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Continious Updates

Three dazed hours in Changi Airport this morning (or evening, my body clock is not quite sure). For the World Cup the airport authority has laid on a watching areas with rolling game updates. Recent scores were listed and highlights of the most recent game - in this case Italy vs. Germany, were being shown. Enough information to engage, but not too deep to endanger missed flights.

There are relatively few universal socially acceptable excuses for interacting with strangers in public spaces, but sport is one of them - useful if you are thinking of use cases for shared viewing of mobile TV for example. A unique aspect of this particular context was that the viewers were largely transient - having to catch flights, and hailed from many different cultures - Changi being both an airport and a regional hub. So whilst the audience gently cheered, ooohed and aaahed as the goals went in and players collided I get the feeling a lot of postive or negative emotion was being held back for fear of winding up others in proximity.

An ideal space to observe human behaviour for a day or so.

Writing from Singapore | July 5, 2006 | Permalink