Social life of wireless urban spaces
Keith Hampton, assistant professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, is conducting research into the social life of wireless urban spaces. He wants to know how the use of wireless broadband in public areas influences social life and if it enables greater engagement with others. His team will be looking into user behavior in San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia and (possibly) Toronto.Keith Hampton, assistant professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, is conducting research into the social life of wireless urban spaces. He wants to know how the use of wireless broadband in public areas influences social life and if it enables great engagement with others. His team will be looking into user behavior in San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia and (possibly) Toronto. In light of the growing number of cities deploying municipal Wi-Fi, Professor Hampton wants to understand the impact of citywide Wi-Fi on how people socialize and interact.
Professor Hampton’s blog has more information about the research project and their methodology:
“This summer research assistants will be deployed to the nine field sites we have identified in four cities. From May-July they will be unobtrusively observing interactions for approximately 50 hours in each space. In addition, each site will be videotaped from a “birds eye” view. All days of the week and day light hours will be included in the sample. The resulting video footage and field notes will be coded and analyzed for systematic behavior with the aim of contrasting users of mobile technologies with non-users. We also hope to combine our video and field notes with computer logs of how often people use Wi-Fi and what they do online within our observation spaces, and field notes and video from previous public space studies. The resulting analysis will be used to: 1) draw conclusions about the possible impact of Muni Wi-Fi on social networks and public participation, and 2) generate recommendations for the deployment of Muni Wi-Fi and design of urban public space to balance privacy, mutual surveillance, public safety, the opportunity for serendipitous encounters, and other pro-social behaviors.”
Click here to read more.
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