| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 |
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
Editor Login
Convener in chief:
David Lazer
(Methodology, Networked Governance)
Editors:
Stanley Wasserman
(Current Trends, Methodology, Social Networks)
Allan Friedman
(Simulations)
Nathan Eagle
(Technology, Social Computing, Powerlaws, Current Trends)
Ben Waber
(Technology, Social Computing) Thomas Langenberg
(Technology, Social Computing, Social Networks, Current Trends)
Ines Mergel
(Knowledge Sharing, Social Computing, Social Software, Current Trends)
Brian Rubineau
(Social Dynamics, Societal Networks, Simulations)
Maria Binz-Scharf
(Qualitative Methodology, Knowledge Sharing, eGovernment)
Jeff Boase
(Technology, Societal networks)
Alexander Schellong
(Admin, eGovernment, Citizen Relationship Management)
Categories
Archives
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
Recent Entries
- Save the data! the Dataverse Network initiative
- Computing Culture: National Communication Logs
- Paper on voluntary engagement now downloadable from this site
- Published: Voluntary engagement in knowledge sharing
- Facebook vs MySpace
Recent Comments
Notification
« Why do user communities work? | Main | Mobile phones in the developing world - Part II »
29 January 2007
Mobile Phones in the Developing World
I always enjoy reading about how communication technologies are adopted in different counties. I recently read an article in the Washington Post about the use of mobile phones in the "developing world," which does a good job of mentioning the many social factors that explain why mobile phones are often heavily adopted in poor countries.
Of the many factors mentioned, I was most struck by the argument that that people in poor countries may find mobile phone email particularly useful because it is extremely low cost and non-intrusive. These are the same two factors that helped kick-start the now highly prevalent use of mobile phone email in Japan. Japanese teens were the first in Japan to use mobile phone email, because it was cheep enough for them to use often and because its non-intrusive nature allowed them to stay connected without drawing attention from parents and teachers. Of course, there also many differences between the uses of mobile phone email among Japanese teens and those in poor countries. Many Japanese teens received phones from their parents, while people in poor countries often adopt them for business purposes. Nevertheless, the interesting thing about these two cases is that it was the congruency between the affordances of the technology and the social situations that ultimately lead to its integration into everyday life.
Posted by Jeff Boase at January 29, 2007 1:17 AM
-
.
- Business (3) .
- Citizen Relationship Management (16) .
- Commentary (6) .
- Complexity (2) .
- Current Trends (43) .
- eGovernment (20) .
- Events/Announcements (63) .
- Innovation (13) .
- Internet (15) .
- Knowledge Sharing (18) .
- Methodology (30) .
- Networked Governance (18) .
- Networks in political science (2) .
- PNG Working Paper Series (6) .
- Powerlaws (4) .
- Reviews (2) .
- Simulations (1) .
- Small group networks (3) .
- Small Worlds (2) .
- SN in the news (68) .
- Social Capital (3) .
- Social Computing (10) .
- Social Finance (1) .
- Social Networking Platforms (10) .
- Social Psychology (2) .
- Social Software (24) .
- Societal Networks (35) .
- Technology (29)