urban mobilities and communication practices dana diminescu and christian licoppe social science...

Urban mobilities and communication practicesDana Diminescu and Christian Licoppe Social Science Department, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications, Paris

Zbigniew Smoreda and Cezary ZiemlickiSociology and Economics of Networks and Services Laboratory, France Telecom R&D, Issy-les-Moulineaux

2London 2007, 19th May

Two traditions, one world

• Paradigm of mobilities (Sheller & Urry, 2005)– The displacement paradigm: moving to go somewhere

to do something– The mobility paradigm: turning mobility,

communication and ongoing activities into a creative performance

• Paradigm of communication (Licoppe & Smoreda, 2006)– Mobile and connected users can maintain a 'tele-

cocoon' with their proximal social network– The emergence of "connected presence"


An experimental research project

• Mobile phone as a key resource in the development of the mobility paradigm

• Mobile use can generate traces of places visited and communication acts performed

• A mobile-based tracking method and protocol to analyze:

– mobility patterns

– mobile communication

– the interplay between both

A test sample in Paris 2004/2005


Method


Research protocol

1) an empirical apparatus for collecting and aggregating data concerning the locations of users and their communication practices

2) two series of interviews over ten days, in which subjects were shown these objective data and questioned about their interpretation

3) use of the previous interviews to qualify the data gathered over several months


Apparatus for collecting and aggregating data

Probe adapted to the Symbian OS

Recording every action accomplished on the mobile phone (sending, reading, suppressing SMS and MMS)

Recording events figuring in the « call diary »

Constant monitoring and recording of current cell through geo-location of terminal with respect to cell identity

Easy to install and to remove (but currently adapted to a single terminal)

Data are recorded and stocked on the terminal through the probe

Transfer to a server through automatic synchronization

Transparent to users


DATEEVT TYPEV PARAM CellId30/08/2004 13:06:56 NEWCID 4088330/08/2004 13:12:37 NEWCID 4172130/08/2004 13:12:54 NEWCID 4088330/08/2004 13:34:03 INCCAL 0145294812 4088330/08/2004 13:48:47 NEWCID 4172130/08/2004 13:49:01 NEWCID 40883

……………………..30/08/2004 17:12:59 RECSMS 888 2312330/08/2004 17:13:13 LECSMS 1404030/08/2004 17:13:22 CRESMS 5988530/08/2004 17:14:13 NEWCID 4170230/08/2004 17:14:46 ENVSMS +33689094877 2375430/08/2004 17:45:22 INCCAL 0608414297 5988530/08/2004 17:47:01 NEWCID 4496030/08/2004 17:51:33 NEWCID 2375330/08/2004 17:51:47 OUTCAL 0608414297 44704

……………………..30/08/2004 21:37:25 URLWAP http://www.orange.fr 3546

Cellid X Y Ville Adresse40883 600661 2425302 PARIS 55, rue Vergniaud41721 600661 2425302 PARIS 55, rue Vergniaud40883 600661 2425302 PARIS 55, rue Vergniaud40883 600661 2425302 PARIS 55, rue Vergniaud41721 600661 2425302 PARIS 55, rue Vergniaud40883 600661 2425302 PARIS 55, rue Vergniaud

23123 598395 2429344 PARIS aerg des Invalides14040 597686 2430483 Paris 16, rue de Berri59885 598845 2430203 PARIS 11, rue d'Anjou41702 598243 2430246 PARIS 17, av Matignon23754 598602 2430447 PARIS 11, rue des Saussaies59885 598845 2430203 PARIS 11, rue d'Anjou44960 598631 2430326 PARIS 9, rue Duras23753 598602 2430447 PARIS 11, rue des Saussaies44704 598642 2430535 PARIS 16, rue Cambacérès

3546 599158 2432186 PARIS 70b, av de Clichy

Raw data Cell_id translated into street addresses

In-call

Move

In-SMS

Out-call

WAP session

Linking events to the places they occur in


Aggregating data into meaningful time chunks

deb fin duree (sec) cellid X Y Ville NomDuSite Adresse

30/08/2004 09:09:40 30/08/2004 16:27:29 26269 41721 600680 2425340 PARIS BARRAULT 55, rue Vergniaud-------------------------------

30/08/2004 18:46:07 30/08/2004 18:46:55 48 44448 598850 2430681 PARIS HAUSSMANN 89, bd Haussman30/08/2004 18:46:55 30/08/2004 18:48:46 111 44489 598880 2431008 PARIS ST AUGUSTIN 38/42, rue du Rocher30/08/2004 18:48:46 30/08/2004 18:51:34 168 49603 598829 2431764 PARIS ROME 7, rue Mariotte30/08/2004 18:51:34 30/08/2004 18:52:55 81 3546 599158 2432186 PARIS LA FOURCHE 70b, av de clichy30/08/2004 18:52:55 30/08/2004 18:53:08 13 15988 599158 2431808 PARIS LA FOURCHE 27, rue Lécluse30/08/2004 18:53:08 30/08/2004 23:44:46 21098 3546 599158 2432186 PARIS LA FOURCHE 70b, av de Clichy

Building maps representing mobility and communication patterns for interviews

Aggregating data so as to determine duration of stays in a particular cell as well as the communication events occasioned during that stay (incoming and outgoing calls, SMS, MMS, etc.)


Activity and communication data presented to the interviewee

Start time End Stay (min) City Antenna address 02/03/2005 14:52:00 17:07:50 135,8 LE BLANC MESNIL 48, rue de la République 02/03/2005 17:07:50 18:16:06 72,8 AULNAY/BOIS 38, rue Turgot 02/03/2005 18:16:06 19:02:58 46,9 AULNAY/BOIS 65, rue Turgot 02/03/2005 19:02:58 19:03:21 0,4 LE BLANC MESNIL 48, rue de la République 02/03/2005 19:03:21 19:04:42 1,4 AULNAY/BOIS 5 rue de Flore 02/03/2005 19:04:42 19:05:34 0,9 LE BLANC MESNIL 48, rue de la République 02/03/2005 19:05:34 19:08:25 2,9 AULNAY/BOIS OPHLM d'Aulnay a) Date Hour Contacted number CODE City Antenna address 10/02/2005 17:56:54 +3314954xxxx INCCALL AULNAY/BOIS 38, rue Turgot 10/02/2005 18:21:51 +3314954xxxx INCCALL PARIS Station RER Luxembourg 10/02/2005 18:25:34 +3368690xxxx OUTSMS PARIS 22, rue Fg St Jacques 10/02/2005 19:31:32 +3368690xxxx OUTCALL PARIS 99, bd Montparnasse 10/02/2005 19:32:15 +3368690xxxx INCCALL PARIS 99, bd Montparnasse b) Extract of a logbook concerning (a) places and (b) telephone practices presented during the interview.


Interviews

Eliciting user narratives through confrontation with data-based diaries of their mobility and communication patterns:

1. first interview to assess socio-demographic data, identify correspondents and patterns of behaviour and coordination,

2. second one to confront users with data collected in the week prior to the interview.


A confrontation of user with data collected in the week prior to the interview shows:

– a need to give meaning to data events (staying in a cell, changing cells, giving a call to a given number at a particular place and time)

– that surveillance data are meaningless without a lot of user-centered information that needs to be provided by persons

A self-imposed pressure on the part of subjects :– to reconstruct their own narratives (emic) accounting for as

much as possible of the presented data (etic)

– to resolve perceived inconsistencies between data and their own accounts

Interview 2


A test sample in Paris

Last ten years:Routine work

Stable work with flexible patterns

Unstable flexible work

Precarious work situations

Did not change place of residence

1 male

1 female

Changed place of residence in France

Changed places with stays abroad

24 people aged 30-45with child(ren)(migrants and non-migrants)


Mobilities,

Mobile Communication,

and Activity Patterns


Contrast n°1

Paradigms for mobilities (Sheller & Urry, 2005)

The displacement paradigm: moving to go somewhere to do something

The mobility paradigm: turning mobility, communication and ongoing activities into a creative performance


Oscar: frozen, mute mobilities

35, male, married, software engineer in a public institutionThree moorings

Fixed workplaceHome n°2 in the suburbs of Paris (week)Home n°1 in Normandy where wife lives (week-ends); tries to find a job thereSharp time boundaries between work, leisure and mobility

Complex but repetitive mobilityUses many kinds of transportation (train, two cars, subway/urban train, walk etc.) Pendular, goal-oriented mobility

Restricted mobile communication patterns centred on wifemarginally with parents and a few friends


Large scale mobility patterns (mostly week-

end, for private purposes)

Short scale mobility patterns (mostly workdays, mostly related to work)


Mobility patterns - time spent at home (workdays over six months)

Mobility patterns - time spent at work (workdays over six months)

Mobility patterns - time spent on travel and stations(workdays over six months)

Temps passé dans des lieux et en trajets identifiés

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Trajets etgares


Workdays mobility patterns superposing

identified locations(over six months)

In average 85% of time over six months is

spent in places identified during one

week


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Total


Sandrine: Creative, communication-laden mobilities Making each situation into an opportunity

37, W, lives with companion in Paris, one child born during study

Varied occupations in the moviemaking sectorTeaches, cuts her own movies, act as production assistant and occasional location scout for movies

Complex mobility and connectivityUses all kinds of transportation means with several fixed and transitory workplaces

Adapts her displacements to her work constraint : no long term regularitiesMany contacts are made on the move

Communication patterns are denseMix private and professional (many professional contacts)

Time boundaries between work and leisure are blurred

Mobility skills and communication skills are interwoven to fulfil tasks on the moveThe work of preparing for the next job is as effort-consuming as the next job itself


Short scale mobility patterns (Paris and surroundings)


5002 Appels Semaine

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5002 Consultation boite vocale

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Occupation of places during workdays (over six months,

according to time of day)

Outgoing phone calls(workdays)

Voicemail use(workdays)

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Contrast n°1: synopsis• Some subjects actually embody the “displacement

paradigm” or the “mobility paradigm” in their mobility and communication practices

• Of particular relevance to the mobility paradigm: flexible and precarious work contexts

• Our data makes visible the "work of preparing for the next job"

– Specific mobility patterns: many short-time workplaces

– Specific communication patterns: the mobile phone to keep social networks alive


Propensities to call from a given place

in a given time


Measuring the joint dynamics of mobility and communication (1/2)

Some existing data about the number of mobile phone calls from a given place:The majority of calls is given from fixed places such as the home or the workplace

With our methodology we can measure more refined indicators such as the number of calls emitted by the user from a given place, in a given time (propensities to call per place per time)

The informative value of a more refined indicator. John gives 28% of his calls from home, but spends 69% of his time there, so that his propensity to call from home per unit of time is : 0.41He spends 7.7% of his calls during transportation time, but this accounts for 1% of his time only so that his propensity to call during such mobility is 7.7


Measuring the joint dynamics of mobility and communication (2/2)

Propensities to call from home are systematically low

Propensities to call from the workplace vary a lot across the sampleHighly contingent on the work context

Propensities to call in mobility contexts are very high, consistently throughout the sample

True both for such different profiles as Oscar and Sandrine (who will differ in the number of calls and nature of calls)

Mobility contexts “affords” mobile communication a lot

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Conclusion


What have we shown here? How to use location data and mobile communication data so as to map user behaviour over extended periods of time

How to combine such quantitative data with qualitative information to move from locations to places

How this methodology provides insight on the way the mobility and communication behaviour of users fit current discussions of the transformation of mobility paradigms

How to construct new indicators that shed light on the specific ways mobility contexts particularly favour mobile communication


Thank you

urban mobilities and communication practices dana diminescu and christian licoppe social science...

Documents

communication data

data events

communication events

surveillance data

objective data

moulineaux slide

interviewee slide

mobility paradigm mobile