Reality Mining

Wired magazine has reported on an MIT research project that puts into reality some of the ideas about mobile social software that I've been writing* and blogging about (e.g. location enhanced applications). Called Reality Mining, the project captured communication, proximity, location, and activity information from 100 subjects at MIT over the course of the 2004-2005 academic year. The data was collected using special software written to run on any Nokia Symbian Series 60 mobile phone and apparently represents over 350,000 hours (more than 40 years) of continuous data on human behaviour!

In outlining the context for the research, the Reality Mining Website explains that:

"Today's social software is not very social. From standard CRM systems to Friendster.com, these services require users to be in front of a computer in order to make new acquaintances. Serendipity embeds these applications directly into everyday social settings: on the bus, around the water cooler, in a bar, at a conference."

*PS Look out for my latest article on mobile knowledge management in the July/August 2005 of Image and Data Magazine. (In the meantime check my online archive of past articles)

Tags: next generation networks, mobile social software, social software, wireless