Ah, Bob - In my book the packet doesn't care what it is carrying. Carrying a bit of binary code or a text message is all the same. Doesn't make the packet a container of expressive content. That content appears to the reader on the other end. It's like saying a printing press includes expressive elements. It's just the messenger. The byproduct appears to the reader as content. The printing press is not a medium, it is not even the producer (that's the author, right?). It's just a piece of the infrastructure. But you're right in that meanings for the internet have been confounded by semantics over the time. I hear people say all kinds of stuff about 'the internet' today that would suprise those of us working in computing centers in the 1980s. At the packet level, none of this matters much. It's just getting the bits out. FWIW, Denise Denise N. Rall, Ph.D. submitted, School of Environ. Science, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA Tuesdays: Room T2.12, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 or Mobile 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/index.html Virtual member, Cybermetrics Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/index.html