Creative Synthesis

Interested in the ways in which mobile technology influences social development and the urban landscape, research boutique Urban Atmospheres has built an ongoing project on the belief that cell phones and other devices are creating “an architecture of participation and democracy,” allowing a greater range of social action through the collaborative use gathering and analysis of data. 

Moving beyond the use of cell phones for voice and text transmission, the Participatory Urbanism program believes that the potential of cell phones and other personal devices to manipulate spatial and environmental data makes them an integral part of any effort to promote transparency and political participation.  The devices allow citizens to be more engaged with their communities and governments; as a corollary, the philosophy would lead to personal technology that is more integrated into the environment, reflecting more real-time data than “a narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum with a tiny readout of cell tower signal strength using a series of bars.”  Building on Urban Atmospheres’s Ergo air quality monitoring program, Participatory Urbanism has achieved its earliest successes promoting local study of air quality and pollution, such as in this scenario:

Tyler lives in Lagos, Nigeria where his family often cooks indoor using charcoal.  Tyler’s son is suffers nearly every two weeks from respiratory problems.  However, the government just received another award for outstanding regional air quality. Tyler checks his mobile phone’s sulfur dioxide sensor and realizes that several hazardous level measurements were taken about two weeks ago.  Tyler compares his measurements to others shared online and realizes the problem occurs during indoor cooking using freshly cut wood. Tyler alerts others with similar measurements to the problem and successfully petitions the government to provide new cleaner sources of cooking fuel based on his and others reported measurements.

Communitarian thought  rests upon a foundation comprised of open communication between citizens and experts, attention to local interconnections, and a dialogic understanding of education.  The Participatory Urbanism program–both in current application and ultimate scope–embraces these values as its explores the co-evolution of technology and society.  The effort to use cell phones for good instead of evil–along with the group’s overall devotion to linking technology and social awareness–has made Urban Atmospheres a model for the use of pervasive technology to further public action on ecological issues.  A panel at this year’s International Conference on Pervasive Computing will explore the relationship between the connection between the use of technology to raise awareness and factors motivating individuals and communities to tackle environmental concerns.