(keitai-l) New Book on Japanese Mobile

Hola Keitai-L -

I'm an old contributor to these lists, when I lived in Japan and  
wrote about mobile for TheFeature.com (now sadly shuttered).  I'm  
currently studying Interactive Media, including mobile phones and  
video games, at the University of Southern California.  Drop me a  
line if you're ever in town here!  I'll be in Tokyo for the upcoming  
September Tokyo Game Show.

Anyhow, I'm writing now to mention a brilliant new book that's come  
out, that should be of use to you:

Personal, Portable, Pedestrian : Mobile Phones in Japanese Life
  by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, Misa Matsuda

These folks have gathered and translated a dozen or so essays on  
keitai, tracking their history, their proliferation, the user  
adaptation of new technologies, and the social impact of these devices.

The research was all done by Japanese academics, people who had the  
time to ask the questions and do the research that I didn't as a  
journalist.  They interviewed and recorded the mobile phone use of  
families, of teenagers, of business people.

I read the book after I'd already spent years summarizing these  
things, based on anecdotes and cursory research.  There's a lot of  
depth in this book, for folks who want to tell stories or understand  
the context of mobile media in Japan.

I'll include a link for more information on the book below:

http://www.itofisher.com/mito/archives/000076.html

My keitai-L email is coming through intermittently (broken  
SpamAssassin), so if I'm late to a discussion in progress, pardon me  
- this is a juicy tome that folks here would dig.

Okay,

Justin


Justin Hall
http://www.links.net/