Mociology
Mociology or Mobilology as it is often referred to is defined as the study of human behavior in a mobile world and the study of mobile device/phone lifestyles. The word is probably a combination of "mobile" and "sociology".
This is the direct by-product of how mobile phones and mobility in modern life lifestyles are affecting and changing human interaction, behavior, and consumption in the 21st century. Mociology is the fast-emerging discipline that studies the impact and effect that mobile phones, mobile technology, and mobile lifestyles are having upon every layer of modern urban societies, cities, and human endeavour.
The term "mociology," or any forms of, is not referenced in any literature pertaining to the history of technology or any related fields.
Inception
Mociology was expounded by leading international mobile content and entertainment expert, Ralph Simon, (Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum - Americas and President/CEO of The Mobilium Group Worldwide) in the late summer of 2005, and officially unveiled at a lecture he gave at the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) in their historic Great Hall, London, UK, on 7 November 2005. The lecture was titled: Mobile Technology and Culture Change: How Mociology is Changing the Way we Live. When asked how he came up with the terminology for this new impact discipline, Ralph Simon said:
"Human connectivity and the need for linkage across all aspects of daily behaviours, interactions and people-to-people exchanges has fuelled the demand for lifestyles that are not tethered to a PC or computer system. The pressures and pleasures of daily living and the increasing time famine prevalent in daily life, has made mobile usage, mobile technology and the very mobile interaction itself, the catalyst for an important new academic, commercial and inter-personal discipline. With mobile phone users expecting to hit 7 billion by 2014, it is incumbent for everyone to become a mociologist in their own right. If you have a mobile phone or a mobile multimedia computer as they are now being called, you are clearly a mociologist."
Early Examples
Mociology is about how consumers personalize their wireless and mobile lifestyles, and innovate the ways in which they express who they are, and how they can use their mobile phones and devices to interact with their increasingly mobile lifestyles. Some early examples of Mociology include: Using the mobile device as an extension of one's internet and "buddy communities;" receiving weather reports and market trading conditions for farmers and agricultural communities by mobile phone; paying for sporting and entertainment events and acquiring mobile ticketing by mobile devices; viewing movie trailers and TV clips on mobile phones; sending medical information to diabetes sufferers by mobile phone; disseminating HIV/AIDS education on mobile devices to beleaguered communities in developing countries; downloading music on mobile phones as a counterbalance to various music services such as iTunes; experiencing sports clips of favorite sports teams on mobile phones; paying credit card bills on mobile phones; and finding romance.
Mociology Adoption
Driving the adoption of new forms of Mociology are the 6 billion mobile phone users worldwide, and the exponential increase in the ways in which mobile phone users demand interactivity from their hand held devices. With mobile phone usage exploding in China, Russia, Brazil, India, Africa and Latin America, and with mobile phone penetration approaching 80% or more in developed European countries, Mociology and the study of the different impact points in modern life has hastened the need for a deep body of knowledge in this fast-emerging field.