Conference

Here is a link to the conference site where we will be presenting some of the insights from the place and space research. Let us know if you are interested in attending. http://www.iftf.org/features/technology_conf_fall_2003.html

Silicon Valley Interview Criteria

We're now recruiting "advanced users" of wireless connectivity (i.e., over cellular or Wi-Fi networks) to interview in the Silicon Valley. We're hoping you might help us find them. You, your spouse, a friend or a neighbor might be the kind of person we're looking to interview. We're interviewing about 25-30 people. The interview is conducted face to face and is about 2 hours long. We can offer a $50 incentive and a copy of the final research report (when appropriate) to participants.

By "advanced user" we mean the person who

1. uses wireless connectivity (over cellular or Wi-Fi networks) beyond voice applications TO access the Internet for work, social or other activities/communication

2. uses wireless connectivity on a daily basis AND outside the home or workplace (e.g., in public spaces, cafes, public transportation etc.)

The advanced user may use wireless connectivity to access the Internet using a variety of devices (or combination of devices) such as a PDA, mobile phone, or laptop. Persons who have wireless LANs at home and/or at work in addition to wireless connectivity on some mobile device are particularly important to interview.

We're looking for a mix of work experiences and age. We're also seeking to interview a few people under 20 who are not employed yet but otherwise meet our criteria as an advanced user. If you know someone that meets our criteria and would be interested in being interviewed please let me know.

Thanks

Locations in Finland

Our research locations in Finland will be the following:

Locations for Maria K
* Smart Rotuaari in Oulu ( a joint venture of University of Oulu, City of Oulu, Mobile Forum,
* Telia Homerun at Café Carusel in Helsinki
* Sonera Wgate at Levi hotel
and an overview on
* Arabia mall in Helsinki (the Elisa Mobile mall)
* Mediapoli in Espoo
* Kase WLAN in Kaustinen
* and find out what became of the eTampere (City of Tampere, VTT) WLAN project

Location for Jokko
* Lasipalatsi in Helsinki (plus interviews with WiFi heavy users, operator)

Location for Maria S
* Telia Homerun at Wayne’s Coffee in Helsinki (plus interviews with WiFi heavy users, operator, possibly WC employee)

WiFi in Finland (by Maria K)

Wi-Fi in Finland is quite marginal compared to the use of mobile phone related technologies, and is not widely used – neither is it discussed or advertised much in general or trades press. R&D projects WLAN to the range of wireless technologies developed – but the point of view is often combinatory (like Nokias new product: ”The Nokia D211 multi-mode radio card for your PC gives you network access through GPRS, HSCSD, or Wireless LAN networks. You can even send text messages and faxes.” )

Hotspots consist of
*several R&D projects/project sites making use and combining localized WLAN networks with localized services and other mobile connection types (http://mobilemall.elisa.fi/, http://www.rotuaari.net/, http://www.mediapoli.com/wireless/)
* initiated services for broadband technology for cheap(er) network access in more remote housing areas, villages or smaller towns (Kaustisten seutukunta as an EU-project for local information society wlan.kase.fi, Radionet www. radionet.com with local energy companies in Rauma www.superstrada.com, Hamina http://www.haminanenergia.fi/hamiene.php/fi/laajakaista and Mäntsälä http://www.msoy.fi/msoynet/)
* commercial nationwide service by Telia Home Run http://www.homerun.teliamobile.fi/ and Sonera Gate: mostly conference hotels and centers, transportation network –related sites, a scattered variety of other sites (company headquarters, cafes etc.) – the two companies have merged but the finnish Telia services have to be sold in an open sale. Some other service providers also have hotspots (Jippii had a product callet Freedom http://www.jippiigroup.fi/wlan.shtml, not advertised after merging with Saunalahti, KPNQwest’s hotspot still usable even though the company’s Finnish activities bought by EUNET) but the services are more or less dormant
* campus and company Wi-Fis; not really interesting for our purposes
* a handful of free public Wi-Fis related to information society initiatives (www.lasipalatsi.fi, www.kontu.la) or just somehow handy for the owner like presumably the one at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art
* unprotected private hotspots

Security:
* is an important issue
* warchalking, wardriving etc. not evident – the trade press discusses the phenomena though

Two new members

Since our meeting back in March, we've added a couple more members to the research group, who have access to both the discussion group and the blog. I just wanted to let everyone know who they are:

Maria Savolainen is a usability consultant with Satama.

Maria Koskijoki joins us from Sitra. From Google, I find that she's also working on a dissertation on personal possessions in modern society.

Welcome!

We're Upgrading to Better Serve You

You'll probably see some tinkering with the style sheet, a placeholder background banner, and some other stuff this afternoon. I'm doing some work to get the style sheets in order, and start making the whole site look a little prettier.

Yes, I know the current design looks like the menu of a diner in "The Flintstones," but I just wanted to do SOMETHING to break out of the Total Absence of Color on the site.

Movable Type is up!

Thanks to the excellent work of Chris Sumner, we now have Movable Type at the Institute. I've moved the Place and Space blog to our servers; I still need to do a bunch of work to the template, to make the site look pretty, but we are now officially up and running.

A couple things. I've created user privileges for IFTF members Rod, Marina, Andrea, Bill, and Lyn; and for contributors Mimi, Regine, and Jokko.

You can access MovableType by pointing your browser to http://blogger.iftf.org. You'll be asked for a user name and password. Your username is your regular name (i.e., John Smith); the password is "iftf" (don't type the quotations marks). Once you're logged onto the system, you'll be taken to the main menu, where you can either access the Place and Space blog, or edit your profile. I recommend you first go into your profile and change your password (and whatever else you want).

Once you've done that, you're ready to start playing around with Movable Type. I would recommend just hitting "New Entry" on the main menu page, and giving it a try. Nothing that you write is permanent; we can always delete test entries.

The URL for the blog itself is http://blogger.iftf.org/place/index.html.

Milestones

End of week: Get blog up and running
Next week: Finalize the sites we're working on; finalize research instrument
Later: Interview 3-4 people per site

Also: Graphics department is creating a postcard with information about the project, and an invitation to participate. We'll have this going shortly.

Maybe: We've talked about doing an online survey on wifi/third place use, but haven't decided whether to do it or not.

Monday morning meeting

Notes from the Monday meeting.

Attendees: Marina Gorbis, Rod Falcon, Alex Pang (IFTF), Jokko Korhonen (Satama Interactive), Regine Buschauer (Swisscom Innovations), Mimi Ito (USC/Keio University).

Agenda

9:00-10:00 Welcome and introductions
10:00-10:30 Criteria for site selection
10:30-11:00 Site assignments
11:00-12:00 Research methodology
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-2:00 Research instrument
2:00-3:00 Practice
3:00-3:15 Break
3:15-4:15 Blogging

Ideas behind this project

• Spaces change when they're blanketed with connectivity. "Third spaces" are changing the most, so they're most interesting for our purposes.
• Social networks research shows that even for highly networked kids, real space still matters.

Infrastructure

• Ad hoc vs. built-in
• Free vs. for pay
• Technical specs: WiFI vs. cellular or combination

Setting

• Urban vs. suburban (e.g., compare Starbucks in urban vs. suburban areas)
• Public vs. private (IT allows us to change public space into private spaces)
• Surrounding spaces, environment (proximity to other kinds of spaces)

MI: Even in Japan, where there is heavy mobile phone use, there are regulations that affect connectivity. RB: Theatres and hospitals are two good examples of spaces that are supposed to be cell-phone free: the first for social reasons, the second for technical ones. Near always-on: Text messaging has emerged as a practice on trains, because it allows communication without annoying neighbors. MI and JK: Trains in Japan and Finland have (or will have) no-phone areas, akin to non-smoking trains. RF: Events are temporary spaces in which social norms may encourage or discourage use of these tools. A tech conference on blogging is an example of an event that encourages people to create and use an ad-hoc network; a concert, on the other hand, use is discouraged.

Observation Points

• Events: Burning Man, conferences, sports events, public concert series and festivals, open air cinema (Mimi talks about an idea for a place-based, temporary system supporting these events; Satama has been doing electronic bulletin boards that show SMS or MMS at trade shows, concerts)
• Through Points: Train stations, airports
• Generic/franchise spaces (e.g. chain stores, McDonalds, Starbucks)-- places that are socially anonymous, standardized, and ubiquitous
• Lounges: airport lounges, school lounges
• Cars (which increasingly are connected, and people spend lots of time in)

MI: In Japan, commitment to specific meeting places is eroding: kids flock to highly generic spaces, but what matters is being together, not being in a cool place-- they're attractive because they're places where you're anonymous. RF: This is something new: communities have usually been grounded in a particular place. MG: Connectivity may make an anonymous space more appealing: I'll go to Starbucks rather than my local cafe because the former has WiFi; but this could be a temporary thing. RF: This anonymity also connects to standardization: anonymous places are often corporate franchises, which means that if they're connected down the street, they'll be connected everywhere. JK: McDonalds has become a meeting place for Somali men. RB: It might be useful to think of "publicity" in public spaces, not just as a communitarian phenomenon. The term has a certain idealistic image that may distract from an important reality of public spaces, which is that they're spaces for social display and public consumption. MG/AP: Does the existence of for-pay access change the social rules regarding use of places like cafes? Is it okay to stop and check my e-mail at Starbucks, and NOT buy anything? MI: Connectivity looks like its clustering around two poles: spaces that are highly meaningful and have content associated with the space (conferences, concerts), and spaces that are anonymous and subject to appropriation (trains, Starbucks).

Choosing sites

MI: Our group has already done Starbucks and trains.
RB: Swisscom is working with school-age kids, and I'll figure out how to piggyback on top of that.
JK: Weather is an element that will affect use of public spaces: outdoor spaces in Helsinki comes alive during the summer.
RF: Two cafes near my house.
AP: Assuming I do some more travel, I'm going to take some time to hang out in the airport lounge. I'm also interested in campus wifi networks.

Project members

Peter Barkman [bio]
Regine Buschauer [bio] [mail]
Renee Chin [bio] [mail]
Bill Cockayne
Rod Falcon [bio] [mail]
Marina Gorbis [bio] [mail]
Mizuko Ito [bio] [mail]
Lyn Jeffery [mail]
Jokko Korhonen [bio] [mail]
Maria Koskijoki [bio] [mail]
Pia Mero [mail]
Daisuke Okabe [bio]
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang [bio] [mail]
Andrea Saveri [bio] [mail]
Maria Savolainen [bio]

Peter Barkman is the head of international operations for Satama Interactive, a Finnish Internet consultancy specializing in mobility and user understanding. Peter holds a MSc in Business Administration from the Helsinki Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration and has also completed various business related courses at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Regine Buschauer is a project leader, specialized in HCI and social aspects of communication and information technology, at Swisscom Innovations, the research unit of the Swiss national telecom in Berne, Switzerland. Regine is also pursuing her PhD at the Institute of Media Sciences, at the University of Basle. For the project she is conducting research at different places in Switzerland.

Renee J. Chin is an organizational and research consultant. I received an interdisciplinary social science Ph.D from the Maxwell Graduate School at Syracuse University. Formerly with the Institute for Research on Learning, my research interests are and absolutely not limited to organizational change, narrative analysis, technology, and social capital. I have an MPA in public administration with an emphasis in organizational theory and public policy and a BA in psychology.

Rod Falcon is a director at the Institute for the Future. He works across the Institute for the Future's research program areas, conducting research in emerging technologies, technology adoption and diffusion, the connected home, social networks and consumer segmentation. Much of this work has been comparative and global, looking closely at consumers and the technology infrastructure in Nordic Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the Silicon Valley. Rod holds an M.A. in Public Policy from UC Berkeley.

Marina Gorbis leads the Technology Horizons Program at IFTF, focusing on innovation at the intersection of new technologies and social organization, and leads the "Reinvention of Place and Space" project. She is conducting observations and interviews in cafes, schools, and other public spaces in Silicon Valley. Marina's academic background is in Public Policy and regional economic development. Her previous research on international development, and her current Institute research on technology adoption and usage patterns, have taken her to Russia, Eastern Europe, India, China, Japan, and Nordic Europe.

Mizuko Ito is a cultural anthropologist of technology use, focusing on children and youth culture's changing relationships to media and communications. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. She received her Ph.D. in Education and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University and has worked at Tokyo University, Stanford University, The Institute for Research on Learning, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Apple Computer, the National Institute for Educational Policy Research of Japan, and Keio University. She is working with Daisuke Okabe in studying mobile phone and Wi-Fi use in the Tokyo area.

Maria Koskijoki is a researcher and course leader at the Media Lab of the University of Art and Design, Helsinki. She also conducts research in Finland on behalf of Sitra, the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development. She has a MA in cultural anthropology from the University of Helsinki and is completing a Ph.D. dissertation on personal possessions in modern society.

Daisuke Okabe is a cognitive psychologist specializing in situated learning theory, with an emphasis on interactional studies of learning and education in relation to new media technologies. His fieldwork has taken him into classrooms, television production studios, workplaces, and most recently, to the street to observe mobile phone use. He received a Ph.D. in Education from Yokohama National University, and is currently is an assistant professor at Yokohama National University, and a visiting scholar at Keio University in Japan. He is conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo on mobile phone and Wi-Fi use with Mizuko Ito.

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is a research director at the Institute for the Future. He holds a Ph.D. in history of science from the University of Pennsylvania, and is the author of Empire and the Sun: Victorian Solar Eclipse Expeditions and numerous articles. At the Institute he conducts research in emerging technologies and their social and cultural impacts. He is also an avid blogger.

Andrea Saveri is a director at the Institute for the Future. Andrea's research focuses on technology diffusion and adoption in the home and workplace, and the social innovations that result from the integration of new technologies into people's lives. She is currently working on a study of household life in the sensor-based / wireless / P2P world, and the emergence of a new nomadic lifestyle and culture.

Maria Savolainen is a usability consultant at Satama Interactive. Maria holds an MSc in Marketing from Manchester School of Management (UMIST) and has a background in qualitative market research. In this project Maria is conducting observations and interviews in Helsinki.

About the project and blog

As technologies such as wireless, sensors, digital displays, and others diffuse into physical environments, distinctions between physical and virtual spaces, experiences, and interactions will fade. In the process, many spaces will be re-invented, acquiring new social meanings and serving as focal points for new types of interactions.

The IFTF team and our affiliates are conducting in-depth observations and interviews in several global hotspots—Silicon Valley, Finland, Switzerland, Japan—to identify shifts in the evolution of physical spaces and to understand the new social meaning of such spaces and their usage.

By conducting observations in technology-enabled cafes, trains, workplaces and various public spaces as we are trying to answer some of the following questions:

• What are these spaces evolving into? How is their meaning changing?
• How are the social interactions being reinvented in such spaces?
• What are the new types of communities being created?
• How does the evolution of physical spaces transform entertainment and work patterns? What are the emerging opportunities for new products and services?

We welcome your participation and feedback.