Contributors Inside Text: An Introduction Section One: Text versus Talk Changing Cultures of Written Communication: Letter-E-mail-SMS Language in SMS - a socio-linguistic view Please reply! The replying norm in adolescent SMS communication Nascent Communication Genres within SMS and MMS Section Two: Texting and the Moral order of Place From voice to Text: continuity and change in the use of mobile phones in France and Japan Intimate Connections: Contextualizing Japanese youth and mobile messaging The Breakthrough of Text Messaging in Finland SMS Use Among Deaf Teens and Young Adults in Norway Mobile Communications vis-à-vis Teen Emancipation, Peer Group Integration and Deviance Desire and Loathing in the Cyber Philippines Section Three: Designer's Text Usability of Issues of Sending Text Messages Design for Richer Reachability: Mobile inspection in building maintenance Working Text: Texting Work Gift of the Gab Swarm: Text messaging designed to enhance social coordination Default Thinking: Why consumer products fail Index

SMS or Text is one of the most popular forms of messaging. Yet, despite its immense popularity, SMS has remained unexamined by science. Not only that, but the commercial organisations, who have been forced to offer SMS by a demanding public, have had very little idea why it has been successful. Indeed, they have, until very recently, planned to replace SMS with other messaging services such as MMS.

This book is the first to bring together scientific studies into the values that 'texting' provides, examining both cultural variation in countries as different as the Philippines and Germany, as well as the differences between SMS and other communications channels like Instant Messaging and the traditional letter. It presents usability and design research which explores how SMS will evolve and what is likely to be the pattern of person-to-person messaging in the future. In short, The Inside Text is a fundamental resource for anyone interested in mobile communications at the start of the 21^st Century.