Mobile Location Based Services

Mobile Location Based Services (MLBS) have been in operation since the 1970s. Conceived initially for military use, the Global Positioning System technology was later released to the world for other applications. As usage of the technology increased, mobile network points, developed by mobile service operators, supplemented its usage in various applications of MLBS. This chapter charts the trajectory of MLBS applications in the mass market, afforded by the evolution of technology, digital, and mobility cultures. Assimilating various MLBS classifications, it then situates examples into four quadrants according to the measures of user-position or device-position focus, and alert-aware or active-aware applications. The privacy implications of MLBS are captured on the economic, social, and political fronts, and its future is discussed.

Mobile Technologies and Gender Rituals

This chapter explores the implications of mobile technologies on gender through the lens of gender rituals. While maintaining social order and social roles, rituals also legitimate key category differences, ideologies, and inequalities. The increasing convergence of media and content in mobile devices, and the blurring of the spaces for work, family, and leisure amidst the landscape of globalization and mobility have important implications for the enactment of rituals, and in the performance of gender. The chapter discusses this mutual shaping of gender rituals and mobile technologies through a case study of the Philippines, with some broad implications for other contexts. The study finds that the personalization, mobility, and multitude of applications afforded by mobile devices offer many opportunities for the exploration of new possibilities for subjectivity that challenge particular gender stereotypes and restrictions while simultaneously affirming particular gender rituals. While exploring the implications of the mobile device on gender in a developing society, the chapter in turn highlights the importance of culturally embedded rituals in shaping and understanding the mobile device's place in society.

Mobile Learning Apps

With the phenomenal growth of mobile applications or apps used for teaching and learning, we are all challenged with determining which ones are effective and efficient in meeting our specific instructional needs. The use of mobile apps directly impacts students, teachers, administrators, trainers, and employees worldwide. Apps are used across all discipline areas in a variety of settings including applied interdisciplinary approaches. With this in mind, it is critical to have a workable set of app analysis questions based on current best educational practices to assist in making informed decisions on app selections to provide quality teaching and learning experiences. This chapter provides a mixed method research study combining class observations with results from three pilots in an effort to create a set of quality questions for quickly evaluating mobile apps for instructional implementation. After creating a set of questions for evaluating the quality of the apps based on current best instructional practices, the following three pilot studies were conducted. The first pilot allowed students to select an app of their own choice followed by a survey to evaluate the app using both quantitative and qualitative open-ended responses. The second pilot had all students examine the same app followed by the same survey to analyze potential differences in results and to gain additional insights. The third pilot study used the same questions, but this time rather than using it to evaluate the app, the students evaluated the quality of the questions used. During the third pilot study, students were looking strictly at the quality of the questions for instructional use. All study participants were graduate-level students in Instructional Design and Technology and were aware of best instructional practices. It is anticipated, post study, instructors and trainers can begin using the evaluation instrument, selecting those questions meeting their unique instructional needs.

Wireless Connected Health

Wireless connected health is the most current, inclusive phrase to describe healthcare that incorporates wireless technologies and/or mobile devices. It represents one of the fastest growing sectors in the global mobile and wireless ecosystem, with extraordinary change occurring daily. According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of people in greatest medical need live in low- to middle-income countries. Not enough has been written about how they will afford wireless connected health, or how it can bring positive benefits to patients everywhere with non-lethal chronic illnesses. It also remains to be seen whether people outside the healthcare industry, without any special interest in science, technology, medicine, or illness prevention, will adopt new and future behavior-changing connected health technologies. This chapter provides a current overview of the global health crises created by noncommunicable diseases, explains the evolution of the global wireless connected health sector, includes information about BRICS nations, and offers observations, insights, and recommendations from a socio-economic and political standpoint for responsible and effective future industry growth.

Mobile Learning in the Arab World

Most Arab countries started their own e-learning and mobile learning initiatives in order to cope with global integration of latest educational technologies. The high mobile phone penetration among Arabs as well as availability of good mobile infrastructure are all important factors that can enhance the shift to mobile learning. Moreover, several studies indicate positive attitudes and perceptions toward mobile learning at different Arab learning institutions. However, specific challenges may act as barriers to mobile learning in the Arab world. This chapter reviews some of the current mobile learning practices in the Arab world and provides an overview of challenges faced by Arab students, educators, and probably researchers. A description of future mobile learning in the Arab countries is then provided.

Mobile Usability

Context and the pervasive environment play a much greater role in mobile technology usage than stationary technology for which usability standards and methods were traditionally developed. The examination of mobile usability shows complex issues due to the ubiquitous and portable nature of mobile devices. This chapter presents the current state of mobile usability testing. More specially, topics covered are various usability testing methods, contextual complexity, audio interfaces, eye and hands-free interactions, augmented reality, and recommendation systems.

Socio-Spatial Relations in Mobile Gaming

This chapter explores the opportunities of mobile games to critique and constitute the networks of which they are a part, attending particularly to location-based games. It discusses how these kinds of mobile games reconfigure people's relationships with other people and objects in their environment. In order to understand this reconfiguration, a model is put forward that clarifies the various ways in which people and objects are presented to the mobile game player. Using this model, examples are discussed of games that make interactions available that are disruptive of a social or political order, arguing that this disruption may be drafted into socio-political critique. Other examples demonstrate how mobile games bring everyday life within a capitalist logic, monetizing leisure and the mundane. This suggests that mobile gaming as a technology, practice, or product is neither fundamentally emancipatory nor fundamentally regressive but rather can be employed in various ways.

“Checking Into” Outdoor Lifestyle?

The increasing adoption of mobile media in place-making and space-constructing practices as well as participatory culture open up new opportunities in marketing. This chapter approaches mobile location-based games as sites of brand experience, productive play, and value co-creation. It examines a mobile location-based game launched by The North Face (TNF) in China to increase its consumer base by shaping people's lifestyle aspirations. It offers insights into the use of mobile to engage more participants in the emerging market; the role of mobile as the central tool, platform, and the interface of hybrid spaces (de Souza e Silva, 2006) in the integrated campaign; and the value co-creation process by consumers for the brand. It also points to unintended consequences of the campaign, evidenced in consumers' deconstruction and reconstruction of the marketer-designed game process and their distortion of space. More generally, it reveals the importance of understanding the opportunities and challenges in addressing creative consumers in utilising mobile location-based game for marketing purposes.

Mobile Communication and Bottom-Up Movements in Singapore

At Hong Lim Park in February 2013, the “No to 6.9 Million Population” protest saw 5,000 Singaporeans expressing their unhappiness with the government's Population White Paper. Touted to be the largest demonstration since Singapore's independence, it bore witness to digital technologies' mobilization effects. Personal and organization websites, discussion forums, blogs, and social media provide viable spaces for individuals and marginalized groups to circumvent offline media regulations and participate in counter-hegemonic discourse. Surveys indicate that Singaporeans are increasingly leveraging mobile communication for utility purposes—seeking and sharing information—and for networking. This chapter identifies digital bottom-up movements that took place in recent years, the anatomy of these movements, and how digital technologies were used. What is evident is that groups championing different causes are using a wide range of digital platforms to galvanize support and mobilize action for political and social issues. However, the link between that and mobile communication remains unclear. This chapter concludes by presenting recommendations for future studies on mobile communication and bottom-up movements.

Technology Facility and News Affinity

Based on a theoretical framework drawn from the diffusion of innovation theory, the expectancy-value model, and the technology-acceptance model, this chapter presents an empirical study of technological and informational factors as predictors of the use of second-generation mobile phones as a news device. The study differentiates the initial adoption of a mobile phone as a technology innovation from second-level adoption, which refers to the acceptance of a distinctive new function of a technology device serving a communication purpose different from that for which the device was originally designed. The study found that technology facility and innovativeness were significant predictors of mobile phone use as a news device; further, it partially confirmed the model of predictors of mobile phone use for news access. However, the two informational factors—perceived value of information and news affinity—were found to have no direct effect on mobile phone use as a news device. The study departs from the traditional approach of adoption research and offers a novel perspective on examining the adoption of new media with multiple evolving functions.