07DEC98 MEDIA ANALYSIS, ROBERT ANDREWS

SEMINAR ON CYBERCULTURE

> INTERNET
> A small part of 'cyberspace.'
Q Collection of interconnecting computer networks.
Made possible by two things: infrastructure and protocoi.
> Infrastructure is any possible communications medium, primarily telephone lines
(which are themselves bounced off satellites, under the sea).
Protocoi is TCP/IP, which is the common language messages are encoded by to be
pushed down the wires.
> It's not about computers. But people using computers can talk to each other wherever
they are, if they have some channel in between and the software to mediate the taik,
like using the telephone.
> So, we have a system by which information on any machine is available to
anyone...

> WEB
> Up until the early 90s, the information was hard to get to.
/$")<« Tim Berners!Lee >» developed a hypertext interface to make things
easier. He showed his idea to everyone else on the Net, it propogated and became the
worldwide web.
?!^Wetnsiust an Interface to information on computers, but such a nice one that it's
become a popular publishing, broadcasting and discussion medium.
<$? Browsers. «< X: Start Navigator, use hypertext on Cardiff.ac.uk >»
> What hypertext does is let you go from one bit of information to another with a
single click on a link, no matter where it is stored.
So, I can go from <this page> to <that page> without having to know the
complicated bits that happen in the background.
Good bit: I can also go from <this page> to <one in Argentina> just as easily.
> Search engines.
/h <«Q: First to find a website by navigating Yahoo! >» ^^?o>^7
S) So, as weii as making things easier to find, this has big implications...

> GEOGRAPHY
0 With this new medium, geography is no longer important. Everywhere is as
accessible as here.
> Most accurate version of McLuhan's 'global village.'
. ^ <« Q: Does anyone use the Net to keep In touch with things or people back home
or abroad? >»
> The rhythms of the Earth, like the sea and the moon,! have been replaced by a
heartbeat synchronised by these media, a global time.
> Maximise Fordist production.
Q Daysleeper: Planet's rhythms are internalised in the office, where the water sits
beside things like fax machines and computers, and, in fact, the ocean becomes a
machine... we can turn on and off our working patterns ! '!nighf and 'day' aren't as
important anymore.
> Abolished the natural rhythms of the planets
@ So when we can disconnect from geography/where are_we?'~^

& CYBERSPACE
> Term coined by Gibson in Neuromancer, godfather of cyberpunk literature.
@ Irony: cyberspace doesn't exist.
Representation of 'where' people gather to communicate with these media.
<" I could hold a conference!call with people in Australia (night) and Jordan (afternoon).
I know where I am, but where are we? We are in the wires, that's where we meet.
That's cyberspace.
Atoms >» Bits [Negroponte, 'Being Digital']
> <Start Navigator, go to www.netlink.co.uk/cgi!randrews/chat.cgi> *or*
(}' <« X: Start mIRC, go to #England... people all over the world in one 'place,'
or 'room' >»
Cyberspace is anti!geography, but uses 'space' metaphors to make things easy.
 > It would be pointiess to put up a map of the world, and overlay the connection
points ! that is the antithesis of everything it stands for, and the networks make any
point on the planet as ciose!by as the one next to me. Enables...

> CYBERPUNK
Q Neuromancer = Bible. 'Consensual haiiucmats'on'
> Starts with the idea that society can on!'/ get worse.
The plots inltiaiiy appear far!fetched, but we can see the roots today.
Technology and communications media have advanced, but social relations have
collapsed, leaving a space which can be occupied the people who are really hot at
using the tools, inhabiting these new spaces.
If information is power, those who can get it (by whatever means) are the heroes.
c? That's where Case comes in.
Criminal of the future, savvy with cyberspace and the street.
> Hacker, or 'cowboy' [or 'jockey'] ! new hero of the new frontier.
But new... can literally be in cyberspace ! direct connection to nervous system.
Nervous system maimed by client he was hacking for.
> Along comes a big new client, repairs him.
Toxin sacs dissolving in arteries... he must do hack.
Goes back into cyberspace to retrieve an AI which is based all around the worid.
Gets help from his dead former hacking mentor ! personality frozen when he was
maimed inside cyberspace... riaillned [metaphysical!]
^> <« Q: Is this opposite of cyborg idea? Inhabit media !vs! MediaTech in
body. Which films differ? Blade Runner vs My Watch w/ time!zones? »>
> That's cyberpunk. Hi!tech, hi!crime, emphasis on cyberspace, which I mentioned
earlier.

> AS MEDIA TODAY

d> Internet more conservative.
Lot of publishing!based content. Now, big companies.
> Interactive, two!way medium, almost have responsibiiity to produce.
Readers/viewers can talk back to producer, or amongst themselves.
Q <« X: R.E.M.Backchat = community of interest. Posty conversation. >»!
Journalism abolished. Democratic, empowering.

Questions?
Who is Positive / Negative?
Where is the Internet going?
Seminar Presentation.

Robert Andrew$ ! 7.12.98

Worked under difficult circumstances in that equipment let you down and therefore
had to abandon a large amount of your presentation. However this means that it is a
little difficult for me to judge the success (or otherwise) of what you were attempting.

Some general comments on what you did present suggests that perhaps you were in
danger of overestimating 'knowledge' of Internet of your audience.
You also speak very quietly and there was perhaps a danger of people not being able
to hear.

I am not sure what (if any) activity/discussion you were planning.

Difficult to grade but I have tried to give you the benefit of the doubt without being
unfair to other students who gave more successful presentations.

50.

!^