Week 2

session notes • slides

Overview of the roots of SMS as a technical standard, its current state, and its proposed replacement: the Rich Communication Standard (RCS).

Make sure everyone is set up with course platforms, and pair up for the semester’s letter writing.

Before Class

📚 Read:

• Scott B. Weingart, “The Route of a Text Message, a Love Story”

🎧 Listen:

• “Thank You, Text.” Reset podcast episode (26min)

📺 Watch:

• A Brief Look at Texting and the Internet in Film (2014, 5min)

✏️ Write:

• answers to these #response-questions:
  • A single text message has to pass through many “layers” of translation and transmission. Explain how one of those layers works, as described by Weingart.
  • What is one bug or feature of the new Rich Communication Standard (RCS), as it’s currently proposed?

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Practicum

What does the animated ellipsis (i.e. 💬) actually indicate on various messaging platforms?

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Related Links

artifact of the week: Sumerian tokens

Schmandt-Besserat, Denise. How Writing Came About. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. On Sumerian tokens and bullae, c. 8000-3500 BCE

on SMS standards

• Amelia Acker, “The Global System for Mobile Communication: The Hidden Influence of Standards in Text Messaging and Wireless Communication”

on the 2019 wave of purloined texts

• “Why more than 168,000 Valentine’s day text messages arrived in November,” Ars Technica

on Rich Communication Standard

• “SMS Replacement is Exposing Users to Text, Call Interception Thanks to Sloppy Telecos,” Motherboard