Mobile Camp London
Mobile Social Networks
Kwame
Fjord 2007

Fire...
Fire...
Fire...
Fire...
Fire...

“Yes, I was at that fire, it was lacking wood...”
with mobile phones each one of us has a fire,
and we take it everywhere

Ibrahim Adrian
Shepherd. Goes to the Geek. Has a myspace
market on sundays. page where he has
Everyone knows him 1200 friends.
as “Ibrahim the son of Jerks off 3 times a
the goat herder who day, and has 6 real
looks like a bull”. friends.

History of the web... mention Cluentrain...
First web equates to first wave of SN:
News groups, Message boards...
people gathered around specific
topics.
just like gathering around fires, or going to the pub...

Oh Shit, we’re connected. Let’s go
crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! But let’s do it sitting down...

“Hey, somebody connected all
these people and now they are
going crazy. What can we do?”
“Well, we can start by telling them
they are connected.”
First consolidated SNs

Adrian joins Friendster and Orkut and
Hi5 and makes two new real friends...

How is Ibrahim doing?
Ibrahim is on a boat to

...with his mobile social network

2nd wave:
You are reminded that you can
make Friends through your
Friends. Ads become more
selective.
3rd wave:
Introduction of tools and
intelligence to make the
‘connected experience more
meaningful’
media type and service cross-pollination, updates, tools
difference between romanic churches and gothic churches

Adrian is growing and consolidating his network.
Some of his mySpace friends become part of is
phone’s address book. migration is vital
Ibrahim meets people on the ‘street’ and they
become part of his phone’s address book. migration is vital

The real mobile SN is here:
It cannot be imagined. It’s real...
For both Adrian and Ibrahim

Adrian gets lucky a few times (learns how to
spot the single amongst his friends) and learns
how to master his SN. He eventually discovers
linkedIN and gets a job...

It’s only natural that Mobile Social Networks
become a direct translation of existing online
SNs. After all they’ve worked for Adrian,
there’s a business logic in place...
...not good enough though.

Rewind <<

Adrian, Ibrahim Print: great to take along, but no sound...
Ibrahim, Radio Radio: great, and you can move about, and
there are tribes... but no pictures.
Adrian, Ibrahim TV: magic, but you have to consume it sitting
down. It demands all your attention.
Adrian Networked Computer: you can talk and lose
yourself in the web... but you must do it sitting
down.
Adrian and Ibrahim Cell-phone: you can talk and text everywhere
and it wakes you up in the morning.
Adrian Networked Mobile Computer: you can talk and lose
yourself... you can watch TV and listen to radio, control
your bathtub, check in at the airport, flirt on the move, make
home movies, listen to and share music, play games,
customise ringtones, vibrate, send messages, ask for help,
take pictures, manage your contacts, know where you are...

Productivity Tools
Creativity tools
Discovery tools
} Problem — most come from the PC
Social Tools
Manage my social network (address book)
Communicate with the elements in my social network (text, voice)
Go online and connect with my PC native SNs

What is important in mobility?
Talk Text Talk Text Talk Text
Business man
Music Games Music Games Music Games
Day 1 Day 2 Day 10
Talk Text Talk Text Talk Text
Teen
Music Games Music Games Music Games
Day 1 Day 2 Day 10

The question no one asked:
Do you want a phone you can take with you
everywhere?
No one asked me. Still here it is and it changed my world.
The question now is:
Do you want a computer you can take with
you everywhere?
How is it going to change my world?

I go outside
We can start to think like Adrian or like Ibrahim
Rely on web based social networks
The suckers want us to sit down...
Rely on bodies
which are inherently mobile

Killer app for Adrian:
crossing web and mobile data
There is a great probability that Jessica
had sex with John last night.
James just shared two pictures he took
with his MC. He probably thinks he is a
good photographer.
Annie is within physical reach of you.
This your chance to mate.
I want my mobile to make
sense of my data/world
position me

Now if we start to think more like Ibrahim
Well, everything will start to be
more emotional. Why?
think bodies.
the 1000 we cross everyday
the ones that make us laugh

A little bit of my story

Faceted ID > creating a profile > performing
talk about Danah’s work

reducing digital complexity may also reduce... humanity.

When you meet someone
the getting laid context
intro initial framework (2h) over 100h Family
225 words per minute 27000 words

Physical social intercourse... Goffman

Behavioural patterns

Pulse in/of the crowd

OS level

Buds, 2002

Zhu Ming 1995

Bods, 2003

“Spontaneous digital articulated
networks: wireless augmented networks
in free random identity interchange
bays.”

these guys have an augmented ID, I wish I had had one

Ibrahim rolls into town
Wow! Look
at all these
fires...
Ibrahim thinks to himself: shit everyone’s got a fire...

We’ve spun a web above us, around us. It’s part of the city, it is the city.
Peter Witt, 1950
Normal spider web Clockwise from top left: spider on lsd, spider on
mescaline, spider on caffeine, spider on hash

text by Hans Geser

Whole collectivities move
together, so that
intragroup communication
can be maintained [touch]
text by Hans Geser

Whole collectivities move Communication codes Communication used to
together, so that have to be standardized be limited to the rather
intragroup communication and messages simplified rare occasions when
can be maintained [touch] in a way to be compatible populations are densely
with conditions of aggregated at specific
movement and/or wide locations.
and variable spatial
dispersion.
text by Hans Geser

Digital living begins with physical living. This entails a shift in the roadmap... otherwise we
will be porting MySpace and Facebook-like apps for phones...

Adrian went on to do this... piece of shit!

Ibrahim is driving a cab now
the car is mobile and very sociable

Rear Units
Head Units
Media Storage +
GPS
On Board Computer
Stereo
Stereo +
Portable devices brought in by the occupants

Behaviour > Mobility and Stability
Check mail Satellite music
Work, most of my day in front of a computer On the move, where am I?
Synchronize my music Watch TV Call to order
What is truly important and always present
Space of interaction is vast and unpredictable
We move between heterogeneous environments. Some of which are controlled
by us, others not. [Habitat.]
We have routines that anchor our lives

Ibrahim has a new routine
Shopping
pub pub
centre
friend’s place
home work
gym
pub
hotel
hospital
When out on the street we have a purpose and it’s very difficult if not
impossible to divert people from their purposes. Our lives are about
routine behavior and to do lists are not very flexible. On the move we
have lines of flight to which we commit and from which we seldom move
away from.

People are not numbers
No reason why the Address book should not be an IM

Gang member suspect gunned down by the
police who then proceeded to smash his
phone and retrieve the sim card in order to
identify his contacts.

Thank you
kwame@fjord.co.uk