[Air-L] Metaphors in Technology

[Annette Markham]

Hi all,

Just catching up on this thread.  Sorry if these resources have already been
mentioned.  I found these to be useful in helping me develop some ideas
about how metaphor functions to shape our experience and understanding of
technology.

Gozzi, Jr., R. (1994). The Information Superhighway as Metaphor.  Et cetera
51(3), pp. 321- 327.
Raymond Gozzi, Jr. has been writing about Internet and metaphor for awhile
now.  I seem to recall this as the first article of his I ever read, and
there are many more since that time. Much of it published in the journal
ETC.  He also has a book out on the topic: "The Power of Metaphor in the Age
of Electronic Media."  Good stuff.

Reddy, M. J. (1979/1993).  The conduit metaphor:  A case of frame conflict
in our language about language.  In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought,
2nd Edition (pp. 138-164).  Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
This chapter by Michael Reddy is an excellent discussion about the
predominance of the "conduit" metaphor, which, along with the frontier
metaphor, drove much early conceptualizing about the internet.  I consider
this essential reading when thinking about metaphors and technology.  The
entire edited collection (Ortony's) is excellent, BTW.

Stefik, Mark (1996). Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors. MIT
Press.

Palmquist, Ruth (1996).  The Search for an Internet Metaphor: A Comparison
of Literatures.  ASIS 1996 Conference Proceedings.
http://www.asis.org/annual-96/ElectronicProceedings/palmquist.html
--A good example of metaphor studies of Internet that got done in the
mid-late 1990s in various disciplines.

Ratzan, Lee (2000).  Making sense of the web: a metaphorical approach.
 Information Research, Vol. 6 No. 1, October 2000.
http://informationr.net/ir/6-1/paper85.html#ref2
--I'm particularly partial to the citation list at the end of this article.
 Lots of resources here on metaphor from a variety of disciplines.

And here are two fairly extensive lists of resources on metaphor, from
Virginia Montecino when she was at George Mason University.  For me, these
two lists help to illustrate the various places/disciplines that intersect
with the project of looking at metaphors in/of technology.
http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/metabiblio.htm
http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/metasites.htm

Cheers,

Annette

On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 2:59 AM, Gordon Carlson <gordycarlson at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Thank you all for your help so far.  I have added all your recent
> comments to the list.
>
> I will be honest, I love the Net and its slang but have never heard
> the term epeen or a related one.  Wow.  The Internet is a scary
> place/idea/destination/highway/car/tube.  Much like the Wild
> West...ooh, need to add that one...
>
> In case anyone is counting here is a newer list with the additions
> thus far.  Thanks again and please do keep them coming!
>
> -Gordy
>
>
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--
****************************************************
Annette N. Markham, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow, Internet Research Ethics
Center for Information Policy Research
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
amarkham at gmail.com
http://www.cipr.uwm.edu/
http://markham.internetinquiry.org/

Co-Editor, International Journal of Internet Research Ethics
http://www.ijire.uwm.edu
****************************************************