Martijn de Waal & Michiel de Lange have started a special project on The Mobile City weblog in which they review new books on urban culture and new media.Recent reviews include:
Stephen Graham (ed.) - The Cybercities Reader
Kevin Lynch - The Image of the City
Marcus Foth (ed.) - Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics: a matter of ‘U-City’ or ‘U-Citizens?
Mimi Ito et al. - Portable Objects in Three Global Cities
A semiologist by training he accidentally fell in networked devices and online services 25 years ago and never left this playground. From the French Minitel in the 80’s, to the very first Internet company in France (FranceNet) in the 90’s, to Ozone the community based Wi-Fi rooftop mesh network of Paris, rafi created a dozen companies. In 2003 he founded Violet, maker of the Nabaztag rabbit and the Mir:ror. Since September 2009, with sen.se he continues his exploration of connected objects and environments and how they can bring meaning and fun to consumers and organizations.
Denis Roio, aka Jaromil, is a nomadic developer and media artist inspired by the Free Software and Free Speech movements. Since the year 2000 he is a public figure among the dyne.org hackers, his creations are recommended by the FSF and redistributed by several GNU/Linux operating systems worldwide. Since 2005 he leads R&D activities for the NIMk in Amsterdam, publishing software for media creativity and contributing to theoretical discourses. In 2009 he has been awarded the Vilem Flusser Theory Award and is now studying for a PhD at the Planetary Collegium (M-Node) of the University of Plymouth, under supervision of professor Antonio Caronia.
Karim Amrani is Director at Jibly, developing new concepts, that take a creative and playful approach to social innovation. His grandparents were jbella (plural of jibly). Jbella are people who live in the mountains. Simple people, with little knowledge to grasp. Despite the lack of available information, they understood the world around them. They interacted with each other and their environment in a simple yet complex way. Many years later, I live in a world where all the information is available. Yet, we hardly understand our environment.