"Kojai?": Människors positionering i mobiltelfonsamtal

Abstract

With an evolving technology with higher bandwidth, better positioning capabilities and more advanced devices the need for a killer application becomes evident for the mobile service providers. Services based on positioning have been pointed out as one of the possible groundbreakers on the mobile market. Many operators have introduced services that enable users to locate each other as well as other positionbased services. This thesis takes positioning to its most basic perspective; how people treat place in their everyday talk-in-interaction. To investigate this we have recorded naturally occurring mobile phone conversations from adolescents in Sweden. Previous studies of mobile phone conversations have involved clumsy technical solutions for recordings. To achieve a non-intrusive study, we hade developed a software solution based on Symbian OS 6 and a Nokia 7650. It enables the automatic recording of all incoming and outgoing calls. By using conversation analysis methodology we have made insights in how people talk about place and how they coordinate their co-located activities. We will show the ways in which people act when coordinating in real time and how place, activity and availability is tightly interwoven. Implications for design are formulated supporting the activities identified, as six guidelines for designers of mobile positioning services, focusing on how and what information is included in positions, and how people should be able to alter this to conform with their current behavior when talking and coordinating with other people. We therefore propose the use of this knowledge for future applications supporting positioning of friends or coordination based on positioning.