A push in the right direction Supporting spectators during the International Swedish Rally

This paper explores the way push technology was used to support spectators during the International Swedish Rally, 2000. The Swedish Radio used SMS in their reports from the event, approximately they pushed 500 messages to each subscriber during the weekend. The messages contained information about the rally and the local traffic situation. The subscribers of the services were a selected group of spectators, equipped with the phone Nokia 7110. We have examined the spectator’s impression of the service provided. Problems experienced by spectators’ were; information overload mostly due to change of context, lack of support in the phone and naming conventions regarding headers as well as in some cases interpreting the meaning of content. On the stage the value of the information pushed, was high but the time available for perceiving it was limited. In this context broadcasting of information by push technology seems very promising.