Here in Manchester @ FutureSonic festival. Just heard the first day of talks + keynote by Sadie Plant which was mostly an overview of mobile phone technology and social customs associated with mobile phone use. My panel went smoothly – I didnt get any death threats (just joking), but it seems as if the idea of the “network commons” still relies on utopia vs. distopia debates. The second panel featured some interesting project presentations about mobile media projects, including the Toronto mobile-phone project Murmure, which puts tags in public spaces with a phone number and a pin number and gets people to call and listen to stories told by people in the neighborhood. This could be a nice next step for AudioBored, by letting people record new stories on the spot and include them in the archive on-site. Next up will check out the live demos of InterUrban (Manchester edition) and some others. Stay tuned!