Collective and Network Sociality in an Urban Village

Our ongoing research program explores the communicative ecology of urban residents and the way these findings can inform design innovation of interactive web, mobile and geospatial applications and local communication services. This paper presents results of a study within this program that seeks to develop a better understanding of the way residents choose different types of web and mobile technology to oscillate between collective and networked interaction paradigms. The analysis of this data draws out key distinctions between collective and network sociality in place-based settings. It points in the direction of design opportunities for global web services to be translated and appropriated for local use to support everyday connections, place making efforts and participatory urbanism and citizenship