BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px; }Dear AoIR, Here's Wikipedia's wiki entry "Internet capitalization conventions," that lays out a history of the question about Internet capitalization - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_capitalization_conventions All the best, Scott Scott MacLeod Founder & President World University and School http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University 415 480 4577 http://scottmacleod.com/worlduniversityandschool.htm scott@scottmacleod.com On Tue 01/11/11 8:53 AM , Alex Halavais alex@halavais.net sent: Hey, we're a global body associated with the internet :). I don't think that AP chose to capitalize Internet to distinguish itfrom other forms of internetworking. They set the standard for thesake of standards setting, and at the time they set the standard theword was more commonly capitalized. Likewise, any standards-promulgating group is going to be bound bytheir former usage, and we should expect the ietf to be slower thanother discourse communities to change. Luckily, those who buildtechnologies name them only at their own peril. Anyone made use of a"electrical speech machine" lately? - A On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 11:08 AM, Janna Anderson wrote:

The Internet Society, the Internet Engineering Task Force and global bodies associated with the Internet use the capital "I" to distinguish the global network from smaller internets. It is an important distinction and those who do not make it are in error.

Associated Press style - the official journalistic style adopted by most news organizations - is to use Internet in reference to the global network of networks. In AP Style Web and World Wide Web are used in upper-case to distinguish from other webs.

While some people and organizations like to say that Internet should be spelled lower-case as with radio, television and other communications tools, they are not recognizing the distinction as they should.

Janna

On 11/1/11 10:59 AM, "Nathaniel Poor" wrote:

...

It's English, we have no absolute authority which dictates the language (despite what some people may think about Chicago or APA). Some countries, such as Spain and France, have some sort of institution (which I forget the name of) that is like the arbiter of language. Not that everyone follows those, but I remember a Spanish-speaking friend of mine was surprised to find out we didn't have one for English.

Internet (which there is at the start of a sentence, so who knows what my preference is) is a word in transition. Commonly it used to be Internet, now more people are using internet. Given that we are still in the transition, use whichever you like. As long as we can understand you, and your editors and reviewers are happy, then I'll be quite happy with my cup of coffee at the end of a good day.

-Nat.

On Nov 1, 2011, at 9:55 AM, Sue Thomas wrote:

...

I agree with you Jonathan, and try my hardest not to capitalise, only to be regularly told off by editors! But here's an interesting question: if Internet and WWW, then why not Cyberspace?

All very inconsistent. I empathise with the small t television (and telephone)

Sue

_________ Sue Thomas Research Professor of New Media IOCT/Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities Clephan 1.01d, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK +44 (0)116 207 8266 w: http://www.thewildsurmise.com Nature and Cyberspace: stories, memes and metaphors e: sue.thomas@dmu.ac.uk [3] t: @suethomas g: +suethomas

-----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [4] [air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [5]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Sterne, Dr. Sent: 01 November 2011 09:51 To: Subject: Re: [Air-L] copyediting question: capitalize www?

Hi Everyone,

I'm starting to get lots of replies, which I appreciate, and I'm happy to hear more people weigh in, but I'll take the opportunity to explain my thinking on "internet." Early in their histories, most media are capitalized by journalists (eg., "Telegraph" or "Phonograph") but this usage generally falls away after some time. I am one of those people who believe that the internet is best thought of as one more of a series of communication technologies that are important in our lives (indeed one of the arguments of the book I'm copyediting effectively de-exceptionalizes the internet).

Since I don't capitalize "phonograph" or "television" or "satellite", it seems strange to capitalize "internet" which is not really a new medium anymore.

OTOH, if there is another Really Good Reason to capitalize "internet," I would love to hear it.

Best, --Jonathan

On 2011-11-01, at 5:46 AM, Sue Malta wrote:

As part of the team that publishes the "International Journal of Emerging Techologies and Society" (iJETS), I would ALWAYS opt for a capital for Internet and the World Wide Web....

Cheers

Sue Malta

P ............................................... Sue Malta Editor / Managing Editor International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society (iJETS) Swinburne University of Technology John Street, Hawthorn, VIC 3122 Email: ijets@swin.edu.au Or: smalta@groupwise.swin.edu.au www.swin.edu.au/ijets;

...

...

...

"Jonathan Sterne, Dr." >>>> 01/11/11 8:32 PM >>> Hi Everyone,

Please excuse any repetition if this has been answered recently. I know that people are coming around to not capitalizing the word "internet" (this is my preference too). But what about "world wide web"?

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------------------------------- Nathaniel Poor, Ph.D. http://natpoor.blogspot.com/ https://sites.google.com/site/natpoor/

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