Cell phones in life&death situations...

"Migrant Uses Wireless Phone to Call 911 While Adrift at Sea
A migrant adrift at sea with 66 others used his wireless phone to call 911 and guide a U.S. helicopter to their boat. The emergency service was able to determine from signals given off by wireless phone towers where the call was coming from. Police relayed the phone call to the Coast Guard, which dispatched a helicopter and two cutters to rescue the 67 migrants. The man was able to guide the helicopter to their location by remaining on his wireless phone and telling officials when the helicopter sounded nearby. (Source: Associated Press) "

"Boy Uses Wireless Phone to Save Life
A 14-year-old boy in the U.K. used his wireless phone to save his life after receiving serious leg injuries in a motorbike accident on a mountaintop. The boy was suffering from hypothermia when police located him. According to police, if the boy had not had his wireless phone with him, they could have been dealing with a death. (Source: BBC News) "

"Student's Suspension Shortened
Following hundreds of angry phone calls and emails, school officials at an Army base city have reduced a suspension imposed on a student who wouldn't give up his wireless phone while talking to his mom, an Army sergeant serving in Iraq. The Muscogee County School District Board of Education, which serves Fort Benning, allows students to have wireless phones in school but not to use them during school hours. According to reports, the student was suspended for disorderly conduct after refusing to hand his wireless phone over to a teacher and cursing at the teacher. However, after an extraordinary amount of phone calls to school officials, the county lessened the amount of the student's suspension from 10 days, down to 3 days. (Source: CNN, Associated Press)"

Ability to be in contact essentially in the middle of nowhere can be a way to save a life or a way to get the son of an army sergeant in Iraq, suspended from school. In times of crisis, it is only the ability to contact that matters. At other times, however, inability to understand the context of the conversation partner can change the dynamics of the conversation, and, even put that partner in an uncomfortable position. As cell phones take telephone conversations from the well-established context of a home or an office to an anytime anywhere state, context becomes yet another variable in the "appropriate conversation" equation.

The Latest Rumbling in the Blogosphere: Questions About Ethics - New York Times

The Latest Rumbling in the Blogosphere: Questions About Ethics - New York Times - Over the last few years my blog-reading patterns have been changing every few months. I started by reading quite a few political blogs, then switched to an RSS feed, then uninstalled the RSS reader and quit reading most of the political blogs (although not all of them). The major reasons for the last change were several. The biggest two had to do with shameless advertising plugs inside posts that weren't even identified as such and common lack of distinction between opinion and fact. A few months ago there had been a number of discussion on whether bloggers were journalists or not. While in general I do not think most bloggers fit the bill of journalism, some of the high profile political commentators certainly do. The article in the NYT makes a good point - if you are going to yell at the "establishment" of traditional media for breaching rules of protocol, you better adhere to those rules yourself and with demonstrable devotion. Otherwise, what right do you have to criticize. There are a number of high profile bloggers that already do so, but I wonder if it's time for a and tags to come into being.

Australia Researches Use Wireless Phones to Monitor Depressed Teens

"Australian researchers plan to launch a wireless service aimed at monitoring adolescent depression and pick up warning signs of potentially suicidal behavior. Under the program, teens download specially-designed software on their wireless phones, which asks a series of questions twice a day to gauge youths' moods and susceptibility to depression. In the trial, the software will be installed on the wireless phones of 400 teenagers for 1 year. (Source: AFP) "

Hmm... ok, there are so many questions about this... I wonder whether they will find this program to be successful, or if answering questions about how they feel twice a day would drive these kids into even more depression? On the other hand, this is a way to harness the power of fidgeting - the free-in-between-time spaces, waiting for the bus, on a bus, walking, bored in class, etc... those times when anything is more interesting than the task at hand, maybe this particular task can fit into this kind of framework? I wonder though, about the veracity of responses. If someone is feeling suicidal, I doubt they would be willing to answer questions or answer them truthfully. Kids are not stupid and, after a while of answering same questions over and over, they may get good at making it seem they are better... it only takes a few answers that are slightly towards the "good" on the scale and those probably wouldn't be difficult to figure out. Of course, it is hard to say without knowing more details and AFP is not exactly forthcoming with them. Hopefully there will be an academic piece on this sometime soon.

The New York Times > Arts > Critic's Notebook: Dial-A-Poem Enters the Internet Age

The New York Times > Arts > Critic's Notebook: Dial-A-Poem Enters the Internet Age - what used to be the realm of the telephone for about 2 years has now been reincarnated in the form of a webpage where you can click on a selection. Ubuweb's Dial-A-Poem Poets website is a repository of history with a change of flavor and a shift of control. Where in 1969-1970, the caller put his ear in the hands of lady luck and listened to whatever it was that came through the receiver, the user these days, can click, select, close, reopen, click again and again and again. They are not even tied to a phone receiver, they can walk away, let friends listen in, make it a party or a private affair. The medium has changed, the affordances have shifted, the words, however are still there. Does their quality and their meaning change when conditions of their recital have changed so dramatically?