Evidence from mobile devices: various issues

I've just been to a seminar discussing issues related to"Position and time technology and the law" http://www.intellectuk.org/component/option,com_events/task,view_detail/agid,1204/year. The presentations will be soon on line. A number of issues have been tackled, issues that for different reasons affect me as individual, as researcher and as member of a number of wider collectives: citizen, worker, friend.
1st issue - Personal data, privacy, awareness, control, security. Dave Evans from the Information Commissioner's Office has drawn a picture of current society where we as individuals have very little understanding on how much data we release on the public sphere and what that data is being used for. We are not very good about protecting our personal details - for a number of reasons - and he believes the key issues are related to consumer awareness (needs to be increased), data minimisation, security (at a number of levels from device to organisation) and purpose limitation ("if I signed for this, why you use it for ...").
I would add to this list that of control, why? because awareness of a situation (potentially dangerous) opens the door for action, but the possibility of action is only fulfilled if there is a real opportunity for taking control of it.
He concluded saying a couple of very interesting things: that people need to learn about protecting their personal details and that attitudes harden if collection of personal data is unavoidable (i.e. government driven). Now, we live in an information society where convergence of a number of technologies implies use, and many times that means unprotected use, of personal data around multiple devices: mobile phones, laptops, smartcards (oyster in London, smart swipe cards). I think the moral of the story is that individuals need to be more aware of this, but industry needs to be more transparent i nteir privacy policies (less jargon more real language) and about use of data by third parties.
2nd issue: Mobile phones, those scary information broadcasters devices. Mike Hawkwes, for mthe Mobile Data Association, has shown how easy (reallllllyyy easy) is to forget that we are continously broadcastingto the world our position, our thoughts, our habits, and how easy is to get to that information. The examples he's used are good, are real, and people are making use for them for the good - finding a good pub, and ofr the bad - "sexting" by minors, bullying (the bully lives in my pocket), remote abuse and abuse broadcasting, stalking and paparazzi activity.
It makes you think about getting an iPhone and using all those cool APIs because the more you use them the more digitally visible you are, and, who knows, your neighbour, work colleague, firend, can use it against you.
He concludes saying that to protect ourselves (and users in general) from abuse, need to think about the data we provide. For me is again a question of awareness and control.
Conclusions, or discussion, goes around the need to explain to individuals what data is being asked for by different providers/telecoms/devices/organisations/etc , what is it going to be used for and what are the potential consequences of doing it.
It is about the trade between the benefits provided and the information released, about the balance between them.

Henley Business School

I'll be tomorrow in Reading, talking to the people at the Informatics Research Centre, Henley Business School http://www.henley.reading.ac.uk/IRC/Research/irc-research.aspx. I'll be presenting part of my doctoral research on "Office workers perceptions and attitudes towards the deployment of a location tracking system in a real environment":

Abstract: In the context of a doctoral thesis driven by the question how can location tracking technologies contribute to the understanding of face-to-face interaction in the workplace, this seminar presents results of part of the study focused on understanding workers attitudes and perceptions of the deployment and use of this pervasive technology. The talk will start with a brief introduction to the system, its deployment and the spatial and social challenges that it posed to both the organisation and to the technology consultants. Issues of communication, privacy, organisational culture, trust, time and mistification of technology will be discussed. The methods used to investigate people's attitudes in a pervasive environment will be also introduced.

Theatrical performance

I'm very excited about this event I'm attending in February http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/cqr/theatrical-improvisation-of-research-data.html
"If you are fascinated by learning about improvisation and its potential as an interpretive tool for research, then this is a great opportunity to try something cutting edge. This is definitely a new way of thinking about the interpretation of research data through improvisation."
I am, therefore,I'll go.

Dynamic visualisation

http://www.uniformchaos.org/stoc.php

Flowing data

These guys do cool stuff. Cos I'm interested in the visualisation of temporal aspect of behaviour, or how people behave through time, or the dynamic flow of behaviour, I'm interested in their work. Anyway, take a look at http://flowingprints.com/ this is particularly interesting for people working in education: http://flowingprints.com/print1.php and http://flowingprints.com/print3.php

Wired Italy

My research got published in the italian version of Wired http://www.wired.it/news/archivio/2009-01/30/le-location-technology-per-ridisegnare-i-nostri-uffici-e-renderci-piu-creativi-sul-lavoro.aspx
So cool I could cry!

After 5 years at UCL...

I've decided to start a blog.
Not that I have anything too interesting to say to others. This is more a record of the interactions that I have with other minds and the thoughts I develop along the way.
From time to time I'll post something interesting, and from time to time I'll post something silly.
I write as I speak, therefore you'll be puzzled at times, angry at others and some days you'll just laugh. A lot!
Welcome to a corner of my mind!!!