So, I must admit, this is the second post I’ve made from a mobile device. It is definately a challenging and doable feet. More and more frequently activists and NGOs are harnessing these technological devices in order to coordinate everything from large scale mobilizations to healthcare revolutions. Mobile phones are now even being equiped with polution detectors with allow bike curriors to collect and share data. 2008 is the year of the cellphone, as there is now one mobile device for every two human beings. Billions of humans have adapted this telecommunications technology in less than 30 years. 

 

Recently I have been diving into the work of Nokia’s Open Studios research team. Jan Chipcase and Younghee Jung are masters of global ethnographic research, visiting urban slums to capture glimpses of how technology affects the lives of everyday people. Just as fishermen are using cellphones in African villages to negotiate better prices, young activists are starting to use these technologies for social change. Through capturing and exposing human rights abuses, organizing spontanious smartmobs, youth are using mobile devices as a form of what academic/yborg Steve Mann calls sousvielsnce. While survielance signifies watching from below, sousvielence signifies from below, i.e., the grassroots. 

 

This phenomenon is fairly recent as the field is ripe for study. I am looking for other interested parties that will be interested in collaborating on research. It would be very interesting to do a study with data from TIG users on how we integrate mobile technology into our organizing.