CCT 300: Critical Analysis of Media Class 8: Network (1976) / Enter the Internet

Administrivia Culture Jamming/Social Influence – it is a creative project, not a paper – core ideas should be evident in what’s created

Network (1976) Prophetic movie on the backstage economics and politics of network news The fall, rise and fall of Howard Beale driven by economic concerns Foresaw the notion of news as entertainment and the role of the profit imperative

What is the Internet? It’s not a truck. It’s a series of tubes! With any luck, Mr. Tubes will be out of a job and in jail shortly.

What is the Internet used for? No, not just that, Trekkie Monster.

A more sane definition Decentralized network of computing services Connected by…well…a series of tubes (but analogy doesn’t work well…why?) Has grown to accommodate a series of potential uses (not just that, Trekkie…)

Early conceptualization Vannevar Bush (1945) - conceptualization of a vast information store (“memex”) to harness world’s knowledge Also realized power of computing in storage and processing, leaving us available to do what we do best - association, linking, pattern creation Web as final realization of Memex concept?

ARPANet Theory put into practice initially by American military-industrial complex ARPANet - private information network to coordinate research Decentralized by definition - why?

Evolution… BITNET - educational institutions X.25 - European networking - open also to individuals, commercial BBS’s as parallel public networks in N. American market in particular ARPA - not a service organization, dumps ARPANet to NSF, who eventually privatized service

Establishign Critical Mass Public, commercial access - a relatively new thing (O*Net 15 years ago legalized commercial activity) Mosaic as interface to WWW (1994) – a revolutionary event in both access and economic basis – why ethos of free/open-source software exists Mass popularity of AOL - hardly the first, but the first to market to neophyte users effectively

Reaction Sudden transition to commercial medium - new opportunities, but also a lot of garbage Previously active spaces (e.g., UseNet) effectively destroyed with spam and the great unwashed AOL mass Move to private forums to realize community potential while restricting spammers

Public Medium and Voice Internet can increase public voice - e.g., consumer forums, political discussion Discussion can also become more base, ridiculous (e.g., “off topic” Wikispaces discussion forum) Signal/noise issues

Elitist Return? Net Neutrality Is some information more important? Should it get priority access to “the tubes?” Tiered access - who controls it? To what good purpose? How?

Tiered access Internet 2, Can*net 4, private internal networks Sheridan’s iChat server and other university bandwidth issues (e.g., YouTube filtering!) Commercial censorship - Telus vs. union, Shaw vs. VoIP, AOL vs. anti-AOL consumer sites, US Military vs. progressive blogs, Google and Yahoo! in China, RIAA/file trading - others?

A Critical Take Winner and mythinformation - technology adherents take to near mythical descriptions of how technology will change the world See also Noble - Religion of Technology - designers themselves speak in terms of highly spiritual terms (creation, transcendence, inevitable utopia)

Four Myths People are lacking information Information is knowledge Knowledge is power Information access = equitable and democratic social power

Do we really lack information? Many argue opposite - we’re drowning, and we are losing the ability to make associations and connections as a result Ex: 500-channel universe, academic journal explosion - little common ground, little opportunity for full analysis

Information = Knowledge? Sheer quantity of information may lead to information overload and destruction of knowledge Perceived knowledge vs. actionable and understood knowledge 9/11 example - information regarding terror cells existed but was scattered, uncoordinated - it didn’t make sense

Knowledge = Power? Knowledge available at the right time and context to people with the power and resources to act upon it might equal power Knowledge itself might leave you powerless - and frustratingly so - e.g., blogosphere and politics (e.g., Deaniacs and Paultards)

Information = Democracy? Capacity for self-governance isn’t just information- based Most people are simply not interested in all the relevant information Direct democracy can be dangerous, even asinine - e.g., Stockwell “Doris” Day example from 22 Minutes)

Next week… Next week: Web 2.0 and its effects on the Internet domain - what changes, what remains the same?