Yes, one thing is the technological basis, the other thing is the use of it - and these two areas are interrelated with each other. Anything is possible as long as it's connecting devices (and users) on a decentralized basis. It depends on *you* what to do with it, i.e. communicating, sharing, organizing, testing, etc. So it can be cmc, p2p, a tool to find any kind of information (things you would and also you wouldn't like to know about), and furthermore. Just as a reminder: It was in 1964, when Paul Baran introduced his work on "distributed communications". That's were it started to become reality. http://www.rand.org/publications/RM/RM3420/RM3420.chapter1.html BTW, the graphic there is quite good also to understand the shift within societies from centralized to de-centralized to (more or less) participatory ones. So, technology is influencing the shaping of society and also the other way round. Best, Laurent At 14:07 20.03.2005, you wrote:
many of the descriptions so far take 'communication' as a the noun, and while this is fine for some descriptions of some events, it tends to leave out much of the rest of the ecological systems that these in which these technics are enmeshed. the objects that barry brought up, were systems and technologies, onto which communication can be mapped, onto which media can be mapped, but I think it should be very obvious that when we are talking about their whole existence, from their origination to their use, that not every part of that will be mapped by communication and/or media. most, but perhaps not all of their human use could be said to be communication, but... what about installation, and interface, they seem to be mediated experiences that don't always pertain directly to communication, and while they might be mediated by speaker or screen, that mediation might not encapsulate the whole social imaginary that affects the world in which they are used.
the internet is the general network we study, which is a network of networks, built on the principle that information can be encapsulated in packets, and routed by defining the endpoint, thus allowing the computers or relevant technologies to communicate. computers and technologies have devices that mediate the information that they receive into user accessible experiences. this is true insofaras I can determine, so internet technologies will always be information technologies, mediated technologies, and communication technologies in some respect. however, the technologies exist through society, and individuals, both simplisticly as objects, but also in much more complicated ways, that affect our lives, cultures, etc. -- our mental ecology, our social ecology, and our environmental ecology.
so, that's why I use "ICT" and then describe what I'm talking about further should the need arise. On Mar 20, 2005, at 4:05 AM, richard-seyler.ling@telenor.com wrote:
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