[Air-l] Re: first post (An Internet Without Space)

[Eero Tarik]

thanks for that Denise, very interesting.

my gut feeling of all this, the pocket sized edition would be...

... that internet studies/research needed a home and was able to slot 
itself into the Arts/ Humanities area in some universities. With very 
little real information to go on, because it was a field of study in its 
infancy, the focus needed to be more philosophical, looking at concepts 
rather than data.
This is where we find many Internet Studies courses today. ( I realise 
this is not universal)

But there does appear to be rebellion afoot if my own class is any 
indication. We want numbers to research, we want to look at data - not 
read about someones fantasy/ guess in 1990. And I suspect that in order 
to be relevant, and I do believe in the need to be relevant in 
scholastic endeavour (even though others dont agree),
this field of study will turn more towards real number crunching, rather 
than worrying about "cyberspace" and "cyber communities".

I think the new generation of students will force change as people who 
are less tolerant of "cyberisms" graduate and influence academia. I also 
think this new wave of Internet Studies scholars will drive the area 
into a more commercially focussed future as they understand the 
opportunities to be gained by excelling in the research of real data.

However...the internet as we know it may not last more than another 
decade, it will be replaced by something else, but I imagine that 
whatever replaces it will still be a communications tool.

So perhaps rather than concentrating on the "internet" part of this 
equation, all the little bits that are floating around in the academic 
world in related areas should pull themselves into one universal school 
of communications study so that they not only allow for greater 
diversity of study but also protect their own academic industry from the 
inevitable technological change.

There will always be some form of human communication technology, but 
who knows what it will be from one decade to the next. A department 
called The Center for Internet Studies might look a bit stupid when the 
internet has died overnight and been replaced by a chip in our heads.

To answer the question posed by the CFP I would see the solution being 
the evolution of a monster Division/School of Personal Communication 
Sciences where the rapidly evolving areas of personal communication like 
the internet, mobile phones, pay TV etc can all be studied comfortably 
at "home" without needing to find a temporary arrangement in some other 
division and I would see this evolving in a more global sense through an 
online Division rather than being an individual battle for status at 
every single university. How this would be put together in flesh and 
blood terms I leave to the geniuses of organisation.

Thus, when the internet dies and is replaced by something else there is 
still a home for those who want to study the new emerging technology.

just my 10 cents worth.

see ya

Eero Tarik
Adelaide