Ubiquitous information in a world of limitations

.

I've written my quickest paper ever this past week. I was incredibly productive and I'm really happy about the result! Half a day the week before and then Wednesday to Friday this week (interrupted by other pesky work-related tasks at times). I was inspired and wrote a good 20 pages, and it is quite a polished draft paper that I managed to write if I may say so.

The paper is called "Ubiquitous information in a world of limitations" and I will present it at a workshop in the end of the month (I'll get back with more info afterwards). The abstract can be found here and here is the introduction:

"Note: This paper in its current form is not an academic paper, but rather a think-piece. The initial ideas behind the paper were formulated after a local meeting in the Stockholm Culture of Ubiquitous Information NordForsk research network node. The meeting had a very brainstormy character to it, and the output was sharply divided between two types of suggestions regarding the future; ubiquitous information would create a better future with a blooming of creative output and individual freedom, or, it would create a society that would have to deal with negative implications of ubiquitous information in terms of technostress, surveillance, etc. What struck me though, was the fact that these two contradictory futures both took for granted that we absolutely certainly would live in a culture of, and society with, ubiquitous information. Taking into account recent developments, I here choose to question, or, actually to redefine what the notion of "ubiquitous information" might mean in a world of limitations.

This paper consists of three parts. In the first part I shortly outline reasons for why it may be the case that we will move towards a world of limitations during the coming decades. In the second part I explain why the slow but inexorable decline of cities such as Detroit, with its movement from glory (1950) to decline (2010), could serve as inspiration for a background against which scenarios about the future of ubiquitous information could be sketched out. The third part of the paper develops ideas and suggestions of what ubiquitous computing and ubiquitous information could mean in a world of limitations."

Post-script: I will use this blog post as a repository for ideas and leads about what to do with this paper on the way from draft status to finished (preferably journal) publication. Some such ideas are already developed in this (later) blog post. Here are some more:

- My friend Jörgen Skågeby suggested Universal Access in the Information Society (Springer) as a possible venue for publication.

.