Information Technology Reference
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to be Twitterers than they are Modern Workers.
For example, a recent report by Rubicon (Rubicon,
2008) on the iPhone surveys 460 users in the US
and shows that reading email is the most used
function, followed by managing text messages,
browsing the internet (which they do much more
than on their previous phone), listening to music,
managing calendar and contacts, and writing
email. 28% of users say they carry their iPhone
instead of a notebook computer; about half of
the are under 30 and technologically-aware. This
pattern of activity is clearly focussed on frequent
communication and data access, and given their
increased bills, they are using their phones for
much more of the time as well.
From a design perspective, the more neglected
user groups have been the Twitterers and the No-
mads in the sense that many of the applications
that they use have still been created assuming that
they will be sat in front of a screen. Whilst many
of these are available in mobile versions, they still
tend to assume that the application is the focus
of the user's attention, which makes it very hard
to use when the user is actually moving (Sears &
Zha, 2003). For these groups, we need to further
distinguish between use when mobile that is inci-
dental, and activity that is related to the mobility.
In the former category, we have applications such
as Facebook, Twitter, and, perhaps more common
at present, playing games, browsing the internet
and reading blogs—many of these activities are
designed to fill in time. Some are just for enter-
tainment, some are part of an ongoing process of
digital media consumption to stay up to date. Other
activities are more specifically work-related—
Blackberry users are used to dealing with their
email whilst out and about, making them more
efficient and more current in their dealings with
colleagues and customers and clients, and many
other smartphone users are getting the same easy
access to mobile email now. One of the potentially
most effective uses for e-learning may well come
from the mobile sector, when on-the-spot training
can be provided to users who have an immediate
and pressing need for it: being motivated, they will
be much more receptive to learning and retain-
ing it. Even for education at school ages, mobile
systems for learning have the potential to support
experiential learning, and can be aware of the
previous knowledge and interests of individuals,
and so guide and support them through the most
appropriate information or activity.
But some of the more fascinating systems are
those that are directly related to being out and
about. One obvious one is microblogging, whether
through bespoke software or through mobile or
web interfaces to standard systems, in which the
blog posts directly reflect the often immediate
experiences and reflections of the user, presenting
an almost immediate view of their location, their
ongoing activity, and so on. Geotagged photogra-
phy also falls into this category. Other applications
specifically related to mobility include location-
aware systems, often information ones such as
'find me the nearest restaurant/petrol station/
etc.', and data recording ones such as customer
recording, signature capture, and so on.
If we consider the iPhone again, looking at
the top ten applications downloaded in 2008
(Kumparak, 2008)—the Apple iTunes store has
an up-to-date Top 10 as well—we can see that
there is a real demand for applications to be used
almost anywhere, anytime: they comprise games,
communications (social networking or messag-
ing), and location-based information systems. This
further supports the earlier demographic survey
evidence, suggesting that iPhone users tend to be
Twitterers or Nomads.
To my mind, however, one of the most inter-
esting areas of development is in applications
that are driven by the mobility of their users,
and in some cases may not require much, or any,
direct interaction. Aka-Aki, in Germany, provides
notification of possible new friends by scanning
Bluetooth-enabled devices and matching the
unique identifiers to social networking profiles,
and highlighting potential people of interest. Other
systems measure key factors about their owner's
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