World Wide Web. Yet the cellular telephone, merely the first wave of an imminent invasion of portable digital communications tools, will, as surely as the development of the Internet, lead to fundamental transformations in individuals’ perceptions of self and the world, and consequently the way those individuals collectively construct that world.

Because of this, mobile communications devices will have a profound effect on cities as urbanites weave them into their daily routines. In addition to the neglect by scholars of the social uses of wireless communications systems, urban planners and architects have also neglected the social effects of these technologies, focusing instead on cosmetic issues such as the design and placement of the increasing number of antenna towers needed to support the growth in the use of networks. This neglect is not universal. At least one researcher, Timo Kopomaa, has written that in Scandinavian countries (where mobile communications have penetrated more deeply into social and business networks than anywhere else) these technologies are challenging conventional notions of public vs. private space. Yet architects and city planners have barely begun thinking about the larger impacts of these technologies. This article explores the poten-