DEMOS

‘Location awareness’ is likely to be the killer app of mobile technology, as our phones send out and receive data which locates us precisely in time and space. The opportunity to deliver services via the next generation of mobile phones, when we need them and where we need them, will be tempered with fears about it becoming, in effect, a personal surveillance device.

Despite the concerns, life without a mobile is scarcely imaginable for most of us. In a recent survey of British adults, 47% described the loss of their mobile as akin to a bereavement.  So what does the ubiquity of mobiles, and our love-hate relationship with them, mean for Britain? 

Mobilisation assesses the impact of mobile technology, from the social and cultural to the political and economic. From the rise of ‘text sex’ to the proliferation of personalised ring tones, mobiles have become an extension of our identity and an essential way of maintaining personal relationships.

Yet as mobile technologies evolve from voice to video and other data-rich applications, James Harkin argues that more effort is needed to drag mobiles from the private to public sphere. The future of mobile technology has become a matter of real public interest.

To what extent could m-democracy help to reinvigorate stale political processes? What role could mobiles play in the delivery of public services? Will location-based technology revolutionise our transport infrastructure? What challenges does mobile surveillance pose for civil liberties? What is the appropriate regulatory framework to stimulate the uptake of next-generation devices and applications?