[Air-l] "network of networks" - origin of

Barry Wellman wellman at chass.utoronto.ca
Sun Mar 20 12:16:27 PST 2005


In a recent post, Neil Randall referred to the internet as a "network of
networks."

In case anyone is interested, Paul Craven and I invented that term in our
1973 article "The Network City." (in _Sociological Inquiry_ 43 (Winter):
57-88. [Reprinted in _The Community_, edited by Marcia Effrat. New York:
Free Press, 1974.]

Way back then, we were referring to social networks, but the concept was
the same as was later ported over to the internet (or independently
re-invented).

In short, we claim terminological priority!
 Barry
 _____________________________________________________________________

  Barry Wellman         Professor of Sociology        NetLab Director
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman

  Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162
	     To network is to live; to live is to network
 _____________________________________________________________________





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