[Air-l] Re: Internet History/Stages, was Internet in Everyday Life (Frank Thomas)

[Maria Bakardjieva]

I really liked the approach Frank Thomas suggested. I think Janet Abbate's
"Inventing the Internet" provides an Internet history written along the
lines of Hughes' work. I have drawn from it and other sources for my
lectures. You can find my (rough) summarization of the developments, using
an ANT model, at http://www.ucalgary.ca/~bakardji/Internet/ANT.html .

Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.

Maria
Faculty of Communication and Culture
University of Calgary

> Message: 5
> Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 10:17:19 +0100
> From: Frank Thomas <frank.thomasftr at free.fr>
> Organization: FTR
> To: air-l at aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Internet History/Stages, was Internet in Everyday
Life
> Reply-To: air-l at aoir.org
>
> David and all other folks,
>
> I think we glue to closely to the facts if we conceive Internet=20
> development in the short development steps you propose. We should look=20
> at other communication systems, how they emerged (or better said: were=20
> develeped) and then draw conclusions. Also, the way you propose to=20
> conceive the Internet is a rationalisation of what happened seen from=20
> today. But this excludes the social generation, the corporate and=20
> individual struggles, strategies, coalitions etc. that shaped today's=20
> outcome. So,  a look into neighbouring disciplines with a more long-term =
>
> view would be a help. Look how Large technical systems developed, for=20
> instance.
>
> Look into Hughes, Networks of power. A large technical systems, Hughes=20
> writes, shows several development phases: invention, development,=20
> innovation, transfer (into new countries), growth. Hughes' seminal book=20
> gives you an idea of the development phases of electric power network in =
>
> Great Britain, Germany and the U.S. from the beginning into the 1930s.=20
> There are other studies about the telegraph, the telephone, the=20
> railroads, gas networks, videotext, etc. The theory was conceived with=20
> industrial society as a background but has been transferred to more=20
> recent technologies, such as videotext or the telephone.
>
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