- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: MIT Press (10 Aug 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0262090392
- ISBN-13: 978-0262090391
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 18.4 x 2.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,125,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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"Geert Lovink taught me how to think critically about technology, and I always turn to him for thoughtful and humane analysis. Too few technology writers have any sense of social and cultural context, and too few technology critics have an appreciation of why people find technologies attractive and how they improve people's lives. I recommend Dark Fiber to those who haven't yet learned to think critically about Internet technology and the culture that has grown up around it, and to those critics who fail to see the real advantages afforded by the Internet."--Howard Rheingold, author of *The Virtual Community* and *Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution*
Product Description
The Japanese term for mobile phone, keitai (roughly translated as "something you carry with you"), evokes not technical capability or freedom of movement but intimacy and portability, defining a personal accessory that allows constant social connection. Japan's enthusiastic engagement with mobile technology has become -- along with anime, manga, and sushi -- part of its trendsetting popular culture. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian, the first book-length English-language treatment of mobile communication use in Japan, covers the transformation of keitai from business tool to personal device for communication and play.The essays in this groundbreaking collection document the emergence, incorporation, and domestication of mobile communications in a wide range of social practices and institutions. The book first considers the social, cultural, and historical context of keitai development, including its beginnings in youth pager use in the early 1990s. It then discusses the virtually seamless integration of keitai use into everyday life, contrasting it to the more escapist character of Internet use on the PC. Other essays suggest that the use of mobile communication reinforces ties between close friends and family, producing "tele-cocooning" by tight-knit social groups. The book also discusses mobile phone manners and examines keitai use by copier technicians, multitasking housewives, and school children. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian describes a mobile universe in which networked relations are a pervasive and persistent fixture of everyday life.
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Amazon.com:
6 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
an extraordinarily important collection
7 Sep 2006
Format:Hardcover
If you work in the mobile communications space and you aren't Japanese, you probably ought to have a copy of this book. It provides a wealth of data and references on Japanese mobile phone use that have been hidden behind the language barrier for too long. (NB: This is sociology and anthropology data we're talking about, not marketing data. It's data about how people do things and think about things, not how many widgets they bought last year.) Mimi Ito has done the community (particularly the research community) a huge service by getting this collection published.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
you can read for sociology or business
17 Sep 2005
Format:Hardcover
In Japan and Europe, cellphone usage is higher than in the United States. Thus to an American reader, this book can be interesting on several levels. Perhaps as a sociological commentary on how Japanese society has accepted and accomodated the pervasive use of the phones. To an extent not currently seen in much of the US, except possibly amongst teenagers in large cities. The book is a fascinating read of how quickly an technological item has become part of the fabric in Japan. The passages on phone etiquette also suggest what might also eventuate here.
On a business level, the book can be used for ideas into future usages, in Japan or elsewhere. If you are trying to find a novel business involving cellphones, it helps to study a society that has taken them further.
On a business level, the book can be used for ideas into future usages, in Japan or elsewhere. If you are trying to find a novel business involving cellphones, it helps to study a society that has taken them further.
Knowing who is the primary persona
22 Sep 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
One method in interaction design is to get a clear picture of who is using your product. This book shows who that person is (or was) for SMS. As a mobile app developer, this book helped put a personal face on my market.
I first heard about this book from Trip Hawkins, during a mobile track of the Game Developer Conference. This was before the iPhone came out. While the iPhone may have changed how mobile apps are built and sold, this book remains a classic.
What I learned from PPP was how a teenage Japanese girl began to use her pager and ketai. I learned how she, and others like her, became the social nexus of a new phenomenon. Now, with carriers transitioning from SMS to data plans, this book helps me to ask the question: "who's the leading way" - in a way that might yield a useful answer.
I first heard about this book from Trip Hawkins, during a mobile track of the Game Developer Conference. This was before the iPhone came out. While the iPhone may have changed how mobile apps are built and sold, this book remains a classic.
What I learned from PPP was how a teenage Japanese girl began to use her pager and ketai. I learned how she, and others like her, became the social nexus of a new phenomenon. Now, with carriers transitioning from SMS to data plans, this book helps me to ask the question: "who's the leading way" - in a way that might yield a useful answer.
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