May 2008 - Page 4 of 4 - Near Future Laboratory

Mobile Power Improvisation

One often sees improvised power in urban contexts. Whether the “Diablitos” in Mexico or “Gato” in Portugal, tapping into the local power grid, usually from a street lamp, is pretty standard urban improvisation.

Often, though, it happens in locales that are somewhat impoverished — siphoning a bit of juice from “the man” to power a street party or some such.

Here, I found a very curious means of mobile street power. A long garden style extension cord running down a street in the posh SoHo neighborhood in New York City. And running from no less than a nicely trimmed Mercedes sedan. It ran up the street to a vendor’s modest stall, selling modest trinkets. Inside, the power came from a converter that was stepping up the normal 12 volt DC from the cigarette lighter plug to 120 volts AC.

The context is quite peculiar. I can understand having need for power in such a context as a street vendor. But there were a number of mixed objects. A very high-end luxury car, presumably owned by the vendor. And a rather haphazard power connection, leaving his vehicle several parking spots down the street, wide open like this to play a little music.

The signs at his stall advertised his “ware” — house for sale.

The result of a speculator crushed by the recession, liquidating hard assets as best he can? Or an enterprising music producer selling house music?

Design for Mobile

This was a peculiar sequence captured while waiting for the uptown N in New York City. This gentleman was enjoying a bit of mobile computing, composing something there while waiting for the train. I thought that in itself was intriguing — I suppose it’s not all that surprising. But, I was quite surprised that, when the train pulled into the station, rather than packing up and sliding his laptop into his shoulder bag, he carried it half open into the train. On the train, he continued whatever he was doing.

This curious bit of mobile computing is intriguing to me because of the utter confusion there seems to be between what is generally accepted as mobile computing and specific mobile usage contexts. In other words, under what circumstances does mobile computing really capture the essentials of mobility?

This reminds me very specifically about this incident — computing while mobile, in a car. Just about every design consideration for doing such things — ignoring hazards of operating a computer while in a car (perfectly safe for passengers or such) — are just ignored for the sake of an already well-entrenched chain of supply and design factors, such as pre-existing laptop configurations, designs and parts. It’s not really mobile computing at all, ironically. It’s fixed desktops with smaller bits and pieces that can be carried from place to place.

Nokia Open Studios

Very interesting work that Jan Chipchase and Younghee Jung have been involved in that they call “open studio.” The design approach is quite intriguing as it involves participation from on-the-ground “locals” given a particular question and allowed the freedom to explore possibilities — however preposterous it might be considered from a rational, conservative design perspective.

Younghee also presented this work at the Lift08 conference in Geneva. The video is available here.

Isaaneeyat: For this participant, phones are much more than a communication tool: They can also be a means of survival. The idea behind this bottle-shaped phone is to help carry drinkable water, a valuable commodity in many of the shantytowns Nokia visited. This phone also can act as a float, enabling people living in these towns to survive in extreme conditions such as floods. In the words of the participant: “It’s my style of phone because is helps you and others to survive. I would like to help others with my phone.”

The design philosophy here is that perspectives and considerations as to what is a normative basis for design, as well as what “counts” cannot only be determined from above. Rather — there’s an opportunity to diversify at least the initial assumptions of what designs are best for whom?

There was a brief article in BusinessWeek on this based on a presentation that Jan and Younghee gave at the end of April.

BusinessWeek says:

Nokia provided the space and the drawing tools, and more than 220 people offered up their vision of the ideal handset. Nokia asked participants to address the following questions:

What does it look like?

What does it do?

How will you use it?

When and where will you use it?

Other questions were aimed at providing Nokia’s researchers with deeper insight into the broader issue of identity within these fast-growing urban environments. The team gleaned information on participants’ tastes, style, personality, profession, religion, sense of heritage, and community. Some of the participants knocked off sketches in 20 minutes, while others spent two full days on the project.

And further:

Working with local experts such as NGOs or even students, Nokia designers went into each city and set up a community based competition asking people to design their dream phone. The results were unusual and led to some interesting insights such as a star shaped phone designed by someone in Ghana that could house up to four different SIM cards, reflecting the local preference for using more than one operator in order to get better prices and coverage.

Here are more of the sketches created by the “open studio” participants.

Technorati Tags: Nokia