Telelogs: a social communication space for urban environments

This paper presents a novel idea for a system known as Telelogs. Utilizing the ubiquity of mobile devices, Telelogs functions as a service by which individuals in an urban environment can establish a better sense of community awareness. In addition, this system could serve as a medium through which these individuals can communicate their thoughts and ideas with others within their environment. This would result in a better sense of community solidarity. Telelogs is targeted towards those persons in society that come across one another on a consistent basis but rather than establishing a direct line of communication, they maintain a relationship that could be characterized as one of courteous detachment. In other words, these individuals are known as familiar strangers. There is strong potential for this relationship to be augmented with a mediated communication space. Telelogs would act as a space through which individuals learn more about themselves while reciprocally gaining a better understanding of those persons present in their environment. Telelogs transfers the essence of the blog into an audio form as an extension for mobile devices. A first prototype of Telelogs is presented and accompanied by feedback after a demonstration. In addition, details of a first cell phone implementation follow.