McCarron, Stephen (2012) Spaced and timed in the New York Marathon. In: Anniversary Essays: Forty Years of Geography in Maynooth. National University of Ireland Maynooth, pp. 434-442. ISBN 9780992746605

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Abstract

We inhabit a world of near ubiquitous information and communications technology (ICT) presence. Mobile communication networks now have a carrying capacity (bandwidth) to allow user-friendly communication tools (software) to transmit information rich (e.g. text and imagery) messages in real-time, across the globe. As consumers of the bandwidth capacity on offer, we are being presented with many additional means of using this possibility to contact each other. Combined advances in ICT and software functionality produce new types of information (e.g. spatial location) that might be ‘valuable’ to receive, and thus worthwhile to pay to transmit. Our telephones are no longer just phones, but advanced microcomputers with all the modifiable functionality which that implies (via hosted software applications or ‘Apps.’). Mobile devices offer new opportunities to communicate new types of information from new situations to new ‘audiences’ or ‘constituencies’. ICT infrastructures (e.g. cellular networks) allow trans-global communication instantly and relatively cheaply. It is argued that when accompanied by mobile devices running such software, they are creating personal ‘coded spaces’ (Kitchin and Dodge, 2011) that are significantly modifying how interpersonal contact, or lack of it, may be interpreted. In this essay I detail my experience of one such coded space, the New York City (NYC) Marathon, and discuss some of the implications of communications software infiltration into this and similar situations.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	Original essay for this collection
Keywords:	Spaced; timed; New York Marathon; Anniversary Essays; Geography; Maynooth;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units, ICARUS
Item ID:	5603
Depositing User:	Dr. Stephen McCarron
Date Deposited:	05 Dec 2014 16:15
Publisher:	National University of Ireland Maynooth
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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