« Grants for Technological Opportunities | Main | Falling into Rembrandt » "The Internet is not a medium"David Weinberger notes that the Internet is not a medium, however often that label is misapplied. The Internet is a medium only at the bit level. At the human level, it is a conversation that, because of the persistence and linkedness of pages, has elements of a world. It could only be a medium if we absolutely didn't care about it.Visionary attorney Lance Rose was saying the same thing at the 1998 Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy. where he suggested that the Internet should be considered, not a medium, but an environment. A social environment, as Weinberger notes. As John Quarterman, author of The Matrix, recently mentioned in a private email, "The original purpose of the ARPANET was resource sharing, which was quickly extended from sharing computers to researchers communicating to discuss research, which was quickly extended to discussions about other topics, starting with science fiction. So not only has it always been social technology, but it was largely social pressures that caused the invention of much of the technology from the beginning." jon posted this at 7:41 AM |
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