UBICOMP THOUGHTS
Now this is good reading. Sure Thackara didn’t get all his facts right, and he did make an incendiary comment, but look at the impassioned response! So much better than distanced academic “discussion.” This got under people’s skin. It made them respond. And I do agree with Thackara’s last comment about the “Wild West” mentality sometimes expressed in Ubicomp circles…
Finally, the inaugural issue editorial of Pervasive Computing Magazine described the situation facing researchers as being “like the American West… a rich, open space where the rules have yet to be written, and the borders to be drawn”. My own recollection of the American West is that, far from being empty, it contained rather a lot of native Americans and buffalo – and we know what happened to them.
word. Important things to think about. Hopefully this gaffe will lead to more heated discussion.