[Air-l] Internet as a database?

Randolph Kluver (Assoc Prof) TRKluver at ntu.edu.sg
Sun Jan 12 17:00:20 PST 2003


Lev Manovich does some theorizing along these lines (the Internet as
database) in his book the Language of New Media.  You would probably
find in there a pretty cogent case for this argument.  I think that it
is something of a false dichotomy to think of it as either cmc or
database, as people make vastly different uses of it.  For my research,
it is primarily a database. For my communication, it is cmc. 

A. Randolph Kluver
School of Communication and Information
Nanyang Technological University
31 Nanyang Link
Singapore, 637718
(65) 6790-5770
Fax (65) 6792-4329
 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Denise N. Rall [mailto:denrall at yahoo.com] 
> Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 6:41 AM
> To: air-l at aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Internet as a database?
> 
> 
> Dear Aoir's -
> 
> I have recently heard some conversation among the New
> Media crowd regarding the internet as a database
> rather than as a CMC, or communicative medium.
> 
> I know some properties of databases, storage,
> indexing, retrieval and so on. Of course the phone
> book is a database, databases are not
> medium-dependent, although usually today they are
> conceived of as digital rather than text-based.
> 
> I am interested to know any authors who are putting
> this view forward, and how the database model gains
> anything conceptually over CMC. I have stayed with 
> CMC as a conceptual model because it allows for
> transport. I don't yet see in a database model where
> the transport segment lies.  Someone said, distributed
> database but that, to my mind, only implies a variety
> of databases connected by some indexing scheme, and
> packets are distributed in quite another way.
> 
> I think we might keep this discussion on list if
> others find this provocative as it may prove very
> enlightening.
> 
> Cheers, Denise
> 
> 
> 
> =====
> "it's easier to use your mouse than your brain"
> Denise Rall, Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator &
> PhD student, School of Education, Southern Cross University,
> PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW, 2480 Australia
> Phone +61-2-6624-8627 Fax +61-2-6624-8637
> Office (Tuesdays) (02) 6620 3577 Mob 0438 233 344 
> http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/edu/research/deniserall/index.ht
ml

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