In this collection of papers, more than 25 contributing experts on short messaging systems (SMS) and mobile communication provide their views on issues ranging from the changing culture of written communication due to the extensive use of SMS to usability and design for text messaging systems. The first section of the book compares text-based communication with voice communication, and draws some interesting conclusions from surveys of users in Germany, Finland, Spain, and Italy. One of the conclusions drawn in the discussion is that “the letter culture is being expanded if not replaced by a plurality of communication cultures,” and its implications are not necessarily negative. A linguistic analysis of SMS communication among users in Sweden shows an adaptive pattern of the use of language, including syntactical reductions such as omitting the subject or pronouns and including unconventional abbreviations. Multimedia messaging services (MMS) are now becoming popular, and new genres of communication, such as the democratization of paparazzi and news reporting with cellular phones, are evolving with SMS.

Under the heading “Texting and the Moral Order of Place,” the six chapters in the second section of the book address the moral issues arising in some countries from the extensive use of SMS among the younger generation. In Japan, the users of SMS benefit from “more discretion and diminished risk of embarrassment” in social relationships, while maintaining proper etiquette of communication. In France, on the other hand, SMS is used for “polite management of privacy in public space.” A study of SMS among young adults and deaf teens in Norway shows that users feel a greater sense of control over their activities with this form of communication, and it is likely to encourage greater tolerance of deviant behavior among young adults.

The last section of the book discusses the types of keyboards used for SMS systems by different mobile phone manufacturers and makes some suggestions for improved design of the interface for specialized applications, such as mobile communication to facilitate building maintenance. This section also describes the design and usage patterns of a group-based social communication system called Swarm, created by the contributors of a chapter. This system provides instant messaging facilities in a broadcast environment to members of email distribution lists. Using a specially designed command language, users can send their messages to a server, which broadcasts them to the entire list. This section also contains some suggestions for improving the design and deployment of SMS in order to achieve greater acceptability among users.

Overall, I found the book to be very interesting and informative. Although the coverage of technical and business issues relating to SMS is rather limited, many papers provide credible statistical evidence from systematic surveys of users in many countries of Asia and Europe to support some popularly known observations. One of these conclusions, for instance, is that unique communications patterns, including more concise language and distorted grammatical forms, are evolving among users of SMS.