[Air-l] key terms/concepts for understanding the web

[Layton Montgomery]

Another brief point on this is the historical aspect.  Whenever a new
technology emerges, it is described in terms of existing technologies or
concepts.  The term, "movie", is a shortened form of "moving picture".
Automobiles were earlier called horseless carriages.  Even the term,
"automobile", comes from adding the prefix, "auto-" to the term "mobile", much
like adding "e-" or "cyber-" to IT terms.  The practice of adding the prefix,
"tele-" to indicate a signal transmitted over a distance goes back more than
100 years (telegraph, telephone, television).  I am not sure of the origin of
the base, "-graph", but "-phone" (audio) and "-vision" are farily obvious.

Denise Carter wrote:

> >Some of the responses made me think though. Isn't it perhaps a slippery
> >explanatory strategy for internet research to revamp old concepts by
> >attaching the prefixes cyber-, virtual, digital, or e- to them?
>
> first thought - don't we continually revamp old concepts anyway  - the way
> in which we experience things is constantly changing?
> second thoughts - adding cyber, digital etc to old concepts and applying
> them in new ways makes the internet familiar, and allows us to experience
> things (and explain them) in terms of our everyday lives
>
>

Layton Montgomery
layton at alum.mit.edu

PhD Candidate
Centre for Research Policy
University of Wollongong
Wollongong, NSW
AUSTRALIA




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