Where I’m coming from
This is a re-post of my wrap-up of my mini-thesis last semester, Pigeon. You can find it and the process leading up to it on the Computation08 blog. Perhaps Pigeon is the right place for me to move forward, but I’m going to try to prototype outside of it a bit more.
In an attempt to facilitate communication between people with limited technological access through the creation of an experimental phone-based social network, Pigeon was created. Pigeon is a voice message exchange system for friends and family. The idea of this project began with a desire to connect loved ones who live far away and are unable to communicate as often as they might desire, such as a young girl who lives in Belize and her father who lives in Los Angeles, working several jobs to send money back home to their family, who can only communicate with an international call once a month. The Pigeon concept provides an interesting idea for asynchronous phone-based message exchange, which has the potential to bridge communication barriers by employing accessible and affordable communication technology as a means for individual to tell their personal story, or what is currently happening in their life.
You can call in and interact with the current version of Pigeon: (713) 987-3001. Use member number 999-999-999 and PIN 9999. After logging on, options 1 (listen to message), 2 (record a message), and 6 (record Pigeon name, which is the system identifier, like a Facebook picture) are active.
Print materials, which in a comic/storyboard form explain Pigeon and it’s features. They are designed to be folded up and attached to “phone cards”:
For more information, see the presentation, an interactive quicktime.