Ubicomp from the Edge of the North Atlantic: Lessons from Fishing

• Main Authors: Hrönn Brynjarsdóttir, Phoebe Sengers
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Iceland; Newfoundland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.505.5772; http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009/papers/Paper-8-globicomp_brynjarsdottir_sengers-1.pdf

In this paper, we enumerate initial lessons for ubicomp from our fieldwork in villages in Iceland and Newfoundland. Typically, ‘development ’ is understood as bringing technology, and along with it, progress, from the Western world into developing nations. In the small, traditional Western fishing villages we are studying, residents have experiences with technology that complicate the assumed link between technological development and progress. Their stories suggest both promise and peril for the development of ubiquitous technologies, which truly speak to the needs of rural, subsistence producers.