« Chapter Two: a messy tangle of relationships at CERN | Main | Understanding the Web's Architecture »
The Internet as a Linguistic Concept
Some people think of the Internet and the World Wide Web as products of computer science. The danger with this narrow view, is that it leads people treat them as marginal, or incremental developments which are primarily the concern of technology specialists.
When new technologies appear we are rarely equipped to understand them entirely. We are so used to separating and compartmentalizing knowledge that we habitually strive to fit that which is new into an existing category.
The most profound of our advancements, however, may not fit neatly within our inherited conceptual framework (after all they are profound).
The Internet and the Web are also linguistic developments. They are tools of communication, not unlike our traditional notion of language. But for a number of reasons this language, and this mode of exchanging shared knowledge --ideas-- is different.
Posted by Mark Hemphill on September 19, 2005 | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341e75ee53ef00d83457f86a53ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Internet as a Linguistic Concept:
Comments
Sorry I didnt make it to class this morning but I woke up feeling pretty crappy. I'm also having trouble setting up a weblog. I set one up last year and forget my password. I tried to get a new password sent to my e-mail address but so far that hasn't happened. What do I do?
Posted by: Shawn | Sep 19, 2005 12:35:00 PM
So is the answer then to design and implement an entirely new interface?
I make the same case with videogames: Sure, we're lightyearsyears ahead of where we were even 5 years ago, but we're still using a keyboard and mouse to access it. Therefore, while I can *do* way more things in a game, I still don't have full control over what my character does.
Will the advent of holographic and 3d technology/interfaces (and they're right around the corner) change the way we not only use the web and net, but the way we *think* about them?
And if the culture shock for using pcs was bad, what's it going to be like if you hand someone a pair of glasses and felt gloves and tell them to log on?
(I personally still can't wait)
Posted by: Rob Walker | Sep 20, 2005 7:18:09 PM
