The document discusses the challenges and implications of technology and connectivity in rural and marginalized communities, particularly in Tiree, Wales. It explores themes of community, locality, and identity through various forms of walking, as well as the socio-economic disparities in access to technology. Additionally, it highlights the historical context of communication and the ongoing struggles with technological infrastructure.

1. Margins and Migrants
Alan Dix
Talis and University of Birmingham
http://alandix.com/academic/talks/margins-and-migrants-2016/

2. Tiree
Tiree Tech Wave
10–14 March 2016
University of
Birmingham

3. today I am not talking about …
• intelligent internet interfaces
• visualisation and sampling
• small device – large display interactions
• fun and games, virtual crackers,
artistic performance, slow time
• physicality and product design
• creativity and Bad Ideas
• modelling dream, regret,
the emergence of self

4. … or even lots of lights
http:/www.hcibook.com/alan/projects/firefly/

5. REF !!!
… and certainly not to mention …

6. Tiree Tech Wave
a hands-on making and meeting event
exploring the edges of technology on the
wild edge of Scotland

7. About Tiree
poor mobile
phone
coverage
750 residents
20,000 summer visitors
680!

8. Tiree Tech Wave
for the participants
open agenda in an open environment
design challenges at the margins
for the community
additional visitors in low season
IT essential for future of the islands

10. walking Wales
1058 miles (1700 km) around
around the margins of Wales

11. Welsh Coast Path
opened May 2012
linking existing paths
a single way marked route
with Offa’s Dyke encircles Wales
three full traversals in 2012 (one running)

12. vision
personal
encircling, encompassing, pilgrimage, homecoming,
practical
IT for the walker & IT for local communities
philosophical
reflections on walking and space, locality and identity
research
personal agenda and living lab

13. no hard boundaries
research – practice
personal – philosophical
19th century science or Mediaeval?

14. walking for war
Napoleon in Russia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion
_of_Russia
The Long
March
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March
Roman Legions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_legion

15. walking as political activism
Salt March (India) Jarrow March (UK)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_March http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
2257003/Last-Jarrow-Marchers-walked-
300-miles-London-poverty-protest-dies-
aged-96.html

16. walking as pilgrimage
Camino
http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Way_of_St._James
Char Dham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage

17. walking in the humanities
poetry & Romanticism
(19th century)
psychogeography
all method?
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/british-
watercolours-developing-landscape-subjects/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Psychogeography

18. walking because you have to …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#/me
dia/File:Famine_memorial_dublin.jpg
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/06/10/eu-to-
propose-migrant-plan-as-1000-migrants-arrive-in-greece-in-
one-day/

20. community and locality

21. an interstitial community
caravan site (nearly) in centre of town
but behind, in the gaps
semi-permanent residents
locality? parallel communities in same place

22. community and cohesion
abandonment and dissolution:
Rhyl – dustbin of Liverpool
Dee estuary – even the pubs closed
internal strength
Penmaenmawr – in the face of adversity
community enterprise: shops, pubs, arts

23. language and culture
intimately linked
even for the non-Welsh speaker!
changed in my lifetime
but under threat again
technological implications
not just translations ... media choice etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capel_Ce
lyn

24. maps
reclaiming the local map within technological space
mapping never easier ... so long as it is ‘standard’
“Post-Renaissance maps cover the surface of the
world with an homogeneous Cartesian grip”
Barbara Bender
local maps – local concerns

26. IT at the margins

27. at the margins
social marginality:
poor, old, rural
information marginality:
poor connectivity, old devices
IT deepens the divide
... but can IT help in the margins?

28. IT in the margins
lessons from each other
Harris Tweed
hole in the wall
simple SMS
an old dream ...
the electronic village shop
what now?
www.hole-in-the-wall.com

29. connectivity
I expected it to be bad ...
but it was worse

30. ... not a recent issue ...

31. always connected?
mobile signal
absent or weak
broadband ...
not so broad
masts point to sea
not land ...
yachts = money
https://explore.ee.co.uk/coverage-checker

32. infrastructure or privilege?
what is the greatest
British invention?

33. infrastructure or privilege?
19th century – Penny Post
the amazing invention
revolutionised communication
Today – Internet
50% of Welsh schools say
poor connectivity hampers education
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pennypos.html