(2004-04-03) Full Time Network

Joi Ito has been talking about the Full Time Intimate Community idea coming from Japanese Cell Phone use research, referring to a group of 4-5 people who stay in constant contact (via cell Instant Messaging). It's a Mark Granovetter "StrongTie-s" community... In a chat channel, most of the content is just carrier signal - people sending signals of what state their in. Good morning, I need a bath. Should this be called the Full Time Network in Ross Mayfield's Ecosystem Of Networks? Or the Always On Network (oops, nope).

Related: Digital Camera as generating Ne Ta: In Japanese, "material" for news and stories is called "neta." The term has strong journalistic associations, but also gets used to describe material that can become the topic of conversation among friends or family: a new store seen on the way to work; a cousin who just dropped out of high school; a funny story heard on the radio. Camera phones provide a new tool for making these everyday neta not just verbally but also visually shareable. (Which reminds me of the Audio-Blog variant of not talking but rather recording relevant ambient noises...)

This remind's me of Joi Ito's IRC use, and of Situated Software. And of being Famous For Fifteen People.

Anil Dash stresses the quality of the connection intended by a small group of existing friends.