[Air-l] Origin of the term "Internet" ?

[Jeremy Hunsinger]

as I recall, and given our record of not maintaining much  
standardization of anything, the discussion was along the lines of  
'can we stop capitalizing it?, is there any reason to capitalize  
it?'  to which there was consensus was 'yes' and 'no'.  this debate  
was had in terms of the first annual, and in regards to I think it  
was I.R. 4.0  .   In my mind, there is no 'debate' or even 'strong  
argument' .   You can do whatever you want because at best internet  
is a set that demarcates too many things to be capitalized, there is  
no thing called 'the Internet'  beyond linguistic convention, there  
are a set of standards, and technologies that are internet  
technologies, ie technologies that allow you to network and make  
internets amongst networks and to transfer data across networks,  
but... when we say 'the internet'  we cannot be referring to any  
proper name, as there is literally no simple referent.  To capitalize  
it is to capitalize, the 'Globe' instead of capitalizing the  
'Earth'.  There are many globes with many forms and there are many  
internets with many forms.
On Mar 30, 2007, at 8:17 AM, Sue Cranmer wrote:

> Hi Jeremy
>
> In view of the strong arguments here to the contrary, do you have  
> time to
> briefly outline why the assoc. decided to standardize on the small  
> I, or
> point towards the relevant archive?
>
> Thanks
>
> Best wishes
>
> Sue
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Jeremy Hunsinger
> Sent: Thursday, 29 March 2007 19:41
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Origin of the term "Internet" ?
>
>
> the association standardized on small i, internet a while ago. On  
> Mar 29,
> 2007, at 2:16 PM, M.B.Gaved wrote:
>
>> "Internet" or "internet"?
>>
>> Maybe it's also got something to do with novelty - I am sure I've
>> seen a shift from people referring to "E-mail" towards "e-mail" and
>> now just plain "email".  In the same way I think the shift has
>> probably happened from "Internet" to "internet" as it's now seen as
>> commonplace and not worth capitalising.
>
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jeremy hunsinger
Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research,  
School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee  
(www.cipr.uwm.edu)

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