Editorial (Near)ubiquitous connectivity

Wifi, 3G and other wireless technologies have raised our expectations of connectivity and as a result irrevocably changed our social interactions. We can, as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and my email inboxes tell me, connect as an individual to more people more directly than we have ever been able to do so before. But if communication is liberated though new technologies, who holds the reins of responsibility? Investigating this question reveals a complexity of professional practices, which are explored in this issue of Convergence. One of the advantages of wireless for us is the ability to access the virtual world from different devices. For example I can read a book in the coffee queue on a portable HTC phone or on the train on an outsized (A4) kindle with its ability to enlarge the type. When synced, I can pick up the page anywhere I can connect to the wifi. This means that the text becomes independent of the physical device but the reading experience is not. As a reader I have a material connection with the screen-device I read the book on. David Beer reminds us in his debates piece that the physicality of mobile devices should not be ignored. Such devices are ‘objects with which individuals may develop an attachment ’ and he argues that ‘these connections are actually an important part of how mobile media have become such a prominent and embedded part of contemporary life’. Beer’s debat