[Air-l] A definition of the internet

[Nancy Baym]

The usual definition I run across, weak as it is, is a network of 
networks connected through shared protocols, specifically TCP/IP.

It gets increasingly complicated and problematic now that mobile 
phones and other technologies that are not exactly what we think of 
as "computers" are internet connected as well.

When we started this association, we were critiqued for casting the 
net too narrow by calling it the Association of INTERNET researchers. 
Rob Kling (who keynoted out first meeting) and I had a conversation, 
for instance, in which he argued that phenomena such as banking 
networks which contain/transfer most of the world's economy yet are 
not "the internet" are extremely important and shouldn't be set 
outside of "internet" studies. One of our longest time members once 
commented to me that she was getting increasingly interested in 
interactive gaming via gaming consoles, but wasn't sure it was 
appropriate work for AoIR since it wasn't technically "internet."

Although these are important and accurate definitional critiques, in 
practice I think that "internet" has come to be one of those terms 
that has no precise meaning, yet which continues (for now) to 
function effectively to lend coherence to a variety of differing yet 
related phenomena. I would not be surprised to find the term rendered 
completely meaningless in the future, though.

Nancy