An overall definition of Internetting would include a technical definition of the Internet; in fact, it must do so (I was trying to suggest that in my first message). But a technical definition of the Internet has a different purpose and a different audience. Neil I don't agree to separate internet and internetting, a technical structure and human activity. If there were no human beings organized in social groups, there wouldn't be an internet and the internet wouldn't develop. Without meaningful human knowledge and social activity the internet is a dead block, useless. Hence I argue that one shouldn't separate the term internet from social activity, but to integrate social activity into definitions of the internet in the first place. Common definitions such as the one of the Federal Networking Council simply neglect the central role of social activity on the net, they are techno-centristic. Best Christian Am 17.10.2006 16:20 Uhr schrieb "Neil Randall" unter <nrandall@watarts.uwaterloo.ca>:
A definition of the Internet is different from a definition of the
activity
of using the Internet - Internetting or whatever verb we decide is useful. Defining what "the Internet" means is a little like defining what "book" means; it's technically useful (and necessary for certain professions - publishers, booksellers, etc.), but most people are interested in the experience of reading the book (which contains the technical definition), not in the book itself.
The Internet itself is really quite simple from a definitional standpoint: you can see this by what's required, technically, to be *on* the Internet: a computer with a network interface, an Internet Protocol number, and TCP/IP protocol. Everything else is an add-on, including the various file transfer systems (FTP, Web) and email, chat, IM, etc. But as a definition, it's does nothing to explain the experience of Internetting, of course.
Anyone care to try a definition of Internetting? (There's probably a much better word for this, I realize.)
Neil Randall
Yes, in my brief phrase "Internet as an agreement(s)" I think we lead towards an understanding of this ... it's an agreement around TCP/IP ... that TCP/IP be a protocol over which we can define additional protocols, and around peering agreements by which traffic will be carried through networks held by others.
On 10/17/06, Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs@sbg.ac.at> wrote:
I think the standard techno-determinist definition of the internet is that it is a global network of computer networks operating with TCP/IP.
I think this already neglects the importance of social systems/virtual communities which are social internets. Therefore I define the internet as a techno-social system consisting of a technological structure (network of computer networks, global, TCP/IP) storing and distributing knowledge and social systems of cognition, communication, and co-operation. The two systems are structurally coupled.
I have published a paper on the question of how to define the internet:
Fuchs, Christian (2005) The Internet as a Self-Organizing Socio-Technological System. In: Cybernetics & Human Knowing. Vol. 12, No. 3. pp. 57-81. http://cartoon.iguw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/InternetSelfOrg.pdf
Christian
-- _____________________________ Univ.Ass. Dr. Christian Fuchs ICT&S Center - Advanced Studies and Research in Information and Communication Technologies & Society http://www.icts.uni-salzburg.at University of Salzburg Sigmund Haffner Gasse 18 5020 Salzburg Austria christian.fuchs@sbg.ac.at Phone +43 662 8044 4823 Fax +43 662 6389 4800 Information-Society-Technology: http://cartoon.iguw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/ Managing Editor of tripleC - open access online journal for the foundations of information science: http://triplec.uti.at
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