Discussion Topics

The themes under investigation in the symposium include:

Wireless Networks or Gated Communities?

A wireless network is an ever shifting, dynamic, constant entity, with a combination of different topographies. They are difficult networks to map, measure or control. Since regulations of usage, frequencies and sharing are still in the process of being negotiated, how is access control and data manipulation being exposed, exploited, packaged and challenged?

Experiencing the E-City

Our mobility while we work, e-shop, or communicate in a wireless zone tends to make us nomadic and lets us adapt a particular space (café, park, home) to our momentary need. Spaces become multi-purpose, the workspace becomes unscheduled and deregulated. New clusters are generated. People, increasingly un-tethered from their workspaces, are nevertheless subject to more control and surveillance in an increasingly obscured manner. How does this distributed social space change people’s experience of city?

The Networked City

From ambient technology such as RFID (radio frequency identification tags) to ‘smart buildings’, how is an increased computerisation of our environment impacting on our privacy? Are we on our way to ultimate surveillance? What possibilities for resistance do we have left?

Communication Architectures

New Social Networks and organisations come through websites, we make ‘friends’ with people on a suggestion, we work sat across the world from our colleagues. How has the transformation in social flow dynamics changed the usage of existing architectures?

What are the social impacts of digital communication technologies? Do communities, especially those under-represented in socio economic terms, stand to benefit from these new hybrid spaces?