As a matter of clarification, I was not expanding the concept of commerce "to its fullest reaches", but simply pointing to the fact that since writing itself derives from a transactional impulse, the need to maintain records of commercial exchanges using markings on clay tokens, that the connection between communication and commerce has been a close one, at least since classical times. The words "commerce" and "communication" share the same Latin root word "com", meaning "together" and our word "communication" derives from the Latin, "communicare", meaning "to impart, share" or "make common" ( http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=c&p=20 ). And to reply to Charlie Balch, my point was that every major communication technology, from the printing press to the Internet has been adopted by business, usually sooner rather than later, both for transactional and marketing purposes. And yes, maybe that does make commerce "the oldest profession", since the purveyors of what is usually taken to be the oldest profession did engage in an exchange transaction for gain. That does not mean there are not pockets of activity within every communication medium that are antithetical to commerce, such as ham radio, open sourse software, or the discussions on an academic list like this one. On the medium level, business exploits radio, computer software, as well as most Internet genres from discussion boards to blogs. All of this is in support of my contention that we do not need a new terminology such as the proposed ICE-T, because the word "communication" subsumes all commercial exchange, whether it be transactional or informational......Alex Kuskis -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Ericka Menchen Trevino Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 5:09 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] Is all Communication Commercial? I guess commercial is another one of those concepts that can blanket the whole world if a determined weaver puts her/his mind to it. Just like Information, communication and technology, not to mention society, culture. politics/power, and I've even heard literacy used this way, which sounded like a stretch to me. In some ways pulling a concept out to its fullest reaches is very rewarding and exciting - who hasn't been enthralled by thinking "circumstance x really is about [insert master concept here]" But I can't help but think that a lot of this comes down to something more like branding than understanding. Ericka Menchen Trevino On 7/12/07, Charlie Balch <charlie@balch.org> wrote:
After making some very interesting points, Dr. Kuskis asks "Can anyone name a communication technology that has not been used for commercial purposes."
What a great question! What do "communication technology" and "commercial" mean? Does altruism exist? Perhaps communication is the oldest profession. I do not communicate unless I get some value from the communication. Value can be measured in a number of ways -- nothing is going into my bank account as result of my response to this question but I'm paying for the privilege to be able to respond and value the thoughts of other members of this list.
Would Ham radio which explicitly does not allow commercial use qualify? I know that various organizations make some profit in materials useful in training for the ham license which has become a lot easier to get now that morse code is not required. Other companies earn money selling ham radio equipment.
What about various open source software projects such as FileZilla and VLC? I suppose they have also been used for commercial purposes too but the authors have not profited from such use. I don't recall seeing advertisements on Wikipedia either but I have seen some requests for donations.
Hmmm. Even the AOIR list server has been used to distribute information about books and conferences. Does that make this list commercial?
Charles Balch MEd, MBA, Ph.D. Professor of CIS Arizona Western College
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alexander Kuskis Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 5:59 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] ICE-T again
I don't think we need to bother with the dismal science in understanding the link between communication and commerce. They have had a close relationship at least since the invention of writing in Mesopotamia during the late 4th century BC. Denise Schmandt-Besserat has traced the origin of writing itself to the symbols and markings made on clay tokens used for accounting purposes in the 4th Century BC Middle East, roughly jn the area where Iraq is today. See http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exschhop.html . Furthermore, business has been quick to adopt every major communication technology, from Gutenberg's printing press up to our own era. The Internet is something of an exception in this regard, because commercial applications were explicitly forbidden during its ARPANET and later NSF days. But business has more than made up for it since. We need not invoke McLuhan's identification of money as a communication medium itself to understand commerce as communication. E-commerce, like e-learning, is simply a major application of ICT. Can anyone name a communication technology that has not been used for commercial purposes?.........Alex
Alex Kuskis, PhD Adjunct Professor MA Progam in Communication & Leadership School of Professional Studies Gonzaga University