Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age

Mobile phones are the most successful computer-based consumer product of the age and yet very little is known about how mobile technology is changing the way people interact and cooperate with each other, and how this change can be analysed. For the first time, Wireless World brings together experts from different disciplines to explore the social factors that are shaping the wireless world and provides an overview of the issues for anyone designing, testing or studying mobile devices. It identifies the major trends, discusses the main claims made about the mobile age, and looks at the issues that affect design, usability and evaluation. A valuable reference for anyone concerned with the future of mobile communications, this book will be of particular interest to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students on Mobile Technology courses, practitioners, and researchers working in mobile communications, CSCW and HCI. "...an inspired and insightful collection of observations of the use of mobile technology...a valuable resource for both researchers and designers alike." Marge Eldridge, Xerox Research Centre Europe, UK "Working with the speed of the technologies they study, these researchers and product developers provide a rare opportunity to understand the cultural and social effects of a new technology as it emerges, rather than waiting decades for historical and sociological accounts." Jonathan Grudin, Microsoft Research, US "..looks in depth and detail about how people actually use mobiles: how they assemble their lives and re-assemble technologies to fit them. Essential reading for designers, sociologists and anyone just interested in how the "always-connected" world works." Professor Mike Robinson, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland