Medialab Prado

A new element has to be added to the development of collaborative social practices: mobile technologies, which are increasingly becoming catalysts of mixed spaces for co-existence, where artificial information co-exists with urban space. These emerging technologies have come at a key moment in history, as the network culture has entered a new cycle that is beneficial for social and artistic practices. The promises of Web 2.0, as it is known, have started to show their true colours in collaboration practices that have in many cases repeated past vices. However, the absence of middlemen in areas like journalism (blogs), the exchange of information (P2P) and the creation of decentralised nodes to connect to the Internet (WiFi) are showing us new ways to build knowledge. Moreover, the penetration of mobile technologies is projected as a possibility for generating alternative communication scenarios in geographically disadvantaged locations, due to the precariousness of the technological infrastructure. Portability and the processing capacity of mobile technologies are propitiating the birth of practices that facilitate collective initiatives by increasing the possibility of working from the edge.