard to check e-mails.

Insight 4: Virtual escape

In the physical world she is a model but on the Internet she follows a completely different world. Mia is interested in feminist sites. She is particularly impressed with the strong opinions these sites (people) express and is keen on learning more about the points they make.

Insight 5: Connectivity anxiety

Though Mia loves wi-fi and can’t live without her mobile phone she is apprehensive of social software and communication media in general. She believes she will become too dependent on them if she does not watch herself.
For example, she does not like chat rooms because for her they are addictive. As she puts it she would rather see her friends than type to them. She hates her mobile phone because its addictive and she has to have it with her all the time. But she also loves it because it allows her to maintain a flexible social life. In fact both mobile phone and chat enable her to socialize in the way she likes to: her style is to drop in on different social circles and start talking and interacting with the people.

When she first got her computer she thought she would start carrying around like her mobile phone. But some what relieved she states that this has not become the case. For her using the computer its still more a past-time and a pleasure than an addiction.

Insight 6: Friends map to places, places map to time

Mia describes her friends as crazy, funny, beautiful, self-service, easy maintenance and very place specific. Though she is mobile between places but her friends are not. “I like social circles so I can jump from a circle to another, a place to another”. She rarely tries to get different groups of friends to mix.

Her use of the places in Lasipalatsi exemplifies this type of behavior. During the day she hangs out in Café Rex because some of her female friends work there. She occasionally drop by Cable book, right next door to say Hi to her male friends who work there. In the evenings she meets with her artistic friends at m-Bar. Though she might hang-out with the Cable book “boys” at m-Bar she does not invite them or the Café Rex girls to her home. Only her artistic friends are invited there.

Insight 7: Wi-fi advocacy creates new relationships

She has also become an advocate of wi-fi. When she goes to a new café she looks for signs such as laptop users or I-Macs to tell if it has wi-fi. She also makes it a point to approach staff and ask them. She has found out that in some of the places the staff doesn't even know if there is a network.

In places that do not have wi-fi she tells the staff how great it would be if they did. This is a fun way to meet new people.

Its very important for her to know someone on the staff at the places she goes to. Mia has found out that getting to know the staff at the café where she uses wi-fi is inevitable and a must. Knowing someone on the staff helps in getting power and makes it easier to stay longer periods without consuming (buying coffee or food).

Maps

Map 1
Map 2

Interview 2: Harri, connected entrepreneur

Harri is a 51 year old self-employed entrepreneur. He is Finnish but has lived on/off in the US for the past 20 years. When I interviewed him he was in Helsinki to organize a hotel venture.

I found Harri by asking the manager at Café REX if he knew any of the customers who used wi-fi. The manager described Harri to me. I immediately remembered seeing him in both Café REX and Mbar during my observations.

Insight 1: Nomadic business

The Internet is an essential tool and communication media for Harri. He uses it to mail and chat with potential business partners and to look up information to support his business ideas.

Though, he lives in the US, he travels to Finland often to meet with potential clients and partners. When he is over here he does not have an office, yet he needs to use the Internet for hours on end. When in Helsinki he works in Cable Book Library, Café REX and Mbar, all located within 50 meters of each other in the Lasipalatsi complex. All of these places offer free wi-fi. During a single day he may end up in all of them at some point. He has been working this way for almost two years and does not see any reason to change.

But just in case he needs a change in scenery he knows of a couple places that also offer free wi-fi. In the interview Harri added Bar X to the map. This is a place he has not been to and does not even know the name of. He learned about the place from another wi-fi user he encountered in Lasipalatsi.

Insight 2: Free from set schedules

Harri believes that in the future more people will have laptops and will do their work partly from home and cafes. Having a laptop and being able to use wi-fi means you have freedom to set your own working hours.

He exemplifies this vision. He does not have a set working schedule nor does he follow the working week. He tends to work everyday when preparing a venture. Such a routine may go on for months.

Insight 3: Hooked on “notebooks” and connectivity

Harri can’t imagine life without his laptop and wi-fi: “If I didn’t have a computer its like I didn’t have legs, I’d be completely paralyzed.” He got his first laptop (notebook) 13 years ago. Now always has a backup laptop with him in case the one he is using fails. In his own words he is a “notebook freak”.

He is always connected regardless of whether he needs the connection at the moment. Due to the nature of his work he needs to be able to track his e-mail inbox and respond to chat requests. This is crucial to his work since he has asked for bids from companies to build a website (part of his venture) and its essential he is able to provide the bidders with information if they need it.

Harri has his mobile phone with him at all times. However, for him mobile phone connectivity is not as important as wi-fi. He considers the mobile phones basic technology and laptops with wi-fi cards high-technology. What makes the later more important is that it affords the communication of larger amounts of information asynchronously.

Insight 4: But there is more than wi-fi to a place…

He is drawn to the places in Lasipalatsi not only because they have wi-fi but also because he is young at heart. Both places draw a young crowd. He likes to be around younger people and hear the latest music. “I guess I have never grown up,…haha!” Furthermore, as he puts it “there is not only the technique and great feeling but great looking girls as well.”

Knowing the people who work in the place makes a “big difference”. For example, its important for him that he has befriended the manager of Café REX. They both share a love of computers and give each other tips on what freebies are available on the net. He is proud that he has inspired the manager to get a wi-fi card. According to him, its important the management understands the technology they are offering: “it makes the whole place if the management is with it”.

Map

Map 1

Interview 1: Markku, nerd and comfort seeker

I found Markku by browsing through the Aula community member blogs. Markku had written about the penetration of wi-fi in Helsinki.

Markku considers himself a nerd. He has programming projects in his free-time that are similar to what he does for money. He spends almost all his time in-front of his laptop either doing work or chatting in IRC. When not online he is traveling with his girlfriend or meeting his friends at cafes and bars.

Insight 1: Once access is trivial comfort is king!

When its possible to remain always connected regardless of location, comfort becomes the most important aspect in a place. Markku's philosophy is that as long as it meets my criteria for a work environment the place will do.

As a freelance programmer he is used to working is different places. Markku’s routine has changed often depending on the project he is working on. However, recently he has been working from home. He used to have a desk at his client’s office but not anymore after the project ended.

Availability of wi-fi does not figure into his choice of working place. He has access to the Internet regardless of place thanks to his mobile phone which doubles as a modem. However, if wi-fi is available he prefers to use it instead because of the bandwidth.

Comfort is the only thing that matters when he is doing something with the computer. He likes to work in a relatively quiet, smoke free environment. Its important for him to have a good sturdy and wide desk and a comfortable chair. Currently his favorite place to work is home because it meets these criteria. As he puts it “I’m not one of those people who goes to a café to get work done because they have an Internet connection. My workstation, my desk, my chair are at home. Its so much more comfortable.”

He also prefers home for IRC (IM) and chatting because of the desk. He finds it incredibly hard to work on a computer in a café.

Insight 2: No set hang-outs or third place

Markku and his friends meet in public spaces. He never invites them over to his home.

When he does get out of home, which is not that often, it does not really matter where he goes. The main reason is to get away from the computer and to meet friends. His friends who share the same background as him have the same motive; they need time away from programming.

Markku and his friends are usually very flexible about where to go. Usually one member of the group decides and the others are indifferent. Only the quality of the food is important.

However, Wayne’s coffee seems to stand out of the mass of other cafes named by Markku. That’s where he likes to go when he is alone. It’s the closest thing to Starbucks in Finland.

Insight 3: Always connected

Markku’s laptop has an Ethernet connection, a modem, wi-fi card and Bluetooth. He has set a priority in the operating system for connectivity. First the OS checks for a wired connection, if that fails then it checks whether wi-fi is available. If that also fails it establishes a Bluetooth connection with his cellphone and uses it as a modem to connect to the Internet. So regardless of place he is connected. For him the only thing that varies is the speed of the connection.

Insight 4: Laptop and wi-fi dependency

Markku’s only computer is a laptop. Everything he needs for work but also in a fun and social sense are in the laptop. For this reason its almost always with him except for the occasional night out with friends. Even on holidays he like to have his laptop with him.

Markku has installed wi-fi at home, at his mother’s place and at his girlfriends place as well. He is planning to bring his Apple Airport base station with him on an up-coming trip to the US so he can have wireless connectivity in the hotel room. He has found that he can hook up the base station to a phone line and use it also as a modem. He has figured out that this set-up is cheaper than using his mobile as a modem.

Insight 5: Always connected to friends

Markku is a veteran IRC user. He has been chatting with more or less the same group of people for the past 10 years. Every time he opens his computer he is automatically connected to the IRC channels that he and his friends are currently using.

Although he only participates in a couple of discussions daily he keeps an eye on what is being said. In his own words he is also on-line when the computer is closed because he is able to see the discussions in the IRC that have been going on while he has been away.

The role of Internet mediated companionship is reflected in how he clustered the places on his map: ones where I am by myself, and possibly physically alone and ones where I’m with other people physically. In the former he is usually connected to the Internet and the IRC channel so he is only physically alone, but virtually his friends and family (girlfriend) are present.

Insight 6: IRC as third place

Markku uses the IRC for organizing lunch meetings with friends and making plans for the evening. Its also a place for reacting to the news. 99% of all important news he hears first from people on the IRC channel.

There is no real world thing that connects the people on the IRC channel. They do not have a common employer for instance. Markku likes the fact that people are there out of their free will.

Map

Map 1

Overall insights

A couple of overall insights emerged from my four interviews.

Home is the mental and physical centre of life
It is often a very private space and a haven, even if one works there. Most often only the closest friends and family members are allowed to physically enter the space. Others can do so only virtually (email, instant messaging, voice calls, SMSs, bulletin board systems). It may also be that as technology enables two-way communication in real time, there is less need to physically meet people.

Virtual space seems to be truly perceived as ubiquitous
Thanks to wireless access or several fixed access points, virtual spaces (email, communities, instant messaging) truly are perceived as ubiquitous – they are wherever you are. Such spaces were described with terms such as “grey area” and “a cloud around me”.

Activities and people as determinants of place
It is appararent that activites and/or people are more important in determining the role of a place than the place itself.

Interview with a heavy WiFi user

“Tomi” is a 32-year-old marketing manager at a large IT company. His work revolves around planning promotions and events with resellers for the consumer market. His work often takes him abroad.

Tomi lives with his wife in Espoo (in the greater Helsinki area). He is a heavy user of WiFi – he uses it via his laptop at the office, at home, and third places such as cafés and airport lounges. The hotspot he uses most often is the one at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport Finnair business lounge. I met Tomi through my brother who is Tomi’s collegue.

Tomi balances his busy work with active leisure time – going to the gym, rollerblading, motor racing, meeting friends.

In addition to his company laptop, Tomi carries a Nokia 9210 and a PDA with him. The 9210 is important for managing his life (calendar) on the road, especially as there is no such thing as a typical day for Tomi. He wakes up between 7 and 9 am and accesses his company network to check his emails and calendar updates. Doing this check is the only routine Tomi has.

During the last 8 years Tomi has moved 9 times – always in the greater Helsinki area, mainly Espoo. Now he and his wife have finally found a place they’ve been looking for and expect to live there at least the next 10 years. This explains their focus on home-related activities such as building a pergola in the garden, gardening in general, cleaning up and cooking.

Comfort as a driving force
Tomi says that he really values comfortable environment – it has a positive effect on his work motivation. Therefore his work is not tied to a certain place. He actually prefers working at home and cafés. He describes Café Carusel (where the interview was conducted) as his “summer office”.

Tomi defines “comfortable” as lack of bureaucracy, i.e. there’s a lot of spontaneous interactivity amongst colleagues, one does not have to make appointments in the office, etc. This facilitates communication. Also “non-office”-like interior is important. The freedom to move freely also contributes to comfort – Tomi may come and go as he pleases as long as he gets the work done.

Tomi aims at spending a lot of time at home. He’s there in the mornings and evenings, he also often visits home during the day. Tomi really values being at home – “it acts as a counter-balance to work, a place to refreshening, for recharging batteries.”

All in all, WiFi allows and supports Tomi’s seek for comfortable working environment.

Thanks to WiFi, home office is not limited to a physical space within home
Tomi has an ADSL connection (from Elisa) and makes it wireless using a router. Outside of home Tomi uses Telia HomeRun and Sonera wGate but says that the roaming between the two does not work. Tomi pays a flat rate for these.

Tomi says that in principle the entire house is his home office thanks to WiFi. The connectivity extends up to 100 meters, hence to the garden, where he also works (laptop, mobile phone with hands-free) while e.g. sun bathing. He’s even come up with solutions to improve screen display contrast in the sun: a very dark display protector and sunglasses.
Tomi’s work-related activities at home include answering phone calls, talking on the phone, preparing presentations and writing reports.

Work mode rather than workplace
Tomi prefers to talk about being in the work mode rather than at the place of work as his workplace is not restricted to the physical space of the office. Tomi says that 8 hours of his 24 hour are dedicated to work.

Hotspot as a contact point
When at the airport business lounge, Tomi checks and writes emails using the WiFi available in the place and his laptop. He does this only schedule permitting and if it is necessary.

Activity as determinant of the role of a place
As in other interviews, also in Tomi’s case it’s clear that an activity is more important in determining the role of a place than the place itself. The main criterion for Tomi for grouping the places on his map is work vs. leisure. Interestingly the difference between the two relates strongly to state of mind – more formal and logical at work and more easy-going in leisure time – “gone with the wind; can change plans”. Tomi’s groups are:
- Work: work, cities, hotels and airport
- Leisure: home, gym, shopping centers, motor racetracks
Cafés belong to both groups – the group depends on what he’s doing at a café at a given time. Tomi says that he actually travels in conjunction with his hobbies, thus associating hotels and cities also with leisure.

Voice calls as the most important form of communication, followed by email
Tomi spends 3-4 hours a day on the phone talking to resellers, i.e. customers. Although the phone is one of Tomi’s main communication channels, he says that he does switch the phone off at night.

He occasionally uses SMSs to communicate with his colleagues but never really with his clients. He usually organizes meetings on the phone – it’s less formal and easier than exchanging emails.

Future needs: location-specific WiFi services, WiFi on aircrafts
In Tomi’s view a location-specific (place, city) starting page would be useful. Also when roaming, the page should change as one moves from one place to another. Thus local information would always be available for the user. The user should be in control and be given the option to choose between manual and “invisible transfer”.

When probed, Tomi says that he’d like to have WiFi available on aircrafts. There is a lot of idle time that could be spent usefully and “remote access is important”.

Interview with an engineering student

“Kalle” is a 30-year-old software engineering student at the Helsinki Polytechnic, Stadia. Kalle lives in the town of Järvenpää just outside of the greater Helsinki area with his wife of eight years. Their first child is due early June. Kalle now focuses on his family and studies. I spotted Kalle at Wayne’s using his PDA.

Kalle does not use WiFi. Instead, he has a Nokia 6510 and a Handspring Edge. He forms wireless access to his PDA by using his mobile phone as a modem over infrared. Kalle has had the PDA for a year. He mainly uses the wireless access to read, but not to reply to, his emails - he rather uses a proper keyboard for typing.

Kalle has several computers at home, some of them are just “shells”, others are working. The great number of computers partly stems from his studies, partly from his previous work doing IT support. Kalle has broadband access at home. The working computers are connected via local network.

Third place becoming part of daily routine
During the term Kalle spends most of the free periods at Wayne’s. He purposefully travels to the place by tram from Hietalahti where the college is located. When his wife was working before her maternity leave, Kalle sometimes waited after school at Wayne’s for her to finish work and they would then go home together. However, they rarely met at Wayne’s.

Kalle uses Wayne’s primarily for killing time. In doing so he engages in a few sub-activities: reading papers, checking his emails on his PDA via the GSM infrared connection, drinking coffee, and “pointless” surfing using the Internet access at Wayne’s. As for the latter, he mentioned specifically the web version of the Helsingin Sanomat (the biggest Finnish daily).

As Anna, Kalle comes here primarily because of the relaxed atmosphere, nice music and good coffee. Technology seems to have little, if anything, to do with his choice. However, due to his own wireless access he does not need WiFi but occasionally does use the fixed access.

Social importance of a virtual community
When at school in the 80’s, Kalle and his schoolmates got into role-playing board games. Later in life they started missing playing and established a bulletin board system (BBS) to revive the gaming experience and discuss related matters. Now the BBS has evolved into a general discussion forum - “exchanging ideas” - amongst this group. There are boards for issues such as drinking, poetry, and ice hockey. There are some 20 registered members and with the exception of a few, Kalle has met them all in person. Some of the members now live abroad. Kalle’s encounters with the other members are random and rare. He might bump into some of them in a supermarket.

Thus the BBS supports the existence of a physical community that would otherwise most likely have ceased to exist.

Kalle accesses the BBS mainly from home but occasionally also from Wayne’s (via fixed access) and college. The reason for these occasional accesses is related to his role as the moderator of the BBS – he checks that everything is ok. He doesn’t use the mobile connection for this as he regards the PDA as too clumsy for the purpose.

Wireless access filling in the space between fixed contact points
Kalle does not go Wayne’s or other places for their WiFi access as he does not have the hardware for it and has his own wireless connection. Checking his emails on the PDA via the GSM infrared connection is the only activity Kalle does primarily at Wayne’s – at home and college he uses wired access. The reason why Kalle does not use the wireless access on the train (he commutes by train) is that the infrared connection does not remain stable enough there. Instead, Kalle reads free papers on train.

Kalle sees his Internet-related spaces – email and BBS – as “a cloud around me”. They are wherever he is – at home, school, Wayne’s. Kalle says that Svengi (a bar in his home town that he frequents once a month or so) is the only place where he’s not online.

Activities defining the role of a place
In addition to belonging to the “leisure time activities” group, Wayne’s forms a “work” group together with college on the occasions that Kalle does coursework at Wayne’s. The nature of the place changes in Kalle’s mind together with its role – Wayne’s turns from a living room into a workspace. Nevertheless, Kalle says that the place does matter in the sense that he could not imagine doing coursework at Tiger, for instance (Tiger is a bar/night club) – the peacefulness at Wayne’s facilitates working.

Interview with a teenage girl

“Anna” is a 15-year-old secondary school graduate. She’ll go to high school in the autumn. Anna lives with her parents and two younger brothers in Töölö nearby the Helsinki city center. The family has a slow Internet connection at home but are about to get a fast one. Anna works occasionally doing babysitting.

Anna’s life revolves around going to school and hanging out mainly in and about Töölö with different groups of acquaintances/friends. She is socially very active. This seems to be expected behavior and appears to stress her occasionally. Anna spends some solitary time at home, mainly in her own room, and quasi-solitary with her best friend Marski who is like a sister to her. Walking is Anna’s primary transit method as she lives so near the city centre.

I spotted Anna at Wayne’s on a Friday morning. She was there with a good friend of hers, using a WiFi iPAQ for the first time. They had spotted the ad and wanted to try the service as they use Hotmail in anyway.

One of Anna’s hanging-out activities is going to cafés. She goes to Wayne’s because of the relaxed atmosphere and good refreshments – technology does not play a role in her choice. It seems that her positive experiences of Wayne’s have increased her café visits overall, also other than those to Wayne’s.

Anna’s use of technology is somewhat limited. She uses the Internet for email, downloading music and information search for school projects. She has a mobile phone that she uses for voice calls and SMSs.

Virtual space allows the maintenance of a relationship, which is not possible in a certain social context
Anna uses Hotmail to communicate with a good friend who is on the same class with her. They don’t have enough time to talk at school especially as they don’t get to be on their own – there are always other people around. Because this friend lives further away than Töölö, Anna doesn’t meet up with her outside of school. Anna says that their email exchange is more like “keeping a diary for each other”. In addition, Anna emails regularly with her cousin who lives in Espoo. Anna doesn’t see the need to email with other people as she sees them on a daily basis.

Several fixed contact points facilitate the use of (wired) virtual space
Anna seems to be eager to check her emails whenever possible. To me this appears a little odd given that she says she communicates via email (Hotmail) mainly with two friends. Her behaviour may also stem from her need to keep socially updated.

Anna uses email primarily at home but also at school during breaks and the Töölö library when borrowing/returning books. However, she says she does not purposefully look for or go to places with Internet access – she’s in those places primarily to do something else.

She’s thought about using the fixed access at Wayne’s but never has as the only PC has been taken when she wanted to use it. (Anna thinks that Wayne’s is the only café with Internet access.)

First experience as WiFi user: battery out
When Anna and her friend used the WiFi iPAQ for the first time (when I spotted Anna), the battery was soon out and they couldn’t log out from Hotmail properly.

Anna says that she could use the service (WiFi iPAQ) even when on her own as “it’d give me something to do”. She considers it quick and handy but only suitable for reading emails as replying (i.e. writing emails) is cumbersome.

Not being on mobile phone’s reach at all times may lead to social sanctions
Anna always carries her mobile with her and she never switches it off although she’d like to. “You never know if something important happens”. She uses the silent mode only when she has to. It may be that missing out on something that happens in and around her circles could lead to a social sanction from her peers in the sense that Anna would no longer, at least for a short while, be in the “in” crowd.

Voice calls as the primary way of communicating urgent matters with closed ones
Although she still lives at home, Anna does not see (all) her family members that frequently face-to-face. They communicate with one another by talking to on the phone, mainly letting others know their whereabouts; there is no SMS exchange. This may better satisfy the needs of belonging to the nuclear family and is more appropriate when information needs to exchanged quickly. A case in point: although Anna uses Hotmail a lot, she does not email with her parents because at work they don’t have the time to check their emails in a timely fashion.

Anna communicates with her best friend Marski on the phone and face-to-face. She doesn’t exchange emails with her because “things get easily outdated”. Again, there is the sense of urgency that is characteristic to her communication (this may well be applicable to a large proportion of urban teenagers in Finland).

Smaller devices seem to be more appriopriate for use in social context
As I also indiciated in observation insights, small devices/displays such as PDAs seem to be more appropriate for situations where there are others around. Such devices are less intrusive and allow privacy. Anna was using WiFi iPAQ with her friend. They were actually taking turns checking their own Hotmail and thus, in a way, sharing a virtual space. Anne says that she might use the computer with fixed access if she came to Wayne’s alone - which never really seems to be the case.

People as determinants of activities and places
At the end of the interview Anna is surprised at how strongly the activities she does and places she goes to are defined by the different groups of people she hangs out with. For example, she now frequents Bar No. 9 (a bar/restaurant) for lunch with her best friend Marski and Marski’s good friend. They don’t take others here because they want to keep the place exclusive – not many people of their age know about it.

Interview with a tech freak family man

“Janne” is 36-year-old working in the telecoms sector. He is an acquaintance of mine whom I contacted as I know he’s an early adopter. Janne’s work revolves around mobile gaming and involves a lot of international travel. He is approximately one week per month abroad on business, mostly in Europe and the US.

Janne is a technology freak by nature. His device repertoire includes five or so mobile devices (Nokia 9210, Nokia 7650, PDA…) and three laptops. He has a wlan card in one of his private laptops, and also uses GPRS over Bluetooth.

Janne is married with four children of ages 6, 7, 9 and 10. Transporting the children to and from daycare, school and hobbies is a daily strain for Janne – it eats up a lot of his time. The family lives in row house in a Helsinki suburb of Pakila.

All spaces out of fixed contact points can function as third place
Janne perceives WiFi – especially when on the move - as just one amongst many ways of getting connected. He says there aren’t that many hotspots to begin with. Therefore it doesn’t make sense to look for these places. He seems to rather use his Nokia 9210 for emails, and fixed connection at hotels as they allow access to his company email account.

Janne does not subscribe to any operator’s WiFi but uses ones that are available free of charge. His laptop has software that scans for available hotspots. Based on this behaviour Janne describes himself as a “pirate”.

Janne says, then, that his third place would be all the spaces between and surrounding the places he’s placed on his map. His third place is determined by “whether I’m within the reach of my normal points of contact”. Fixed points of contact are home and the office.

Working without boundaries
Janne works at different places at home, in the office, in various places abroad (including hotel rooms), when in transit… This leads to Janne working whenever he has time and need for it. For example, Janne considers football pitches as place of transit – he takes the children there and waits for them until the training or game finishes. Whilst waiting, Janne uses his Nokia 9210 for writing emails and sending SMSs.

One factor that reinforces Janne to work at home is peace. Janne’s workplace is an open office. He often feels that others disturb him. Therefore, when he needs to focus, he rather works at home.

Janne does not work in continuous stretches – it’s more about being in the working mode. Technology allows the switching from work mode to leisure mode in not time at all as physical movement is involved.

This insight gives rise to the next one:

Mode of being defines the role of a place rather than the place itself
Activities, what is being done, define the mode of being (e.g. work vs. leisure). Janne both works and relaxes at home. He considers home as very important for him especially in his private life both as a “physical and mental space”. He downplays the role of the office. Nevertheless, Janne plots home both in public and private zones depending on the activity he is engaged in in any given time.

WiFi allows mobility and mode switching within home
Janne uses WiFi in different spaces at home – in the garden, at his home office, in the living room when watching TV, in the bedroom, in children’s room when one of his children wants to play online games, in the kitchen whilst having morning coffee and watching TV. Janne says it’s a “roaming workstation”. It also allows combining work and leisure modes, thereby making working more comfortable.

Security issues complicate WiFi usage
Janne has three laptops – 2 company ones (one with VPN) and one of his own that he uses with WiFi. He cannot access his company email account using WiFi. Typically he uses two laptops in the mornings at home – the one with VPN to check company email and a private one to read latest industry news and private emails. Janne prefers using his Nokia 9210 or fixed connection at hotels rather than WiFi – these allow access to his company email via secure connection.

Living “by the email” requires flexibility
Janne is email dependent. In the morning, right after waking up, Janne makes coffee and goes to his home office to access his company email using an ADSL connection with a WiFi router and SecurID. After this check Janne knows what has happened during the night in other countries and based on that decides whether to go to the office, stay at the home office or go somewhere else. The information delivered by email thus often determines how Janne’s day will evolve.

The last thing before going to bed Janne does is checking his emails and disconnecting from the Internet. His active working day ends at around 11 pm. Although Janne dedicates his weekends to leisure, he always checks work emails on Sunday evening.

Ring Ring: Can You See Me Now?

I conducted my first interview with a 25-year-old male law/PhD student, “M.” He is currently in a joint JD/PhD program at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB).

There were a few captivating aspects of this interview.
* M uses connectivity and space to create social space that is “fun.”
* A glimpse into what one cafe offers for the socially inclined.
* The PDA: Out of sync?
* M’s sense of being “bounded by battery life” whenever he visits wireless cafes.
* Temporal space and transportation.

His enthusiasm was contagious.

Ring ring: Can You See Me Now?
M uses his cell phone, which has infrared and Bluetooth, to take pictures of friends and scenery and then uses these pictures for the caller ID function. He also changes the background of his phone using the pictures he’s taken. “I take pictures of all my friends and those photos turn out to be the caller ID. So in a sense that’s wireless.” M’s friends and family don’t get the usual caller ID number. Instead, the receiver gets a fun picture of him. For example, M likes to use pictures of his parents and friends on his cell phone rather than phone numbers. “This is fun,” M says with a smile. “When my boyfriend calls I get to see his picture and not just his phone number. Or if my parents call, their picture pops up on my screen. When my friend C called, he grew up on a phone in Minnesota, so he took a picture with a cow, sent it to me, and that’s his caller ID. . .. I receive a picture by email on my computer, and then I beam them to my phone.” M says this makes him smile in the middle of the day because the “pics” he gets and uses are usually funny ones.

He also uses his cell phone as a “gaming function.” He convinced some friends to get the same cell phone because he liked his so much; “It was adorable.” Using Bluetooth, they now share games on their phones. “This is fun,” he said.

Café Zeb
One café that M frequents 2-3x a week is Café Zeb. One side of the café has good food fare. Business students often come to Café Zeb because the food at the business school is apparently less enticing. On the right side of the café are tables, chairs, and a couch. Located on the 2nd floor of the law school, Café Zeb is M’s social hub at UCB. UCB is the “locust” of his “professional life.” Using his laptop and the wireless service, he checks email and the Internet for news and hopes to run into friends and people he knows by “pretending to study.” He reveals that out of two hours in the café, he more realistically studies for about 15 minutes. His primary interest is to socialize and to catch-up with his friends. One drawback of the café is that “there aren’t too many outlets” for his laptop. Students work, eat, study, hold study groups, and swap files by wirelessly emailing one another. Daily newspapers are provided on a stand, although some students like M get their news through the wireless service. Professors and teaching assistants may also hold office hours in the cafe.

Out of Sync?
M notes that the PDA for him has become less useful. When he was living with his parents after college, he would download daily news from websites like CNN and the NY Times onto his PDA and then share the news with his folks at supper. “This was kind of fun. But now that I have wireless access I can get news instantly.” In another instance, M took his PDA to class for note taking because his laptop was cumbersome to carry; students typically bring their laptop for note taking. While synchronizing the class notes with his laptop one day, a full day of class notes was completely lost. After this incident, he decided that using the PDA and losing the information was too risky. M now prefers to use his laptop. The laptop has the original program so he’s no longer interested in trying to synchronize the PDA and potentially losing information. The PDA has become a mere tool for addresses and calendaring.

Bounded by Battery Life
While wireless access is the reason for why M visits cafes, he is also “bounded by battery life.” M tells me that he takes his backpack, an AC adaptor, two batteries--one that has “extra capacity and runs about 3-1/2 to 4 hours,” books, and whatever else he needs for studying. So in a sense, he is always looking for an outlet in cafes. He has to be aware of things like battery life and who is sitting at a table that has an outlet nearby. In a neighborhood café called Jumping Java, M has a favorite table that is located in the middle of the café. This table is also a favorite of a number of patrons and it is almost always taken; it has an outlet and it’s near a window with natural lighting. In other words, M keeps an eye on the table and actively pursues moving to the table whenever the patron leaves to avert using his laptop battery or running out of battery time.

When I asked M how enabled technology would be more useful to him, he replied:
"I would like to see cards that we could carry around which would have our hard drives on them. Then we could plug them in to terminals everywhere, anywhere. Also it would be nice to see engineers work on batteries that could regenerate or charge themselves, without ever having to be plugged in (or, ideally, small <8ounce batteries with 15-20 hour life spans at least, for long flights and airports)."

Transportation and Temporal Space
While reflecting on our interview, M realized that he uses his cell phone to keep in touch with friends and family when he is riding on public transportation or taking the train. Because he doesn’t have a car, and has “dead time” in these transition spaces, he uses this time as social space. This is a useful he notes, because when he gets home after school, for example, he can make dinner, eat, and get back to work.

WiFi User Interview: Japanese Professor

I did my first interview with a Japan based WiFi user last week. “K” is a 61 year old Japanese professor with a background in engineering, born and raised in Tokyo. He has a highly wired home office (100MB fiber with multiple Ethernet access points plus AirMac WiFi) where he lives with his wife who is a design professional. His university lab, just outside of Tokyo, has had WiFi for four years, and three years ago the entire university campus implemented WiFi. I would like to highlight two things that emerged from the interview, the role of WiFi in the university, and K’s personal management of different forms of internet connectivity.

The Wireless Campus

First, the university and the lab. Prior to the campus-wide implementation of WiFi, students generally used the computer labs attached to libraries and other quasi-public spaces to access the internet and to do computer-based work. After WiFi was implemented, “students did whatever they could to get their own laptop.” This has meant that now most students have a laptop open during classes, which K thinks can be a distraction. Also, it means that the university is now “dominated by Microsoft Office.” K says that once personal laptops and personally purchased software became the standard, students stopped using higher-end applications like those by Adobe, and now everything is done by Powerpoint and Word. This has had a subtle but pervasive effect on student work.

Faculty, too, now often take their laptops to meetings. Given that Japanese universities often have extremely long meetings that faculty are expected to attend, with WiFi these meetings become more productive (?) and he suspects that many faculty are dealing with email and other things. He says there is something of a digital divide, however, among the faculty, with those in technical fields generally bringing a laptop and those in the humanities not. This can be a source of tension.

K’s lab in the university is a unique space, unusual both within this particular campus and within the Japanese university system in general. It is a small stand-alone building with a central gathering space with modular furniture, rimmed by graduate student offices, and with a student lab space in the back. The first floor also has a kitchen corner and the office manager’s desk. The second floor is a rim of faculty offices that look down into the central space over a banister. Research meetings are often held in the central space. At other times, students are often milling about, with their laptops connected via WiFi.

K explains that there are relatively few places that students at campus can appropriate for this kind of casual use and contact. Students that are highly involved in the research of the lab gain key access to the space, although other students are also free to come and go during the regular work day. K says that his relationship to his students has changed dramatically since his lab space was established. There is much more casual and ongoing contact. Previously he had taught classes in classrooms around campus, and his contact with students was limited to scheduled classes and meetings. WiFi is now an established part of lab community life and practice.

Managing Connectivity Across Places and Devices

K spends most of his time at either his home office or his university office. Other frequented places are meetings rooms at the university or corporations he works with, or occasionally a meeting at a hotel lobby or café with one colleague that he works regularly with. The university is quite far from his home. He generally commutes by car, though will sometimes use the train. In either case, the commute takes 1 and a half to two hours. He leaves the house around 8 and returns around 9. He carries his laptop with him at all times when he is involved in work. For his occasional recreational outings, such as to play tennis or go out to a bar with students of colleagues, he does not take his laptop. He generally carries his mobile phone everywhere, on a strap around his neck, but sometimes he leaves it in his office when he is going to a meeting with his laptop.

What was most distinctive about K’s wireless connectivity was his management of email. With the launch of I-mode several years ago, K started having all of his email forwarded to his mobile phone. “This was a big change for me, to be able to see email all the time.” Even prior to then, email was his preferred communication modality, but the mobile internet made it more so. He says he checks his phone for email about 20 times a day. He always has the ringer turned off. In transit, if in the car, he will look at his email during stops and in traffic jams. When on the train, he will write on his laptop or read a book, and checks his phone for messages.

He describes the persistent internet connectivity via mobile as alleviating a great deal of stress because he knows he is always in touch. He mostly does not respond to messages via his mobile phone, as he dislikes inputing through the keypad. But he will send short replies such as “will write later,” or “okay.” His communication priority is to always be connected to email. Voice is secondary, which is why he sometimes leaves his mobile phone in the office if he knows he will have his laptop during a meeting. Students will generally contact him via email, though they will not make voice calls to him. Work colleagues will also use email as he asks them too. If they call, they will call his work number. He receives few calls on his mobile, except from his wife (who does not use email as often). When he travels, he does take his laptop, but does not always connect it to the Internet as he is checking email from his mobile phone. Prior to having the mobile phone internet, he would often struggle to get his laptop connected from his hotel.

His ibook laptop is his base-station in terms of email, but he also receives the same email on his desktop machines at work and at home as well as his mobile phone. This is a difficult coordination task that he is still looking for an elegant technical solution to.

K has a clear hierarchy of connectivity. Email is most important, and critical and he is always connected. Voice is secondary, important but not critical. Web is third and optional.