[Air-l] Re: Science communication and the development of the Internet

[J. Kilker]

Franz--

Interesting project...I would add to Andrew's excellent list my own paper,
particularly if you are interested in noting interactions among multiple
social groups:

Kilker, J. (2002). Social and technical interoperability, the construction
of users, and 'arrested closure': A case study of networked electronic mail
development. Iterations 1(1) (Charles Babbage Institute). 

http://www.cbi.umn.edu/iterations/kilker.html

Abstract: Behind the e-mail's success lies a history of extended social
interactions among ARPANET developers, programmers, and users from
relatively heterogeneous backgrounds. An analysis of social identifications
present in online discussions about e-mail development found that
inter-organizational computer networking allowed an increasingly wide
variety of programmers and users to interact; assumptions about users to be
openly stated and challenged; and the prototyping and testing of new
technologies in heterogeneous social and technical contexts. Technical
interoperation and its social analogue, social collaboration, became key
challenges in the development of networked e-mail and led to "arrested
closure" in the form of flexible standards.

--Julian

J. Kilker, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Emerging Technologies
School of Journalism and Media Studies
Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas
kilker at unlv.nevada.edu
http://www.nevada.edu/~kilker