Seeking Utopia

2011 ◽  
pp. 386-398
Author(s):  
Natalie Pang
Keyword(s):  
World Wide ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
Complex Interaction ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Important Concept ◽  
Knowledge Commons ◽  
Collective Processes ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Multiplier Effects

The chapter starts by elucidating the concept of the contemporary media environment as a complex interaction of two computing variables: the growth of personal computers, and the popularity of the Internet and World Wide Web. This environment is then analysed for its impacts on collective processes in both virtual and physical communities. It is argued that these collective processes contain multiplier effects; and one of these effects lies in the subtractability of resources; an important concept in the knowledge commons. Examples are used to illustrate these perspectives. The author maintains, throughout the chapter, that it is essential to see all of these interactions as two-way, dialogical relationships and structuration theory is used in support of this argument. As a concluding note, the chapter makes a number of forecasts on the benefits and potential pitfalls for the society as a result of these relationships.

Collaborative Production, the Knowledge Commons and the Application of Open Content Licenses

2013 ◽  
pp. 1162-1178
Author(s):  
Natalie Pang
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Structural Mechanism ◽  
Knowledge Commons ◽  
The Social ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Open Content

In recent years impacts of information and communication technologies, market enclosures, and the opposing struggle to retain community and public goods have had significant impacts on the social interactions of communities. This chapter examines communities in the context of the knowledge commons – a space by which “a particular type of freedom” (Benkler, 2004) can be practised. It also provides an appropriate lexicon to the examination and discourse of communities and the ways they work. As Castells (2003) notes, self-knowledge “is always a construction no matter how much it feels like a discovery” –this construction is enabled when people work or associate themselves with each other. In particular, the chapter is concerned about the structure of open content licenses operating within such domains. The chapter first explores the concept of the knowledge commons to understand the types of intellectual property that are distinctive to communities (public, communal, and private). Thereafter, licenses as a structure are examined as they may apply within such contexts. A significant influence on the discussion is the contemporary media environment that communities operate in today, resulting in the breaking down of boundaries, the blurring of distinctions between an original and a copy, and shifting the nature of production in communities. These debates lead to a case for open content licenses as an appropriate structural mechanism for communities.

Social Reading? On the Rise of a “Bookish” Reading Culture Online

Poetics Today ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-172
Author(s):  
Dorothee Birke
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Internet Culture ◽  
The Media ◽  
Reading Culture ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Media Practices ◽  
Book Culture

Abstract While the internet is often seen as having destroyed book culture, this article is interested in those areas in our contemporary media environment where book and internet culture actually converge. Focusing on the example of BookTube, the author examines how book culture is “done” on the internet and analyzes the values attached to the media practices involved. In particular, in millennial book culture, social aspects of reading are often emphasized. This trend is usually associated with the new affordances of social media and either assessed positively (e.g., by proponents of the internet as a democratizing force) or negatively (e.g., by detractors of the internet as fostering superficiality). The author argues that such a simplistic binary view can be transcended if one takes a historical perspective, reflecting on how sociality and self-fashioning have been integral aspects of book culture for centuries. At the same time, she shows the extent to which BookTube provides new opportunities to socialize around reading.

Cultivating Communities Through the Knowledge Commons

2011 ◽  
pp. 260-277
Author(s):  
Natalie Pang
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Knowledge Commons ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Open Content ◽  
Structural Mechanisms

In recent years, impacts of information and communication technologies, market enclosures, and the struggle to retain public goods have had significant impacts on the nature of interactions of communities. This chapter examines communities in the context of the knowledge commons–a space by which “a particular type of freedom” (Benkler, 2004) can be practised. It is also an appropriate concept applied to the discussion of communities and the ways they work. As Castells (2003) noted, self-knowledge “is always a construction no matter how much it feels like a discovery,” and this construction is enabled when people work, or associate themselves with each other. In particular, the chapter is concerned about the structure of open content licenses operating within such domains. The chapter first explores the concept of the knowledge commons to understand the types of intellectual property that are distinctive to communities (public, communal, and private). Thereafter, licenses, as a structure, are examined as they may apply within such contexts. A significant influence on the discussion is the contemporary media environment operating in today resulting in the breaking down of boundaries, the blurring of distinctions between an original and a copy, and shifting the nature of production in communities. These debates lead to a case for open content licenses as appropriate structural mechanisms for communities.

Collaborative Production, the Knowledge Commons and the Application of Open Content Licenses

2011 ◽  
pp. 237-260
Author(s):  
Natalie Pang
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Structural Mechanism ◽  
Knowledge Commons ◽  
The Social ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Open Content

In recent years impacts of information and communication technologies, market enclosures, and the opposing struggle to retain community and public goods have had significant impacts on the social interactions of communities. This chapter examines communities in the context of the knowledge commons – a space by which “a particular type of freedom” (Benkler, 2004) can be practised. It also provides an appropriate lexicon to the examination and discourse of communities and the ways they work. As Castells (2003) notes, self-knowledge “is always a construction no matter how much it feels like a discovery” –this construction is enabled when people work or associate themselves with each other. In particular, the chapter is concerned about the structure of open content licenses operating within such domains. The chapter first explores the concept of the knowledge commons to understand the types of intellectual property that are distinctive to communities (public, communal, and private). Thereafter, licenses as a structure are examined as they may apply within such contexts. A significant influence on the discussion is the contemporary media environment that communities operate in today, resulting in the breaking down of boundaries, the blurring of distinctions between an original and a copy, and shifting the nature of production in communities. These debates lead to a case for open content licenses as an appropriate structural mechanism for communities.

scholarly journals Meta-media and meta-communication - Revisiting the concept of genre in the digital media environment

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (51) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Klaus Bruhn Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
World Wide ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The World ◽  
Embodied Communication ◽  
The One

<p>As analytical categories, genres have traditionally occupied a middle ground – between media as technologies and institutions, on the one hand, and discourses as material and modal forms of expression and interaction, on the other. With digitalization, the very concept of genre is in doubt: is the world wide web, Facebook, or the writing on its walls the genre? This article situat es genre in relation to the concepts of meta-media and meta-communication. First, I characterize the computer and the internet as metamedia, incorporating previous genres of embodied communication as well as mass communication. Second, I describe genres as a variety of meta-communication, which serves to configure communication in the first place. In conclusion, I discuss whether and how a category of meta-genres might help to account for some distinctive features of the digital media environment.</p>

(World Wide) Work 2.0

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
Carole Cusack ◽  
David Pecotic
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
World Wide ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Ethnography ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Web Presence ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Online Engagement

The occult and the internet intersect in four ways: as a static medium for information; as a space where contested information or ideological conflict may occur; as a facilitator of communication; and as a medium for esoteric practice. The last type of activity is rare, but it is intriguing, in that technology can shape and inform beliefs and practices in unanticipated ways. Online engagement with the ‘Work’, the movement produced by the Greek Armenian spiritual teacher and esotericist G. I. Gurdjieff (c. 1866-1949) and his immediate followers, is an under-researched instance of online esoteric practice. This article addresses this scholarly desideratum, bringing the theoretical approaches of online religion and digital ethnography to bear on the Gurdjieff Internet Guide (GIG) website, founded by Reijo Oksanen (b. 1942) and later maintained by Kristina Turner, who created an accompanying Facebook page. The GIG manifests a shift away from the sectarian secrecy of the ‘Foundation’ groups, founded by Jeanne de Salzmann (1889-1990) after Gurdjieff’s death to formalise and protect the content of the Work, and the limited web presence that the Foundation permits. The GIG moves towards an ecumenical ‘open source’ approach to the dissemination of Gurdjieff’s teachings rooted in independent groups founded by other first generation followers of Gurdjieff who remained outside of the Foundation. It is argued that the deregulation of the religious and spiritual marketplace of the contemporary West, coupled with the dominant role played by the Internet in disseminating information, has radically transformed the Gurdjieff tradition, collapsing hierarchies and esoteric strategies, democratizing access for seekers, and creating new ritual and teaching modes.

Understanding the Functions of Jurisdictional Law

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Jerker B. Svantesson
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Legal Philosophy ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
Important Concept ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter takes us into the domain of legal theory and legal philosophy as it places the questions of Internet jurisdiction in a broader theoretical, and indeed philosophical, context. Indeed, it goes as far as to (1) present a definition of what is law, (2) discuss what are the law’s tools, and (3) to describe the roles of law. In addition, it provides distinctions important for how we understand the role of jurisdictional rules both in private international law and in public international law as traditionally defined. Furthermore, it adds law reform tools by introducing and discussing the concept of ‘market sovereignty’ based on ‘market destroying measures’––an important concept for solving the Internet jurisdiction puzzle.

Library Internet Resources: Conducting Performing Arts Research Online

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-104
Author(s):  
Susan Brady
Keyword(s):  
World Wide Web ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
World Wide ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
The Past ◽  
Internet Resources ◽  
The World ◽  
Electronic Access

Over the past decade academic and research libraries throughout the world have taken advantage of the enormous developments in communication technology to improve services to their users. Through the Internet and the World Wide Web researchers now have convenient electronic access to library catalogs, indexes, subject bibliographies, descriptions of manuscript and archival collections, and other resources. This brief overview illustrates how libraries are facilitating performing arts research in new ways.

scholarly journals Public Access Technologies in Public Libraries: Effects and Implications

2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Carlo Bertot
Keyword(s):  
World Wide Web ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Public Access ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Access Technology ◽  
Initial Development ◽  
Early Adopters ◽  
The World ◽  
Computer Services

<span>Public libraries were early adopters of Internet-based technologies and have provided public access to the Internet and computers since the early 1990s. The landscape of public-access Internet and computing was substantially different in the 1990s as the World Wide Web was only in its initial development. At that time, public libraries essentially experimented with publicaccess Internet and computer services, largely absorbing this service into existing service and resource provision without substantial consideration of the management, facilities, staffing, and other implications of public-access technology (PAT) services and resources. This article explores the implications for public libraries of the provision of PAT and seeks to look further to review issues and practices associated with PAT provision resources. While much research focuses on the amount of public access that </span><span>public libraries provide, little offers a view of the effect of public access on libraries. This article provides insights into some of the costs, issues, and challenges associated with public access and concludes with recommendations that require continued exploration.</span>

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