[Air-l] hmm, thinking about internet stories

[radhika_gajjala]

Rob Furr wrote:
At 11:04 AM -0500 3/22/02, Rob Furr wrote:
>On the other hand, I guess I don't believe that my experiences, or, 
>honestly, any of the semi-legendary events I've seen, are really any 
>more worthy of being made part of a canon of net history than any 
>other, equally instructive story.

Lori wrote:

At 11:22 AM -0500 3/22/02, Kendall, Lori wrote:
>I don't think it's so much a matter of what's "worthy" of being
>part of a canon -- what's interesting to me is what things do
>pop up repeatedly for whatever reason.


For me the "reasons," as in why these stories get repeated just so 
and in which contexts as well as who is invested in what way and 
manner, in telling these stories (which in turn shapes the ongoing 
discourse and practical/applied policy-making etc procedures - 
charting an ongoing "history" in favor of certain groups of 
people...etc) are what are significant and, yes, "worthy" of being 
examined since these circulating "individual" stories and experience 
collectively gather to form discourses of power in *interpretation* 
... (who and what process decides what's "worthy" of being written or 
spoken of and in what spaces also says a lot...


Steve wrote:



>
>An interesting thing - two interesting things, I suppose - to me is 
>whether we're able to "do history" while we're in the middle of it. 
>Many of us have witnessed, or know someone who witnessed or was 
>involved with, etc., what seem to be "historic" events related to 
>the Internet. But do we have the means of understanding them at this 
>time? And are we doing a good job of at least _collecting_ these 
>histories from the participants?



Speaking for myself - my interest in these stories and histories is 
not in viewing them as absolutes - the only legitimate way of 
telling/writing History  - but in what these attempts to "do history" 
reveal about who gets included, who gets excluded, why etc... phrased 
differently - whether we are able/allowed to "do history" - in what 
way - and when and whether we are "in the middle....




-- 

Radhika Gajjala

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