Hi there David - long time no see! I think what you have here is not a problem with home pages as such but, as with most things to do with the Internet, a more general problem that is being investigated via the Internet. The question of "what constitutes a personal home page" must first ask "what constitutes 'personal'". Of course this term is historically contingent. The OED describes it as "Of, pertaining to, concerning, or affecting the individual person or self (as opposed, variously, to other persons, the general community, etc., or to one's office, rank, or other attributes); individual; private; one's own". You may see here that the term is loaded with liberal-capitalist (in the European sense) ideology - for example, liberal modernity asks us to separate ourselves into compartments (see Alisdair MacIntyre's criticisms of "compartmentalisation") so that we separate, for instance, politics from entertainment or our "working lives" from our "private" lives (and consequently may do things in the former, such as killing people, that we wouldn't do in the latter). It is for this reason that the Vicar looks odd for s/he tends not to be compartmentalised - a Vicar is following a holistic calling (before the development of capitalism people were there work). To be sure, "personal" and "public" fit almost as badly as "personal" and "commmodity"; as Rheingold said, 'it is an unusual business where your customers also create the value you sell them'. The problem is with "personal" rather than "web site". Lee Salter Lecturer in Media, Communications & Journalism Edge Hill College, St Helen's Road Ormskirk, Lancashire L39 4QP Email: salterl@edgehill.ac.uk Tel: 01695 584374

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david.brake@cfrq.net 09/09/2004 16:47:27 >>> I've been lurking on the list a while but have come forward because I am finding it difficult to do something which seemed at first relatively un-problematic - determining what counts as a personal home page. Wherever I draw the line there seem to be sites that fall just outside it that might fit. Is there a commonly-understood definition?

I drafted an email with all of my theoretical musings laid out in it but it went on for quite a few lines so rather than clogging all your inboxes I invite people who are interested to come and have a look at my posting about it on my weblog instead http://blog.org/archives/001228.html and contribute either there or here. I hope to meet some of you at the conference incidentally, and if you are interested in knowing more about my project and my thoughts check out my home page and weblog below (especially http://blog.org/archives/cat_academia.html). Thanks for your attention and I hope you are all having good summers! -- David Brake, PhD researcher in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page) and http://blog.org/ (weblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/dealingwithemail/> gives ordering info _______________________________________________ Air-l-aoir.org mailing list Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org ----------------------------------------------------- This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Edge Hill or associated companies. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender as soon as possible and delete it and all copies of it. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. The message content of in-coming emails is automatically scanned to identify Spam and viruses otherwise Edge Hill do not actively monitor content. However, sometimes it will be necessary for Edge Hill to access business communications during staff absence. Edge Hill has taken steps to ensure that this email and any attachments are virus free. However, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Edge Hill for any loss or damage arising in any way from its use. <<<<EdgeHill>>>>