[Air-l] Internet as medium with different sub-media or channels?

[Denise N. Rall]

Thanks Elijah for taking the discussion to a much
smarter level.

Here's a citation for those curious about the
differences between internet-based and web-based
networks by the eminent physicist M.E.J. Newman: 
Newman, M. E. J. (2003). "The structure and function
of complex networks." Society of Industrial and
Applied Mathematics Review 45(2): 167-256. Especially
important for those who want to know what scale-free
networks are and their relationship to networks that
obey the power laws. Lots of math but great reading.

I also should have noted that technologies and their
infrastructures have HUGE impacts on human society, as
in my printing press example.
Eisenstein, E. L. (1977). The printing revolution in
early modern Europe. London, Cambridge University
Press.
But here I see the book and/or print as the medium and
the press as the delivery device or infrastructure,
not a medium. It's still important, it has impacts,
but I regard it as unexpressive - a functional device.

UH yeah good point. There's function & function - 
packets can be re-directed to serve different purposes
or modalities according to their internal components.
I still don't see them as a medium but subsumed in
their function without expression per se. 

BUT I'm happy to note that the discussion is far more
important than a yes/no answer. And I still concede
that today's students will see the internet as a
medium rather than a technological infrastructure -
nothing I can do about that!

Cheers, Denise
(attempting to engage brain before starting keyboard)
	


Denise N. Rall, Ph.D. submitted, School of Environ. Science,
Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA
Tuesdays: Room T2.12, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 or Mobile 0438 233 344
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/index.html
Virtual member, Cybermetrics Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK
http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/index.html