mtl3p

I know I said I wouldn’t be blogging, but it turns out I have to write a few more entries as part of a homework assignment. And I got some things I want to say.

I was at Cafe Utopik tonight with my trusty laptop. During the time that I was there I saw 4-5 other people with laptops. Two of them used the network (three if you include the guy that surreptitiously snaked an ethernet cable to the router). It made me so mad that we were all using the internet in exactly the same way that we do at home / office. I know that we‘re going to get there, but the ridiculousness of it was so apparent. It felt like such a waste.

Then a table full of clients took out instruments of their bags and started jamming, Celtic-style. I realized that if I had brought my (admittedly geeky-looking) headset I could have used the mike (which works very well) and skype to share the acoustic environment with any of my friends or (or acquaintances if they were especially bored). Especially with the the conference calling feature (up to 4 people) in the latest version.

[The next bit stems from a blog entry I read reviewing skype. The guy used it with a friend, talked a bit and then just . . . left it on. Didn’t hang up. They both did work for the next hour, overhearing what was happening in the others space. The author commented that he never would have thought of this kind of thing with long-distance, no matter how cheap it becomes.]

A friend contacted me on IM from Japan. I would have loved to used skype with him. Not to talk to him, I was happy conversing with him via text, but to let him share where I was, and maybe get off on a little bit of Canada (In fact said friend probably would have regarded this as annoying). We’ve all heard cyberspace described as the place you are with a friend during a long-distance phone call. I wonder if using p2p telephony programs in the way described above shifts cyberspace from this kind of “other” third space (not as in third place) to more of a superimposition of the two environments of the participants, taking aspects from each.

Similarly I met someone at Utopik who wanted to do an event of videoconferencing between Utopik and some people he knew from some university south of Bamako, Mali that had high-speed. I suggested having a regular afternoon or evening each month where the connection is “left on”. Set it up so that it is possible for two people to have a relatively private conversation, but have mike picking up the general sounds and setup the webcam with a wide view of the cafe. If people choose to interact spontaneously, great. If not, it’s still a fascinating, if potentially awkward (and frustrating?), glimspe into another culture.

Interesting links I found while googling during this post.
Media spaces(pdf), Uses for video walls, Narrative Spaces: bridging architecture and entertainment via interactive technology(pdf)

And I read in the Economist about a public, free, outdoor videoconferencing wall that are being setup in two cities in Europe for just such random interaction. If anybody can find a link for that, let me know.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2004 at 2:16 am and is filed under Homework Soci 353, Identity & Community / Technology, IleSansFil. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.