Continuous connectivity, handheld computers, and mobile spatial knowledge

• Autores: Matthew W Wilson
• Localización: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, ISSN-e 1472-3433, Vol. 32, Nº. 3, 2014, págs. 535-555
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • As geospatial information seemingly moves from users� personal computers to �the cloud�, the use of the phrase �geographic technologies� has increasingly indicated things beyond desktop GIS. With these shifts in the distribution of geospatial data and practices, and the rise of the geoweb as a site of inquiry, new concepts are needed to better understand the conditions of geographic technologies. In this paper I conceptualize one such element of interactivity: connection. Here, I argue that a logic of continuous connectivity underlies the development of digital spatial media and influences the contemporary production of spatial knowledge. For those lives lived that are presumed to be �always connected�, interactions are figured by these connections to digital media. Many of these digital devices (especially mobile ones) become functional only through a series of connections to data and communication networks. For instance, mobile phones are in continuous communication regardless of direct use, �listening� to cellular towers and analyzing proximity to deliver the best possible connection. From these system-level codes that maintain device connectivity to software-level codes that push and pull data to and from �the cloud�, being always connected is part of a cultural milieu that has diverse implications not only for attention but also for the development of collective, spatial knowledge. Here, I situate the emergence of continuous connectivity in the marketing of handheld computers in the late 1990s, to historicize the importance of connection for understanding geospatial practices.