From Mobility to True Nomadicity and Ubiquity: Discussing Fluidity, Metaspaces, Micromobility, and Multiple-Profiling

Abstract

It is becoming blatantly clear that some key concepts used in computer science and information systems literature – most notably those of nomadicity, mobility and interaction – cannot any more satisfactorily capture the present-day reality of advanced mobile technology environments. A paradigm shift from a strapped mobility to truly nomadic digital environments is underway. Peter Wegner, Carsten Sørensen and Leonard Kleinrock, among others, have aspired to describe and explain the workings of this emerging field of very advanced information and communication technology environments. Building on their ideas of digital nomadicity, fluidity and interactivity, we propose the concepts of metaspace, transient hierarchies and multiple-profiling to round up a vision of truly nomadic and ubiquitous computing environments. It will be argued that along with geographical and technological barriers or boundaries the barriers created by local and parochial techno-social systems have to be taken into consideration in order to make us truly nomadic. A key question in the near future is how the user of advanced mobile technology could be empowered to have more control over the multiple spaces he or she inhabits and the numerous boundary crossings that he or she is forced to perform.