[Air-l] Re: internet historiography

[Jonathan Sterne]

Hi Folks,

First, congrats to Barry on his coedited book, which started this whole 
discussion.

Second, I'd like to second David on his point that the "whys" behind 
periodization are at least as important than the "whats."  Too often, 
matters of classification are treated as "merely technical" considerations, 
but they carry with them a good deal of philosophical and ideological 
baggage.  Do we periodize the internet according to patterns of 
use?  Organizations of the technology?  Practical understandings of the 
net?  Scholarly approaches?  The answer, of course, is that it 
depends.  But the overwhelming majority of histories I've read of the 'net 
thus far have tended toward considering periodization as merely "technical" 
and as a result, they accept the whig interpretation of Internet history, 
with all the standard "great men" and institutional players playing the 
standard roles.  There are exceptions, of course, but it seems to me that 
this periodization question is actually quite central to how we tell the 
history of the internet and to what end.  The nice thing about Barry's 
stages is that at least they break open the idea of the internet as a 
closed system.

Do I smell a panel or roundtable for Toronto?

Best,
--Jonathan, who's glad he can finally stop using that damned capital "I" in 
the word.