After more than a decade spearheading mobile technologies, Japanese mobile network operator NTT DoCoMo establishes an institute for studying the social impact of mobile phones.
Japanese mobile network oeprator NTT DoCoMo last week announced that it had established a "Mobile Society Research Institute," which will study the social impact of mobile phone use. Citing the uptake of mobile phone popularity over the ensuing decade and their enormous impact on society, NTT DoCoMo said it believes that it is now important to analyze the influence and impact of mobile phones on society from a number of different perspectives.
At the research institute, which will remain independent from its business, NTT DoCoMo will aim to clarify both the positive and negative aspect of mobile phones. The aim is to focus on enhancing the upside, while minimizing the downside by taking necessary countermeasures.
At the research institute, various specialists from a variety of sectors will research and analyze both the present and future influence of mobile communications. Findings will be widely disclosed to the public through reports, publications or symposiums.
Specific themes of research include impact on society and culture, legal systems, industry impact and mobile phones as a social infrastructure.
Research related to the first of the four areas will focus on the cultural and social impact of mobile phones, both positive and negative. Recently emerging social issues that will be studied include mobile phone usage etiquette, and the increasing popularity of a 'mail culture' that features the wide usage of emoticons.
As mobile phones become more useful, crimes such as spam mail and "digital shoplifting" (stealing published information by using a phone's digital camera) are continuing to increase. The institute will study countermeasures, including the consolidation of a legal system with which to address mobile phone-oriented crimes under the legal systems theme.
The institute will also study the industrial impact from the dissemination of mobile phones on a variety of sectors, as well as from the perspective of being a type of social infrastructure by taking social psychology into account. This will include their role as indispensable tools for information distribution during times of natural disasters.
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