Distant Closeness: Cameraphones and Public Image Sharing

Cameraphones and cameraphone images represent not only a new technology, but a new kind of image. Following up on our study of cameraphone use and image-sharing via the MMM2 system, we are studying new media via the intersection of cameraphones and Flickr - the dailyness and opportunism of cameraphone images combined with easy online sharing with friends and strangers. Here we talk about this in terms of multimodal communication, and in terms of issues of identity and agency. We conclude that new media of all kinds are increasing the use of multimodal communication, and the communicator's ability to choose the most appropriate communication mode(s); but they also have important repercussions for issues of self and other.