[Air-l] ICE-T again

[Martin Garthwaite]

Barry,

If I put my computer scientist hat on, ICT is to the point, understandable
and sufficiently descriptive but at the same time vague enough to cover a
large area of computer science, it's a catch all, that really does not work
well in the world of the social scientist.

As a social scientist I don't like Information and Communication Technology
because each of these three is a huge area in its own right, and I would
also argue that ICT has always been about supporting economic activities
which always involves exchange.

So I would agree that a dis-aggregation is required, but I have no clue how
to go about it (sorry not much help).

On 7/10/07, Barry Wellman <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:
>
> The last Aoir digest suggests that the response to my ICE-T proposal has
> run its course. As you may recall, I suggested Exchange be added to
> Information and Communication.
>
> I haven't archived or done heavy analysis, but the response on This List
> was unenthusiastic. More interesting to me were the reasons.
>
> Basically, "everything is communication" (Luhmannites), etc, or
> "everything is information:
>
> I wish the proponents of each would duke it out (we could make a YouTube
> video), but I won't join either camp.
>
> You can expand any definition of information or communciation to include
> anything. I could as easily as say (as a sociologist) that all is social
> organization and social relations.
>
> Take for example, sex: certainly, it is communication and social
> relations, and for the unprotected, all that DNA information is exchanged
> (after phone numbers). But like Carrie Bradshaw, I think more is gained by
> keeping sexual relations as a separate category.
>
> Where I made a mistake, by aiming for cute memorability, was the Exchange
> part for ICE-T. What I was really after was E-Commerce, especially the
> sending/selling and receiving/buying of Things. So we might call the E:
> "E-Commerce Technologies" to preserve the ICE-T. And if you think that
> such behaviour boils down to info or comm, go have it out with the
> economists.
>
> Which leads me to the larger point: do we need to disaggregate I and C? I
> work a lot in the C world, and it seems to me that interpersonal
> communication (on/offline) is different from civic involvement (what
> social network analysts call 2-mode connectivity -- person:organization).
>
> YMMV
> Barry Wellman
> _______________________________________________________________________
>
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-- 
Martin Garthwaite

PhD candidate, London Knowledge Lab www.lkl.ac.uk

+447957 764819
Skype id mgarthwaite1330
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