Oops there goes the thread RE: [Air-l] Re: first post (An Internet Without Space)

[Slater,D]

Ok, How about:

Hello out there....

?

I honestly don't have a clue why I chose 'Hello thread', except maybe
trying to avoid more twee collective identities; I also knew I was about
to rant so wanted to be very clear that I was bemused by that specific
thread, not by this generally rather interesting list.

I suppose in hindsight it's interesting that it's a pretty non-spatial
image.

Totally agree that usenet type organization of communications is pretty
much a thing of the past - it's all much more ephemeral and private
conversation for most people. Even when I tried to set up a listserve
for my current research team we had to have a think about it - the
preference was for using plain old Outlook distribution lists, and
storing messages individually. We only chose a listserve in the end
because it archives all the emails, but not in threads.

I've just started pondering the implications of the lack of interest in
websites. Eg, here in Ghana it is all email and chat, plus VOIP. The
only web use I come across is educational (finding course and searching
for funding); porn; and some shopping (generally with stolen credit card
numnbers) and some 'window shopping' on northern goodies. And some use
of web for news, either readin glocal newspapers online, or consulting
bbc.co.uk or cnn. 

But 'The Internet' is definitely not the WWW. WWW seems like a kind of
adjunct to everything else - if you need some specific info or tool,
then you go to the web. So, eg, the old idea of browsing or surfing has
very little resonance here at all.

don

_______________________________________________

Don Slater
Reader in Sociology, London School of Economics

Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE
Tel: +44 (020) 7849 4653
Fax: +44 (020) 7955 7405

 http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/slater

______________________________________________



-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Schaap [mailto:architext at fragment.nl] 
Sent: 11 February 2004 21:14
To: air-l at aoir.org
Subject: Re: Oops there goes the thread RE: [Air-l] Re: first post (An
Internet Without Space)


10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD ";
20 GOTO 10

Bruce Mason wrote:
>>>>D.Slater at lse.ac.uk 11/02/04 11:54 AM >>>
> 
>>Hello thread -
<snip>
> But on a different note, I'm intrigued by the greeting that Don has 
> used "Hello thread." One of the aspects on online communication I'm 
> fascinated by (and this is pertinent) is the way in which we 
> implicitly characterise the various media through speech behaviour. 
> I've not come across "Hello thread" so I'm wondering if it has a 
> history and also what it may imply (if anything) for the spatiality of

> 'threads'. Indeed I wonder if 'thread' as a concept exists for younger

> wired (in the broadest term) users.

Well, I'm constantly amazed that many of my students, who I now suddenly

realize are not just a couple of years but a decade younger than me
(what 
happened?), know little more about the Internet than IM, e-mail, and
have 
rather limited experience in surfing the web. They don't know Usenet, 
associate mailinglists with spam, and visit web-based forums that don't
do 
threading. Of course, it doesn't help that there isn't a good Dutch 
translation for the word "thread".

Frank.

-- 
Barst     [NL] http://fragment.nl/barst/
Fragments [EN] http://fragment.nl/

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