de Souza e Silva, A., & Damasceno, C. S. (2018). The history of mobile telephony in Brazil: Privatization, regulation, and access. #AoIR2018, Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Annual Conference. Montréal, Canada: October 10-13.
Urban Mobility in Context
de Souza e Silva, A., Damasceno, C. S., Bueno, D. M., & Grandinetti, J. (Forthcoming). Urban mobility in context: A study about early adopters of location-based taxi-hailing apps. In: Ling, R., Goggin, G., Fortunati, L. Lim, S. S., & Li, Yuling (Eds.). Oxford Handbook of Mobile Communication, Culture, and Information (pp. xx-xx). Oxford University Press.
Generic Phones in Context
de Souza e Silva, A., Damasceno, C. S., & Bueno, D. (2018). Generic Phones in Context: The circulation and social practices of mobile devices in Rio de Janeiro. In R. Wilken, G. Goggin & H. Horst (Eds.), Location Technologies in International Context (pp. xx-xx). London: Routledge.
HIBRID PLAY: 2018 CRDM Research Symposium
March 26-17 @ Talley Student Center, NC State University.
Symposium website
Conference Chair: Adriana de Souza e Silva
Assistant Chair: Nick Taylor
COM587: Internet & Society
Department: Department of Communication
Institution: NC State University
Terms: Fall, 2018, Spring 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
The internet is all around us. Using mobile phones and location-aware technologies, people are browsing information wherever they happen to be. As a result, physical location has become an important factor in how information is categorized and accessed. From online maps to location-based social networks and games, location awareness is becoming central to how we understand the internet today. However, digital information was categorized and accessed differently in the past.
This course explores social uses of the internet, focusing on its historical development as a digital network. In addition to looking at the history of the internet, from the ARPANET to the mobile web, it also explores an emerging form of networked interactions called net locality. Net locality is about happens to individuals and society when virtually everything is located or locatable. This course will run as a seminar and explores the following key topics:
- A historical overview of the development of the internet:
- Conceptual origins of the internet, such as Vannevar Bush’s Memex and hypertext theory,
- Historical facts that led to the development of the ARPANET and the World Wide Web, such as the transition from mainframes to personal computers
- The development of HTML as the web’s main original programming language and how the internet’s functionality was originally based on communication protocols that aimed at sharing resources.
- Social uses of the internet:
- Usenet, BBS and MUDs as the origins of blogs, wikis, and social networking sites.
- The development of what was called web 2.0. and co-related issues such as regulation, privacy and digital divide. online.
- Location and Net locality:
- The affordances of digital networks embedded with mobility and location awareness.
- Location-based services and location-based social networks.
COM487: Internet and Society
Department: Department of Communication
Institution: NC State University
Terms: Fall 2018, Spring 2010 [section 1] [section 2], Spring 2008 [section 1] [section 2], Spring 2007 [section 1] [section 2], Spring 2006 [section 1] [section 2], Fall 2005
The primary goal of this class is to investigate interconnections between the Internet and society focusing on the interfaces that allow us to connect to digital spaces. The course will be divided into three main parts.
Part I includes a historical overview of the development of the Internet. We will explore how the personal computer, as an assemblage of material interfaces (such as the mouse, the keyboard, the screen, and the operational system), shaped not only how we interact with, but also how we understand the Internet. We will investigate how the concept of cyberspace contributed to the visualization of the computer and the Internet as social spaces, leading to the development of MUDs and virtual worlds. In this part, we will draw on literary and science fiction views of the Internet and cyberspace.
Part II focuses on the Internet today. We will address how blogs, wikis, and social networking sites contribute to the development of what is called web 2.0. We will also explore how the Internet is becoming more integrated into our everyday life via location-based services, mobile social networks, and ubiquitous computing, focusing on some of the social implications of these developments, such as privacy and surveillance issues. Finally, we will discuss social access to the Internet, which concerns ideas about the digital divide both in the United States and in developing countries.
The ultimate goal of this class is to raise a discussion about the role of the Internet in contemporary society.