Balancing work, life and other concerns: a study of mobile technology use by Australian freelancers

In this paper we present initial findings from an empirical study of the mobile technology use and mobile work practices of freelancers in the domain of Film and Television. Our findings demonstrate that mobile phones were primarily used to manage other personal activities and concerns unrelated to the local work. They were used only intermittently to support local practice when that practice itself moved away from fixed resources. The fact that people were consistently using their mobile phones at work to attend to other concerns is an important feature of mobile technology use. This personal aspect of use in the work context has been largely overlooked within the Mobile HCI literature. In particular, our findings reveal the ways in which freelancers manage the blurring of contexts that is facilitated by mobile phones. We consider implications of these findings for the ways in which we currently talk and think about mobile technology use within Mobile HCI.