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

[William Stewart]

Agree, this is deeply important.  However, must take issue with "media studies generally have largely not taken up."  What we are discussing here is nothing less than McLuhan's seminal observation that "the medium is the message".  

Today, there are huge differences between interaction with the Internet through the web, email, or chat.  There are some smaller differences between interaction with the web through Explorer, Mozilla, and Opera.  Some related references:

Marshall Mcluhan:
   http://livinginternet.com/i/ii_mcluhan.htm

Norman Coombs famous "Liberation Technology" linked at:
   http://livinginternet.com/r/r.htm

Licklider papers:  "Man-Computer Symbiosis" (1960),
"The Computer as a Communications Device" (1968) linked at:
   http://livinginternet.com/i/ii_licklider.htm

Licklider's famous "advantages of message systems" quote
and paper reference:
   http://livinginternet.com/e/ei.htm

Cheers,
Bill

At 08:46 AM 11/30/02 -0600, you wrote:
>This is not specific to the internet, but is something that media studies generally have largely not taken up....