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|  "Week 2"
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|  Authors:
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|  January 0001
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|  https://gwijthoff.github.io/texting/sessions/2/
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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?    ❀

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

❀

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