Re-mobiling

Colbert Report and Sherry Turkle

2011-02-08T04:35:00.000-08:00

Also interesting seems to be this book by Sherry Turkle. Conservatism aside, she has a good point. As technology expands our available space for interaction in the world, it also removes us from the here and now...

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Sherry Turkle

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

Video Archive

From the marketing perspective (a bit corny :)):

Hand writing vs. typing

2011-02-08T04:28:00.000-08:00

Interesting article at lifehacker:

http://lifehacker.com/#!5738093/why-you-learn-more-effectively-by-writing-than-typing

Nice to see some science behind the benefits of more complex forms of bodily interaction, as opposed to just going the full digital/static mode.

Lessons learned in the opposite direction of traditional ICTD projects

2010-11-23T01:41:00.000-08:00

This is not really new for those of you who have followed ICTD debates around mobile phone usage in places like India or most African countries. There are definitely lessons to be learned from the experience of using these types of services for some years.

First Publication!

2010-11-19T03:16:00.000-08:00

Some 7 months after returning from Vanuatu, the first related publication is coming out!

The paper that I wrote with my supervisor (Prof. Kristina Höök) got very good reviews, and is on a good path to being accepted at CHI 2011 in Vancouver, Canada!

The paper is called: Bodily Orientations around Mobiles: Lessons learned in Vanuatu, and it focuses on precisely that. Drawing mainly from phenomenology and somaesthetics, the paper discusses ways in which we extend our bodies through technologies, and the compromises and implications in doing so. The value we put on different parts of our bodies, with and without technology, the way we alter our posture and the physicality with which we are present in the world and other related issues are discussed in this paper, using as starting points for analysis different encounters occurring during our stay in Motalava and Rah (there is a post about this from end of February).

Once we get a final accept (hopefully there will be no bad surprises at this point...), I will post a link to the paper here, for those interested in taking a look. If you do take a look do not forget to post your comments here as I am very interested in getting more feedback.

At the moment three more papers are "in progress". One focusing on privacy issues, and how the way ni-Vans (again mainly in Rah) concerns regarding privacy reflected some of our own ongoing research concerns. Another one artifacts and the aging of artifacts. And finally one on playfulness and the value we place on the technologies we produce and consume.

So stay tuned as I try to resuscitate this blog!

Going rogue

2010-03-07T03:04:00.000-08:00

Having failed my previous promise of being more active in blogging, I now return to say that I will be out of contact for at least a week.

I will be going to the Torres islands. It is relatively close to the Banks (same province, Torba), where I went previously, only slightly more remote... it took some time to make that decision, since I thought the Banks was remote enough for me, but I just couldn't help the temptation. From what I heard, in the Torres, most young people have never even seen a truck (which is a relatively common thing here).

There are no mobile communications there and land-line is unreliable. There are 2 numbers however that I leave with you, in case of emergency:

Kamisila resort (where we will be staying, most likely, at least the first night): +678 38599

Public phone in Lunghariki village on Loh Island: +678 38565

These would be the 2 available ways to contact me, and in case you hear of tsunami, cyclone, or anything like that... please do! But most likely they will not work, or no one will pick up... I just have to trust their dubious readings of the sky, or the very reliable "coconut news" or "coconut wireless" :)

When we first went to the Banks, all the Nivans in Port Vila would say "oohh, that's far!" or "that's the 'last place'". So we went there. When we were there, people from the Banks, when asked about Torres would say : "ooooh... that is remote!" or "Torres is the 'last place'", "they are so isolated" :D which was hilarious coming from people living in a small tiny island in the middle of nowhere.

So, given that Vila has not been very inspiring, research wise, and given there was some time left, we organized this trip to the Torres, the "last place" ;)

Ok, I have to finish packing, and of I go again to no showers, no toilets, no news, no communication, no stores, no imported goods buuut plenty of sun, beaches, peace, quiet, friendliness and most importantly... LOBSTER!!!!!

I should be back in Vila the 18th, although rain might change the plans a little bit, since the "airports" are quite sensitive to it.

Lukium yu!

A trip to the North...

2010-02-24T19:19:00.000-08:00

Unlike in Europe, a trip to the North here implies it's gonna get muuuch hotter. The heat and humidity here are something I was just not prepared for :D

So we hopped on the plane. And off we went. Past the island of Malakula, stopover at Santo to refuel and grab something to eat (no foods & beverage service on the plane...), and off we went again. We would stop at Gaua, Sola and finally Motalava, where we would get off. One of the ideas we had was to stop at Gaua. Daniela, an anthropologist we met in Vila and that came with us, had the dream of climbing the Gaua volcano and waterfall. It so happens that the volcano was very active and it was deemed very dangerous to undertake that project. So we jut flew past the volcano (there is a very bad picture, we have a better one on the way back, when we flew straight over). We actually landed in Gaua, but just to pick up a couple of people and then move along.

Ok, landing in Motalava, we had to wait a couple of hours at the local "restaurant" for the truck to arrive, we met some very nice people, and some Rah islanders came to receive us and bring us to their island.

Rah Island is almost fully connected to Motalava (which they refer to as "mainland"). On low tides one can walk along the reef, on high tides, one must take the "taxi" or canoe, which costs around 10 cento (Euro) or 1 SEK. You can see our transport service coming to get us and Rah island on the other side. When they took our bags on one of the canoes, I just remember thinking: "goodbay camera, books and bags...."

Truth is we were received as royalty. We got a huge reception, almost the whole island was there. There was food, flower necklaces and even an arch made of flowers that we had to walk under. You can see Daniela, Jeanette and the arch behind them.

Although I learned not to question gifts and generosity, it felt kind of too much. As if there was something we were not aware of. Chief Frank's kind speech helped to clear that out. Long story short, and to give you some background, two days before we arrived, TVL (one of the two mobile networks in Vanuatu) installed a tower in Motalava. We read about this on the newspaper, just as we were about to embark on the plane. Landing in Motalava we actually met the TVL crew, who were making their way back home.

Now back to Rah and chief Frank. There seemed to be some problem in the communication prior to our arrival. At some point in his speech, Chief Frank said something along the lines of: "Today our guests will rest, and tomorrow Pedro can give us a Digicell [the other mobile network] awareness speech and tell us about his plans for building up the new tower"! Ok, it was clear now why there was all this fuss... first instinct, I am ashamed to say was to "play along", since we felt kind of nervous about breaking the truth to them. But it took only a couple of minutes till we began feeling bad, so we started explaining to them, and subsequently disappointing them a little bit. But it was all good and we were very very warmly hosted, throughout the whole time.

They quickly prepared a bungalow for us, which was really comfortable, as you can see by the pictures.

The bungalow site, quickly became the main hangout spot for all the pikinini (children).

We ate some nice aelan kakae (island food),

drank kava, and stori (talked) a little bit by the beach in front of the bungalow.

Then we rested, after what was a pretty long day... this is the view from the bungalow on a low tide... you can walk to those rocks. On high tide it's a pretty long swim. Behind you can see the island of Vanua Lava, which we went to after one week.

More to come, either tonight, or tomorrow, since it takes ages to upload all these pictures... and my laptop likes to crash every now and then as well... just for the sake of it!

Compilation of events

2010-02-24T17:09:00.000-08:00

I kind of gave up on blogging for a while there. First because I was away for over 2 weeks in the Banks, then because when I came back there was such an overwhelming amount of things to write about that I got discouraged... I will try to make up for that now with a couple of posts.

In short, the trip went as follows:
*Motalava Island
*Rah Island
*Vanua Lava (Lanquetak)
*Vanua Lava (Sola)
*Rah Island

And then off we came back to Port Vila. Oh wait, first we did a stopover at Santo, the biggest Island in Vanuatu. Although I only stayed one evening there...

Here it comes!

Ra Island and blogging

2010-01-28T06:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, I haven't been the most assiduous blogger. Sorry about that. The main reason being that this was supposed to be a blog documenting my research and it is actually a general blog about my stay here in Vanuatu. There are several situations leading to that, the main of all being that I don't yet have a research permission. So no research until that is taken care of.

What I want to say, is that this blog, until further notice, will be like it has been so far, that is a travel blog :) and I promise to try to think about making an effort in attempting to write more often.

...but no the next 2 weeks! We are going to Torba province, in the North. To the Banks, to be more specific, and to Ra island, to be even more specific. It is very far north, close to the Solomon islands and (even) warmer than here. It is one of the most remote areas in Vanuatu, meaning that internet, phone and even electricity will not be easy (well internet pretty much impossible). TVL, one of the networks, has coverage in a big part of the islands, so we'll try that, although some people say you have to climb on trees to get signal. And we have batteries to charge the mobiles (and every now and then someone might turn on a generator).

So... no news for a while, but when I come back I try to stick to my promise (to try to think about.....).

See you soon (hopefully),

Pedro

P.S. - Ah, forgot about something! Cyclones often appear in the area around the Banks. So wish me luck!

Full volcanic experience!

2010-01-25T02:34:00.000-08:00

My first thought when I woke up this morning was that the subway, here in Port Vila, is pretty intense. It took me maybe 20 seconds to realize that the shaking was from an earthquake! Such an absurd feeling that I was not even thinking that there is no subway (or any rail-tracks) of any kind here :).

Anyway, quite impressive stuff... people just kinda came out of their homes and waited, but no one was really scared. 10 minutes later, again... this time slightly weaker. They lasted for a long time, I never experienced anything like this. Maybe around 30-40 seconds each of them.

Seems like it was between 5.4 and 5.8, the first one, according to different reports and the other one around 4.8 (on Richter scale).

So the explanation I got was that the volcano in the island of Ambrym was messing around, but nothing serious and no need to evacuate populations. The epicenter was around 100 km from Port Vila, where we are now.

Well, I guess that is what you get when you come to a place which is basically a bunch of volcanoes :)

The sensation though, really unforgettable... everything just shaking... hard enough to wake me up, which is not really an east feat!

And now for something completely different...

2010-01-21T21:32:00.000-08:00

In between some minor burns, skin rashes and feet wounds from walking kilometers with my flip-flops. In between struggling with this unbelievable heat! And I don't mean just the heat, but the humidity, everything... it is really hot. Between 10:00 and 15:00, walking 10 meters outside feels like running a marathon. In between all that, we still managed to get something going here.
First of all, and to put things into context, we went to a couple of clubs on the weekend (part of our research) and I couldn't help but notice that two of the songs that were played over and over (had already heard them on some buses, and some cellphones on the street), were in Portuguese! :)
I looked it up after the lyrics and here is what I found:

Indeed! This song does not stop when it's time to go out! I am sure that Portuguese people reading this will find it quite funny :)
And here is the other one:

Ok had enough??? Look for more yourself otherwise... these are the only two ones I know.
So, why am I sharing this with you? Apart from the obvious fact that it is just plain funny in itself? Well, I looked them up on the web, and got the contact to their agent from their website. Wrote to him, to tell him about this unexpected success and if they would consider coming here... to which they replied with quite some enthusiasm.
Still not easy because there is a need for money, for traveling, stay, and performance fee (if I cannot manage to convince to come just for the hell of it).
I wrote to the head of the Cultural Center here, a very respected man, the elected member of parlement with the most votes in the history of Port Vila. Someone that seems to be very much into the arts and from whom I just hear the best stories, some of which I might share later on, and he replied to me just now. In his answer he suggests they play on a festival here in October called Fest'Napuan, and that they can cover the stay and the round trip to Sydney or Brisbane.
1-0! Now I just need to convince someone to pay the round trip Lisbon - Sydney and perhaps some performance fee if possible.
Let's see, let's see!! Looking good! Perhaps an opportunity to come and do more work here in October??? Hmmmm....

Piper Methysticum

2010-01-20T15:48:00.000-08:00

It might sound weird to some that one of my first posts would be about Kava (or Piper Methysticum), but that is only if you have never been to Vanuatu. Kava is of major importance here. Men drink it all the time, and it is used to cure all types of problems, from tooth aches or any health problem you can think of.

This is what it looks like. The part that is used is the root, which is cleaned first (check out next picture), and then grinded, mixed with water and filtered. Traditionally (and still in some islands, or when no other method is available) it was chewed (in some places by young boys that have still no female partner), I think that I will have the opportunity to try it done in that way, when I head out to some of the outer islands. (Lucky me eh! ;))

Kava is sold at nakamal, the name for a Kava bar. There seem to be hundreds of them in Port Vila alone. It really doesn't take much to build one. A couple of wooden planks for seats, a bucket with the Kava, a couple of shells (or now bowls) where you drink it from, and a source of water so you can rinse your mouth (very very very needed). Some times they will have some finger food that you can have afterward as well.

Unfortunately I do not yet have pictures of the nakamals themselves since I have not yet found a good opportunity to do so. It would seem weird to start taking pictures like crazy there. This is a place where men come after work to relax. It is a quiet place and I try to be cautious about disturbing that. But as I get to know some of them better and better, there might come pictures soon.
The first nakamal we went to, was great. It is called Galaxie nakamal, and the owner, Didier, gave us a tour of the place. It is still after one week and a couple of dozen nakamal later, the best one that we have been to. The variety of food is amazing and delicious (except from some chicken feet and other stuff that doesn't really attract me so much).

This is a picture of Didier, Jeanette and I on our first shell of kava. Shells can be of 50 or 100 Vatu (around 3,75 and 7.5 SEK or 0.35 and 0.7 Euro), The food costs 20 Vatu a piece (you can all make the Math now :)). This is the only cheap place to be in and we have tried to go there as often as possible.
The interest is double. Apart from being a really pleasant place to be with really nice people. It is the place where we got the fastest and easiest integrated in. They like us there and already know us. We are constantly being offered cake or kava. And we have decided to do some of the work there. I'll fill you in on the details as things progress, but we have been having some good ideas on what to do in this place.
Back to Kava. I have no pictures of the way it looks, but you can get a pretty good idea if you look at your sink after you wash your dishes... honestly it looks like that and tastes even worse :) The more you drink the harder it is to prepare yourself for the next one.
The effect is interesting however. It numbs your lips and tongue, and gives you a kind of relaxed feeling all over. Not very very strong but still an interesting way to spend some hours among friends. After this, men are all speaking very slowly, with a low tone of voice, and if they drink too much, they will be stumbling back home.
One of the great things about this social event is how silent and calm everything is. You have to remind yourself to keep your voice down and when you stop talking you cannot stop but be amazed at the peace and quiet around you. So different from Latin cultures. No screaming, no interrupting, conversations run really smoothly and can be incredibly interesting. The nakamals of Port Vila are a great place to hang out at night.

First day in Port Vila...

2010-01-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

A couple of days have passed since we arrived, and I have been struggling with how to write about this. I started writing immediately at the end of the first day but am having an extremely hard time to wrap this up in a post. There is too much to tell and whether I start chronologically or by themes, I get invariably stuck. I think I give up on the day-by-day description and will post things in a more relaxed order...

These first three days have been extraordinary. Against all odds we wake up early every morning (around 6:00 a.m.), even on the first day when we were extremely exhausted from the trip. The rock hard mattress makes sure that I never sleep too much... perhaps it's an alternative design to an alarm clock...

From the room, in City Lodge, I could hear some loud screaming on the street. Now I know that it is praying, at the time it sounded like advertisement. I went out to get some bottled water (first and only time I did so, tap water here is great), and the perspective was completely different from the night before.

First thing it took getting used to is greeting everyone passing on the street: "halo", "Gudmoning", "Gudnaet", depending on the circumstances, is a must. People are very nice, and when you talk with them they often say this about themselves. They are very proud of being so nice and warm.

Vila is an extremely expensive city however, perhaps more so than Stockholm or London. This fact put some pressure on us to find a place with a kitchen so we could save some money. Eating out is very very expensive, even if just a hot dog or a simple burger. Nothing is cheap here... well, apart from Kava, but we'll get to that later...
We walked a lot around the area of Port Vila, the market place, the trees filled with Papayas, coconut trees, breath taking views, and a immense heat that we are slowly becoming accustomed to.

We had been in contact with Ghislain, a Canadian guy who's been working in an IT company in Vanuatu for around 2 years, and decided to meet up for some Kava. I will talk about this in the next post.
We got the directions to Galaxie Nakamal, a Nakamal (Kava bar) in the area of Freshwota 2, near another nakamal, called "Green Light". And off we went...

Arriving at Port Vila

2010-01-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, this is a hard one. The mix of emotions was a little overwhelming. Stepping off the plane at night, was like walking into a sauna. That feeling I probably won't forget so soon...
The airport was very small and the control not very tight, as I had heard it would be. We just walked off there, no questions, no problems... Some people were being checked though, so we might have been the exception.

Then I took some money from the ATM machine and bought a SIM card. Jeanette was about to do the same though the ATM machine "swallowed" her card and then displayed someting like "out of order, please go to another ATM"... nice! :)

To go into town there were 2 options, bus or taxi. The buses were over at that time though, so it had to be taxi... 1500 Vatu, around 140 SEK or 13 euros. For an extremely short ride... the taxis here are a rip off. The buses however work really well, that will come on a next post.

Dark, dark, dark... some people walking around at night, random lights at some distance, but mostly just dark. Only when arriving in the city center were there lights, from the hotels, shops... stepped off the taxi and went into the room. Very small room, but functional. The mattresses, from which I am now writing, are like rock. I am always waking up with some limb going numb :) And for the cherry on top of the cake, while taking a shower, a nice "little" cockroach decided to appear on the shower curtain, next to my face. Just to say hello... I tried to end its life, but it escaped and ran into the room... still at this time it is hiding someplace probably waiting for the right time to pop out again... :)

We decided to go for a walk. Everything was closed, it was dark. There was at times a very loud sound of bats. Cockroaches on the sidewalk by the dozens... scary at first, and a little disturbing. We hadn't slept in quite some time and this first impression was somewhat intimidating :)

There were some people sitting on the sidewalk (now I know they are security guards for the shops), the market place, which is open 24 hours it's an amazing view, specially during night time, and some cars passing with loud music and people screaming, most likely coming from parties. Everyone says "hello" as you pass... this is almost like a law. Everyone greets you in Vanuatu, with a warm, welcoming, smile.

Note: I am writing this two days after arrival. Internet is slow and unstable and it takes ages to upload pictures, write a post and all... I am trying to write from the perspective I had when I arrived, which was, a little scary... it is hard to write from that perspective now, since the day after (yesterday) was, in short, mind-blowing :)

Auckland

2010-01-13T17:12:00.000-08:00

Arriving in Auckland was really nice. First of all the weather was great, and I mean comfortable great, and not the sauna we would discover later on... :) but that is for the next post...

The city has a nice skyline, for those that like tall buildings, but that was not really our case...

What really impressed me was:

1) The people are super nice! And I mean really really nice. In commerce as on the street, we felt so comfortable and welcome there.

(Well, not everyone was super nice perhaps... on the right is a note found on a public bathroom... watch out for Sharky :))

2) We hadn't had any decent food for a long time... the food there was awesome :) and affordable (check the pics of our first meal there). Risotto with Avocado asparagus and walnuts, and Chicken Cajun sandwich, with so many things I cannot even remember... but I remember it was delicious...

3) The trees, houses, water, flowers, landscape, sky... everytyhing was so nice...

Although we were tired like I have difficulty describing, we had a lot of fun there, with the Kiwis... (below is a picture of me on the ferry to Devon Port just 10 minutes from Auckland.

Just to finish, the police motto there is: "To serve and protect the Kiwis". :) So funny, they all call themselves Kiwis... Everywhere you go, they always refer to themselves as Kiwis.

Then it was time to move on to Port Vila...

Los Angeles

2010-01-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

Half way there!

Jeanette and I are now in transit in Los Angeles, where we were lucky enough to have WiFi (although not a smoking room yet... it is now almost 24 hours without the possibility of a smoke...)

Everything is going well so far, although the idea of hoping on another 12 hour plane ride, for the second time in a row, is not the most appealing!

They are calling us for boarding again... next stop: Auckland!

Leaving on the 11th of January!!!

2009-12-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

Ok! It's confirmed and I have the tickets on my hand!

You might wonder "hand?? What about e-tickets??" Well, seems like Air New Zealand is not much into that, so they sent me (and Jeanette, the Master student from the Social Anthropology department at SU, who will partake in this journey with me) a small booklet with all the tickets!

Waste of paper? Environmental concerns? Pfff... We are taking planes for over 30 hours, so we're beyond that! And the feeling of having those printed tickets on my hand... priceless!!!

So for the curious here is my itinerary (Jeanette flies on the same date as me but returns on the 3rd of March rather than the 24th):

1) SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES - SK 531
MON 11JAN      STOCKHOLM SE        LONDON GB              1110     1250
               ARLANDA             HEATHROW
NON STOP       TERMINAL 5          TERMINAL 3             DURATION 2:40
 
2) AIR NEW ZEALAND - NZ 1
MON 11JAN      LONDON GB           AUCKLAND NZ            1545     0705
               HEATHROW            AUCKLAND                        13JAN
1 STOP         TERMINAL 1          TERMINAL INTL          DURATION 26:20

 
3)AIR NEW ZEALAND - NZ 378
WED 13JAN      AUCKLAND NZ         PORT VILA VU           2100     2210
               AUCKLAND            BAUERFIELD
NON STOP       TERMINAL INTL                              DURATION 3:10

RETURN:


4) AIR NEW ZEALAND - NZ 379
WED 24MAR      PORT VILA VU        AUCKLAND NZ            1500     2000
               BAUERFIELD          AUCKLAND
NON STOP                           TERMINAL INTL          DURATION 3:00
 
5) AIR NEW ZEALAND - NZ 2
WED 24MAR      AUCKLAND NZ         LONDON GB              2300     1040
               AUCKLAND            HEATHROW                        25MAR
1 STOP         TERMINAL INTL       TERMINAL 1             DURATION 24:40
 
6) SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES - SK 532
THU 25MAR      LONDON GB           STOCKHOLM SE           1350     1720
               HEATHROW            ARLANDA
NON STOP       TERMINAL 3          TERMINAL 5             DURATION 2:30

Manuel Castells at KTH

2009-11-03T00:30:00.001-08:00

http://intra.itm.kth.se/kth-informerar/akademiska-hogtider/professors-future

Mobile revolution reaches Pacific

2009-11-03T00:17:00.001-08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091101/bs_afp/pacifictelecomdigicel

Some interesting Vanuatu related links

2009-10-08T00:56:00.000-07:00

I found this short summary of some cultural aspects of Vanuatu. It is very concise and not really detailed. It is nice however as a (very) short introduction to some questions such as: which languages do they speak there? How is their education system?

A brief overview of the Old New Hebrides

The Vanuatu Peace corps also has some interesting information as for instance a "what to bring to Vanuatu" list for future volunteers, or a book for learning Bislama:

Main site
What to bring to Vanuatu
Bislama learning book (check bottom of page for links)

Enjoy!

Social and economic impact of introducing telecommunications throughout Vanuatu

2009-09-30T11:12:00.001-07:00

This is the title of the report that is available at the Pacific Policy Institute website:
http://pacificpolicy.org/index.php?option=com_rubberdoc&view=category&id=57&Itemid=99

It is a very thorough report with many different looks at the situation. A lot of quantitative data for the number crunching addicts :)

Interactive Art Installation - Camille Utterback

2009-09-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

Nice piece of bodily interaction, by Camille Utterback, that just won a MacArthur Fellowship.

MacArthur webpage about this project:
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5470973/k.6548/Video_Camille_Utterback.htm

Her page at the MacArthur foundation website:
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5458045/k.A999/Camille_Utterback.htm

Her homepage:
http://www.camilleutterback.com/

Couldn't resist...

2009-09-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

Should not be posting stuff too far from the project. I decided that if it stays below 10% should not be a problem... any criticism will be received happily.

Anyway, since my last post was about Mike Wesch, and this was a video he just "Twitted", I guess there is a rationale for this after all...

Now seriously, watch until the end:

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

2009-09-21T04:52:00.000-07:00

Not really new, but a must for those who have not seen this awesome video yet:

Mike Wesch is a great professor at Kansas State University. He is also the author of the famous web 2.0 video "The machine is using us":

See more of him at the mediated cultures Website.

The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication

2009-09-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't read this, it's an extremely interesting book about an anthropological study on Cell Phones in Jamaica. The interest of the book is much wider than the specificity of the setting.

I've been reading it as part of the Digital Anthropology course at Stockholm University, which I also highly recommend. The author, Daniel Miller also published another interesting read on the Internet in Trinidad and Tobago.
I leave with the Amazon link then...

Vanuatu on Swedish Television

2009-09-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Watch here from the Swedish channel SVT.

For those who do not speak Swedish, it is still a very nice watch, just for the sheer beauty of the place :)

And it begins

2009-09-13T07:16:00.001-07:00

Mobile technologies have entered the lives of some of us in a way that, looking back now, might give us the impression that all along we have been following a straight road.

However, mobile technologies, as we know them today, are the product of a number of decisions, political implications, historical contingencies and a myriad of other factors, varying in degrees of intentionality, or lack of it.

Looking at it now, for someone like me who followed this process all along the way, might give the impression that the cornerstones of mobile interaction are untouchable. Hard to imagine something else than a variation of a phone book, thumbless interaction or other basic aspects of everyday mobile usage.

That is why we decided to go outside of our box. We will be conducting a series of workshops in Vanuatu, where mobile communications are relatively recent and "desktop metaphor"-style computer interaction has also met low adoption rates. Our hope is that this will result in fresh and innovative ideas for mobile interaction.

This idea was partly motivated by a lecture I heard by Alan Kay where he quotes Marshall McLuhan: “We don't know who discovered water, but we know it wasn't the fish.” I think this reflects very well our ideas and intentions. We, as the fish, have a harder time to see and rethink what we are surrounded by.

(Great lecture by the way , never gets old):

This project is part of the bigger Generalized Interaction Models project, running at the Mobile Life Centre at Stockholm University.

We will try and stay away from desktop, file/folder, point and click and all these metaphors that permeate our everyday digital interaction.

1,2,3... GO!