Mobile lifestyle or life in the mobile: a perceptional outlook of Chennai city

Cell phones have become increasingly popular in recent years. While people of various ages find cell phones convenient and useful, tend to be more dependent on them. Based on a survey conducted in a randomly in different age-size in Chennai City, cell phone use was examined. The survey consisted of questions that dealt with various aspects of cell phone use, such as cell phone ownerships, time spent for cell phone calls, monthly cell phone bills, communication networks, text messaging, and cell phone dependency. The survey results showed significant gender differences in several aspects of cell phone use. Multiple interpretations of the findings are discussed

Documenting multiple temporalities

Purpose: This article explores the varied ways that individuals create and use calendars, planners, and other cognitive artifacts to document the multiple temporalities that make up their everyday lives. It reveals the hidden documentary time work required to synchronize, coordinate, or entrain their activities to those of others. Design/methodology/approach: We interviewed 47 Canadian participants in their homes, workplaces, or other locations, and photographed their documents. We analyzed qualitatively; first thematically to identify mentions of times, and then relationally to reveal how documentary time work was situated within participants’ broader contexts. Findings: Participants’ documents revealed a wide variety of temporalities, some embedded in the templates they used, and others added by document creators and users. Participants’ documentary time work involved creating and using a variety of tools and strategies to reconcile and manage multiple temporalities and indexical time concepts that held multiple meanings. Their work employed both standard “off the shelf” and individualized “do-it-yourself” approaches. Originality: This article combines several concepts of invisible work (document work, time work, articulation work) to show both how individuals engage in documentary time work and how that work is situated within broader social and temporal contexts and standards

MemoBoard familiar

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de InformaçãoSejam quais forem as circunstâncias, quem tem uma vida social ativa, quer seja profissional ou pessoal, já se viu confrontado com a necessidade do uso de um ou mais calendários. Embora o calendário tenda a ter uma conotação pessoal, são muitas as famílias que o usam como a melhor forma de gerir as suas atividades e organizar o tempo de família partilhando por todos o mesmo calendário. Mas se pensarmos em termos de família, esta só existe pela razão da existência de cada um dos seus membros e cada membro para além da vida familiar tem a sua vida pessoal e profissional. Conciliar todos os eventos num único local partilhado, sem comprometimento da privacidade de cada um, torna-se uma tarefa difícil senão impossível. Como forma de contornar esta situação, cada membro vê-se “obrigado” a usar um segundo calendário onde coloca os eventos que não devem ser partilhados no seio familiar. Para ultrapassar esta e outras questões, nesta dissertação propomos a criação de três tipos de exposição de dados nos calendários, de forma a garantir que se possa usar um único sem comprometer a privacidade de cada elemento. Como prova de conceito, foi criada uma plataforma web com um calendário e tarefas com suporte a estes três tipos de exposição, e testado por famílias no seu dia-a-dia durante um período de tempo. Os resultados obtidos permitiram verificar as necessidades que um utilizador que usa um calendário tem, bem como a apetência para o usar em família. Das respostas obtidas, ficou claro que o calendário é um excelente auxiliar de memória já que mais de 80% o usam com esse intuito. Não foram ainda conclusivos até ao momento os resultados sobre a tipificação dos eventos em três possibilidades de exposição, mas tem-se indicações positivas quanto sua utilidade a avaliar pela satisfação manifestada pelas famílias que testaram o protótipo.Whatever the circumstances, those who have an active social life, whether professional or personal, have already felt the need to use one or more calendars. Although calendars tend to have a personal connotation, many families use them as the best way of managing their activities and organize family time by sharing the same calendar. But if we think in terms of family - whose reason for existing is each one of its members - each member, beyond family life, has his own personal and professional life. To combine all events in one shared place without compromising the privacy of each member becomes a difficult task, if not impossible. As a way to get around this situation, each member finds himself "forced" to use a second calendar where he manages the events that are not to be shared with the family. To overcome this and other issues, this dissertation proposal is the creation of three types of data exposure in the calendars, in order to ensure that just one calendar can be used without compromising the privacy of each element. As proof of concept, a web platform with a calendar and tasks supporting these three types of exposure was created and tested by families in their day-to-day life over a certain period of time. The obtained results allowed to observe the needs that a calendar user has, as well as the willingness to use it in the family unit. The obtained answers made clear that the calendar is an excellent memory aid since more than 80% use it for that purpose. The results have so far not been conclusive in what concerns the typification of events in three exposure possibilities, but there are positive indicators regarding their usefulness judging from the satisfaction expressed by the families who are tested the prototype

Gouverner par le temps: Sociologie politique des agendas personnels et des emplois du temps d'acteurs publics

La sociologie des temporalités et l'anthropologie de l'agenda personnel révèle les significations « civilisationnelles » de cet outil ordinaire de gestion du temps des individus modernes. Il est à la fois un vecteur rationnel d'auto-contrôle, d'une aliénation planifiée condamnant au « présentisme », mais il est aussi l'instrument d'une gestion individuelle émancipatrice des temporalités plurielles, des frontières et des rôles. Ses usages en politique témoignent des logiques de l'accélération généralisée des sociétés, d'un raccourcissement des horizons, d'une disparition des futurs possibles, d'une saturation des temps du représentant politique par les réunions, les rendez-vous et les cérémonies, par l'animation, la médiation, les clientèles et la parade, par l'urgence et la multi-activité connectée, on line et en temps réel, au détriment « des dossiers » et de « la réflexion » sur les projets de sociétés qu'il est censé porter. Mais cet agenda outil de synchronisation des temporalités plurielles des acteurs publics de la démocratie reste un observatoire sous-exploité des logiques du travail de représentation, de gouvernement et, in fine, de légitimation. L'ambition est alors de dessiner l'agenda comme une fenêtre sur la gestion du temps en politique, le rythme, la nature et la répartition des tâches dans l'emploi du temps des élus et des dirigeants politiques. Il s'agit se structurer l'approche du politique par les agendas personnels des acteurs du champ du pouvoir, à partir de trois axes horizontaux d'interprétation de leurs usages : le gouvernement de soi, l'organisation collective et la mise en scène du travail politique. Ces lectures croisent la double dimension de l'objet, à la fois dispositif de planification à observer et corpus d'événements à exploiter. L'analyse montre que l'agenda du politique est d'abord une écriture programmatrice et mémorielle, une auto-discipline équipée. Il permet d'incorporer les exigences et les attendus du métier, de domestiquer l'urgence et de produire une image exemplaire. L'analyse souligne ensuite que l'agenda est un dispositif organisationnel de coordination managériale, de rationalisation et de professionnalisation du travail politique individuel et collectif. L'efficience de l'entreprise de représentation politique passe par une optimisation du temps. Le pouvoir reposerait de ce point de vue d'abord sur une bonne gestion de ce temps. L'analyse montre enfin que l'agenda reste surtout un vecteur de légitimation de la domination. La mise en scène quotidienne de soi et du leadership auquel la publication de l'agenda personnel donne lieu joue avec l'impératif de transparence et l'exigence de proximité, sans toutefois révéler les secrets du pouvoir