This week, we really got into the textbook “Web Theory: An Introduction” by Robert Burnett and P. David Marshall. We were asked to review chapters 2, 3, and 4. Chapter 2 deals with information and networks. According to the authors (2003), “This chapter unravels the way that theories of information and theories of the network and network society can help elucidate the social and cultural changes that are part of web culture” (p. 23). The first part of the chapter is highly technical and deals with information as binary codes and cybernetics. The cybernetics aspect is so intriguing when you see how it came about in the one example of the ballistic missile and with smart machines and smart technology. The second part of the chapter discusses the concept of the network and how it relates to the perceptions of time and space, interpersonal communication, broadcast networks, and the network society. The authors call attention to the fact that the web has allowed for the creation of a culture that signifies a new awareness towards information and its directional flow as well as how it contributes to globalization. What is clear is that the Web has given many people and organizations the opportunity to distribute knowledge without being hampered by their geographical position. Even though radio and television are still prevalent, it is the Web and how information is advancing into digitization that has come to the forefront.
Chapter 3 looks at the Web and its effect on communication. According to the authors (2003), “One of the central realities of the Web is that it converges different media forms into networks and simultaneously different modes of communication” (p. 45). The authors take us through the creation of the first computer network called the ARPAnet in the 1960’s to how it is now. We are also introduced to four levels of communication; interpersonal, group, organizational, and mass communication. Interpersonal is either face-to-face or private, group usually involves interaction with a small amount of people in order to make plans and choices, organizational communication often occurs in sizeable networks that have obvious structure, and lastly mass communication, which is more intricate and involves distributing a message from a single source to a multitude of individuals and/or businesses. What I got from this chapter is how much the web has introduced us to many facets of communication. They even touched on the use of emoticons and acronyms which were really funny to read. There are now so many ways and technologies that allow us to communicate and reach out to people, not just in a personal sense, but also in the business would and this really highlights a main purpose of the web which is to bridge the gap between people and promote connections.
Chapter 4 is titled Webs of Identity and illustrates how our culture has been actively utilizing the Web to alter our identity or to present a different view of ourselves. According to Burnett and Marshall (2003), “Information and communication technology shapes our perceptions, distributes our pictures of the world to one another, and constructs different forms of control over the cultural stories that shape our sense of who we are and our world” (p. 61). There have been both negative and positive arguments on this topic. The negative side argues that by limiting ourselves to online interactions and an online persona, we are preventing ourselves from engaging in face-to-face interactions, building outside relationships as well as increasing our loneliness and isolation. On the positive side, the arguments there say that socialization is increased, it allows for better communication with friends, family and business contacts who are far away, and that it encourages involvement in clubs and organizations. Now there are sites such as Facebook or MySpace that allow you to build a profile that encourages you to express the personality that you have or the personality you wish to project. There are also virtual games that allow you to create a new persona for yourself and even build a city to live in. My thoughts on this topic are that while I can understand the desire to express oneself and show who you are, I don’t think that it is a good idea to reveal too much online for safety reasons nor do I think it is good to spend so much time online showing who you are when you can get outside and show it while living your life. I have a Facebook page and only check it maybe twice a week. I prefer to communicate by e-mail or phone. As for the virtual games, I did try one briefly and thought it was a huge time-waster as it become more intricate and I feel it is not healthy to immerse oneself in a fake identity.
References
Burnett, Robert and Marshall, P. (2003). “Web Theory: An Introduction.” New York, NY. Routledge.
For this week, we only had one website to review. This was the site for information architect Liz Danzico and is called Bobulate (http://bobulate.com/). This site was quite good and I liked perusing through the case studies as I feel they provide a real life example of how IA is being applied and what one can somewhat expect to encounter when working with it in the real world. I was also impressed with the work she has done with sites such as Boxes and Arrows that we discussed in a previous lesson and Barnes & Noble.com as I have always liked that site.