The blog looks awsome!! I am totally superhappy with it! Tabula Rasa is in the print, which is fantastic, for now I can finally get that essay done.. and wash my clothes, buy some food.. but first I fixed my blog of course, and my homepage - Daewens.
I am freezing though. It's becomming winther here down under!! Here are some more links I found today about Globalization, which I am write my minor essay in the class Globalization about.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
No Radio in my Head
Thom Yorke is sich. Or rather he has a sore throat. For a singer that is sick. So sick in fact that the consert with Radiohead was CANCELLED!! Crap... I hope I can get the chance later..
I have been fucking around with this blog now.. trying to make it better looking with Dreamweaver. When everything looked fab, somehow the text-formatting started to fuck about with these stuff: æøå'"-`(this is a test, naturally). It's always something, ain't it?
I am tired now, I think I will find my bed. I think I still remember where it is.
I have been fucking around with this blog now.. trying to make it better looking with Dreamweaver. When everything looked fab, somehow the text-formatting started to fuck about with these stuff: æøå'"-`(this is a test, naturally). It's always something, ain't it?
I am tired now, I think I will find my bed. I think I still remember where it is.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
The ages we are in
I personably think I had these ages: happy, naïve, depressed (after loosing my illusions) and now I am in the angry age. Some of my rude friends call it my ’30-year old crisis’
Some thoughts around the theme Ages (Tabula Rasa Issue 3)
Yeah, right. I believe that we are as old as we think we are!! I know kids that are more mature than some 50-yearolds I know. It's all in your mind. Still, our ages in years are used for pinpointing us in life, to what we are supposed to be doing. My mother at my age had a little me of 11 running around… I don't! I'm still a bloody student, for crying out loud! And this is starting to get more and more normal… students are getting older, first time mothers are getting older and somehow I think the kids of the modern rich world are resisting becoming adults. Still we are adults; we just don't feel like we are. Perhaps we should.
If you can somewhat decide how old your mind is, you cannot decide what age you live in. Some of us are fortunate or unlucky enough to live through more than one age in our lifetime. Like my grandfather. He is still in this world, and has witnessed an amazing change in how the world works, from a community based on farming and fishing to industrialism and now the age of the Internet. With a lot of scepticism I might add, perhaps justly so. On his 23'rd birthday Norway was occupied by Nazi-Germany. He might have said: I wished they had not done that! And someone might have answered:
'So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.' (Gandalf)
So what about our time, our age, right now, in 2004? Who determines when an age ends and a new start? 'There are no beginnings nor endings in the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning'. Thus begins Robert Jordan his famous fantasy novels, and many argue that we now are in a beginning of a new age. It is called many things, like Cyber-Age, Information-Age, Globalization-Age, Global Age, the Network Society, Information Revolution, Information Society etc. What defines it?
The Stone Age was pretty self-explanatory, so was the Industrial Revolution. Today we got no more cold war and only one superpower, we have Internet & Globalization, we got big multinational corporations, wars, unrest, terrorism and somewhat radical climate changes. All linked together like the hypertextual world of Internet. Chaotic.
A key therm is Globalization. It sounds like a very nice thing at first, with shiny happy people holding hands throughout the world, chatting on the net, travelling the world in fast airplanes, trading equally from each other and exchanging ideas to make the world a better place for our children and so on. It’s the utopian dream, but alas like all utopian fantasies not the whole truth. To my big surprise I am now going to quote a former American president to get my point across:
'Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn’t affect two-thirds of the people of the world.' (Jimmy Carter)
In fact, it doesn’t affect 90% of the people in the world. The only shiny about Globalization is the 'TV-reality' served to us by men like Rupert Murdoch, who are very busy trying to get his hands on every media company in the world.
I might add at this point that Tabula Rasa is very happy to announce that we are an independendt studentmagazine. Not many of our media colleges can say that. Remember that the next time you watch TV, read a newspaper, read online news or listen to the radio. One man can, if he decides to, possibly make you and most of the world believe any old crap. Murdoch owns many big newspaper in UK, USA and Australia as well as many television stations and radiostations. How was he able to get to that point?
'The origins of the catastrophe lay in the Utopian endeavour of economic liberalism to set up a self-regulating market system.' (Karl Polanyi)
Globalization is very much about free market. When countries open up for unlimited trade, it does not mean it will be fair trade. It’s actually helping the big corporations expand and grow. They want you to be able to buy a Big Mac anywhere in the world.
'If the market is the driving force in globalization, many fear, it is bound to exacerate inequality by creating winners and loosers. If globalization makes the world more homogeneous, others fear, many cultures are in trouble' (The Globalization Reader)
Don’t believe a word you read or hear, take care of your original culture, discover your inner age and think about what kind of age you are living in. Your grandchildren might ask what you did about it. Remember that 'even the smallest person can change the course of the future.' (Galadriel)
Good luck to you, spoiled child!
Some thoughts around the theme Ages (Tabula Rasa Issue 3)
Yeah, right. I believe that we are as old as we think we are!! I know kids that are more mature than some 50-yearolds I know. It's all in your mind. Still, our ages in years are used for pinpointing us in life, to what we are supposed to be doing. My mother at my age had a little me of 11 running around… I don't! I'm still a bloody student, for crying out loud! And this is starting to get more and more normal… students are getting older, first time mothers are getting older and somehow I think the kids of the modern rich world are resisting becoming adults. Still we are adults; we just don't feel like we are. Perhaps we should.
If you can somewhat decide how old your mind is, you cannot decide what age you live in. Some of us are fortunate or unlucky enough to live through more than one age in our lifetime. Like my grandfather. He is still in this world, and has witnessed an amazing change in how the world works, from a community based on farming and fishing to industrialism and now the age of the Internet. With a lot of scepticism I might add, perhaps justly so. On his 23'rd birthday Norway was occupied by Nazi-Germany. He might have said: I wished they had not done that! And someone might have answered:
'So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.' (Gandalf)
So what about our time, our age, right now, in 2004? Who determines when an age ends and a new start? 'There are no beginnings nor endings in the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning'. Thus begins Robert Jordan his famous fantasy novels, and many argue that we now are in a beginning of a new age. It is called many things, like Cyber-Age, Information-Age, Globalization-Age, Global Age, the Network Society, Information Revolution, Information Society etc. What defines it?
The Stone Age was pretty self-explanatory, so was the Industrial Revolution. Today we got no more cold war and only one superpower, we have Internet & Globalization, we got big multinational corporations, wars, unrest, terrorism and somewhat radical climate changes. All linked together like the hypertextual world of Internet. Chaotic.
A key therm is Globalization. It sounds like a very nice thing at first, with shiny happy people holding hands throughout the world, chatting on the net, travelling the world in fast airplanes, trading equally from each other and exchanging ideas to make the world a better place for our children and so on. It’s the utopian dream, but alas like all utopian fantasies not the whole truth. To my big surprise I am now going to quote a former American president to get my point across:
'Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn’t affect two-thirds of the people of the world.' (Jimmy Carter)
In fact, it doesn’t affect 90% of the people in the world. The only shiny about Globalization is the 'TV-reality' served to us by men like Rupert Murdoch, who are very busy trying to get his hands on every media company in the world.
I might add at this point that Tabula Rasa is very happy to announce that we are an independendt studentmagazine. Not many of our media colleges can say that. Remember that the next time you watch TV, read a newspaper, read online news or listen to the radio. One man can, if he decides to, possibly make you and most of the world believe any old crap. Murdoch owns many big newspaper in UK, USA and Australia as well as many television stations and radiostations. How was he able to get to that point?
'The origins of the catastrophe lay in the Utopian endeavour of economic liberalism to set up a self-regulating market system.' (Karl Polanyi)
Globalization is very much about free market. When countries open up for unlimited trade, it does not mean it will be fair trade. It’s actually helping the big corporations expand and grow. They want you to be able to buy a Big Mac anywhere in the world.
'If the market is the driving force in globalization, many fear, it is bound to exacerate inequality by creating winners and loosers. If globalization makes the world more homogeneous, others fear, many cultures are in trouble' (The Globalization Reader)
Don’t believe a word you read or hear, take care of your original culture, discover your inner age and think about what kind of age you are living in. Your grandchildren might ask what you did about it. Remember that 'even the smallest person can change the course of the future.' (Galadriel)
Good luck to you, spoiled child!
Friday, April 23, 2004
Monday, April 19, 2004
a little news bulletin...
First, USA: The FCC – the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates radio, television, satellite and cable, have now revised the local television multiple ownership rule together with other deregulations. The proposals have not yet been implemented due to appeal.
If you think only the radical left in the US is against this, think again. Ted Turner, who founded CNN, wrote in the Washington Post recently that the latest liberalisation proposal would "stifle debate, inhibit new ideas and shut out smaller businesses trying to compete". “If these rules had been in place in 1970, it would have been virtually impossible for me to start Turner Broadcasting or, 10 years later, to launch CNN”, Turner comments. Also, The National Rifle Association, which represents US gun-owners, fears that control will pass into the hands of "gun-hating" metropolitan media conglomerates. (BBC Online)
Over to Europe: Today an Italian can spend a Saturday shopping at his local supermarket, relaxing in his home, reading a newspaper, before flicking through a few TV channels to watch AC Milan play football, and all these services may have been provided by his prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. And last year Berlusconi pressed forward a bill that reversed a court ruling which would have forced the PM's own ‘Mediaset’ company to sell off one of its three TV stations. (BBC Online)
That was a small update from Italy. In the rest of Europe, the situation is not so ridiculous, but getting there, according to a survey of January 2003, by EFJ – European Federation of Journalists.
This report concludes that there are major threats in Europe’s media landscape. Some of the threats identified are political and private threats to public service broadcasting, power over global media in the hands of few, more and more media concentration, threats to emerging markets in Eastern and Central Europe and regulation getting weaker as media power grows.
There are for instance no restrictions on foreign ownership in the Czech media, and the medium-sized German press group, Passauer Neue Presse (PNP) controlled nearly 100% of the regional newspaper market and part of the national market by end of 1991.
In the United Kingdom, the Communications Bill, published in May 2002, will drastically liberalise media ownership and regulation and make the UK the most liberal country, in
terms of media ownership rules, in Europe. Among the controversial proposal is the lifting of cross-media ownership-restrictions, so that potentially, Rupert Murdoch’s UK-based
News International could acquire TV-channels in the UK even though he already is a heavy player in the printed press. Murdoch is a heavy player internationally, and the main holdings of Murdoch’s News Corporation is the Fox broadcast networks and Fox News, Fox Sports, FX, and other Fox cable channels in the United States; 20th Century Fox studios; thirty-five local U.S. TV stations; the New York Post plus The Times and The Sun of London; the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard; the publishing house HarperCollins; the Sky satellite system in England and the Star satellite system in Asia; about 30 newspapers in Australia as well as holdings in pay-TV Foxtel and other cable and satellite broadcasting.
And now, the weather…
________________________
This is the start of my presentation today in class Globalisation: Media and Telecommunication
If you think only the radical left in the US is against this, think again. Ted Turner, who founded CNN, wrote in the Washington Post recently that the latest liberalisation proposal would "stifle debate, inhibit new ideas and shut out smaller businesses trying to compete". “If these rules had been in place in 1970, it would have been virtually impossible for me to start Turner Broadcasting or, 10 years later, to launch CNN”, Turner comments. Also, The National Rifle Association, which represents US gun-owners, fears that control will pass into the hands of "gun-hating" metropolitan media conglomerates. (BBC Online)
Over to Europe: Today an Italian can spend a Saturday shopping at his local supermarket, relaxing in his home, reading a newspaper, before flicking through a few TV channels to watch AC Milan play football, and all these services may have been provided by his prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. And last year Berlusconi pressed forward a bill that reversed a court ruling which would have forced the PM's own ‘Mediaset’ company to sell off one of its three TV stations. (BBC Online)
That was a small update from Italy. In the rest of Europe, the situation is not so ridiculous, but getting there, according to a survey of January 2003, by EFJ – European Federation of Journalists.
This report concludes that there are major threats in Europe’s media landscape. Some of the threats identified are political and private threats to public service broadcasting, power over global media in the hands of few, more and more media concentration, threats to emerging markets in Eastern and Central Europe and regulation getting weaker as media power grows.
There are for instance no restrictions on foreign ownership in the Czech media, and the medium-sized German press group, Passauer Neue Presse (PNP) controlled nearly 100% of the regional newspaper market and part of the national market by end of 1991.
In the United Kingdom, the Communications Bill, published in May 2002, will drastically liberalise media ownership and regulation and make the UK the most liberal country, in
terms of media ownership rules, in Europe. Among the controversial proposal is the lifting of cross-media ownership-restrictions, so that potentially, Rupert Murdoch’s UK-based
News International could acquire TV-channels in the UK even though he already is a heavy player in the printed press. Murdoch is a heavy player internationally, and the main holdings of Murdoch’s News Corporation is the Fox broadcast networks and Fox News, Fox Sports, FX, and other Fox cable channels in the United States; 20th Century Fox studios; thirty-five local U.S. TV stations; the New York Post plus The Times and The Sun of London; the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard; the publishing house HarperCollins; the Sky satellite system in England and the Star satellite system in Asia; about 30 newspapers in Australia as well as holdings in pay-TV Foxtel and other cable and satellite broadcasting.
And now, the weather…
________________________
This is the start of my presentation today in class Globalisation: Media and Telecommunication
Thursday, April 15, 2004
aaaaaaargh
korsen i fan ska e faa skreve en bra presentasjo tell mandag? E ha ikke b'ynt enno!! E har ondt i halsen, no faar e vel influensa e og!! Korsen i helvete ska e faa folk tell aa kom paa moete? I dag va vi ikkje nok folk tell a faa stemt eller bestemt nokka som helst!! Faen!! Helvete!!
e e royksugen!!
Og koffer e heimesio mi fremdeles nere!? This sux..
e e royksugen!!
Og koffer e heimesio mi fremdeles nere!? This sux..
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
trur eg
I morgon vil eg byrja på eit nytt og betre liv, trur eg
Eg skal aldri røyka meir og ødelegge lungane mine, trur eg
Eg skal aldri mer masa meg til eit drag,
men trekkje inn frisk luft frå fjella i velbehag, trur eg
Alle idiotar som eg møtar skal eg sky som bare fan, trur eg
Og ikkje gje meg inn i tullete debatt på stan, trur eg
Eg skal seie mi meining men ikkje ta agnet,
når idioater vil kverulera og krangle, trur eg
Det skal ingen meir få sjå meg sova bort dagen, trur eg
sitta i stugo med laken te kjole, trur eg
Eg skal legga meg når grisen går til kvile i sitt bol,
og stå opp når hanen flakser og gjel i morgensol, trur eg
Ja, i morgon skal eg byrja på den gode veg som sagt, trur eg
Taka striden upp mot kjøtet og den heile djevelsmakt, trur eg
Men i dag lyt det få væra, for eg treng å fixa heimesio,
så studeringa må vente nok ein dag, eg tek det sio, trur eg
(fritt omdikta fra 'Trur Eg' )
Eg skal aldri røyka meir og ødelegge lungane mine, trur eg
Eg skal aldri mer masa meg til eit drag,
men trekkje inn frisk luft frå fjella i velbehag, trur eg
Alle idiotar som eg møtar skal eg sky som bare fan, trur eg
Og ikkje gje meg inn i tullete debatt på stan, trur eg
Eg skal seie mi meining men ikkje ta agnet,
når idioater vil kverulera og krangle, trur eg
Det skal ingen meir få sjå meg sova bort dagen, trur eg
sitta i stugo med laken te kjole, trur eg
Eg skal legga meg når grisen går til kvile i sitt bol,
og stå opp når hanen flakser og gjel i morgensol, trur eg
Ja, i morgon skal eg byrja på den gode veg som sagt, trur eg
Taka striden upp mot kjøtet og den heile djevelsmakt, trur eg
Men i dag lyt det få væra, for eg treng å fixa heimesio,
så studeringa må vente nok ein dag, eg tek det sio, trur eg
(fritt omdikta fra 'Trur Eg' )
Saturday, April 10, 2004
normal things
Yesterday I took passphotos of all my little friends.. Is that sentence disturbing at all you think? My favourite one is Preccious, she is a little 'living dead' doll (mini) Bride of Valentine. I think I might be a little bit in 'babymode' right? So I have a softy for everything cute, and I create virtual lives for my cuddly toys.. Normal, I think.
Friday, April 09, 2004
April 9.. Nevermore!
Today is a terrible day, for many reasons. It is also a day my grandfather was born, in 1916. He is my only living grandparent, and I have a special place in my heart for him.
On Peder's 24th birthday Nazi-Germany attached Norway. He has told many stories from the war, on which I hope to some day write down.
Norway and World War II
Norwegians were surprised and unprepared when Nazi Germany, with its superior military might, attacked Norway on 9 April 1940. The general public, and their political leaders, had believed that Norway would be able to stay out of the second world war, just as the country had maintained its neutrality in World War I. (source: Odin)
Deir Yassin
9th of April is a bad day for the palestines as well. Why, you ask? The same people that survived the Holocaust during WW2 - the Jews - massacred the village Deir Yassin in 1948.
The question that must be asked is: Do humans ever learn anything? I don't know. Oppressors will always try to squash human independence it seems.. Do you think you are independent? Who are the oppressors today? Are you aware?
Take a look at Norways leaders today.
April 9 - nevermore? It happens everyday.
On Peder's 24th birthday Nazi-Germany attached Norway. He has told many stories from the war, on which I hope to some day write down.
Norway and World War II
Norwegians were surprised and unprepared when Nazi Germany, with its superior military might, attacked Norway on 9 April 1940. The general public, and their political leaders, had believed that Norway would be able to stay out of the second world war, just as the country had maintained its neutrality in World War I. (source: Odin)
Deir Yassin
9th of April is a bad day for the palestines as well. Why, you ask? The same people that survived the Holocaust during WW2 - the Jews - massacred the village Deir Yassin in 1948.
The question that must be asked is: Do humans ever learn anything? I don't know. Oppressors will always try to squash human independence it seems.. Do you think you are independent? Who are the oppressors today? Are you aware?
Take a look at Norways leaders today.
April 9 - nevermore? It happens everyday.
Til Ungdommen
Kringsatt av fiender,
gå inn i din tid!
Under en blodig storm -
vi deg til strid!
Kanskje du spør i angst,
udekket, åpen:
hva skal jeg kjempe med
hva er mitt våpen?
Hvor er ditt vern mot vold,
her er ditt sverd:
troen på livet vårt,
menneskets verd.
For all vår fremtids skyld,
søk det og dyrk det,
dø om du må - men:
øk det og styrk det!
Stilt går granatenes
glidende bånd
Stans deres drift mot død
stans dem med ånd!
Krig er forakt for liv.
Fred er å skape.
Kast dine krefter inn:
døden skal tape!
Elsk og berik med drøm
alt stort som var!
Gå mot det ukjente
fravrist det svar.
Ubygde kraftverker,
ukjente stjerner.
Skap dem, med skånet livs
dristige hjerner!
Edelt er mennesket,
jorden er rik!
Finnes her nød og sult
skyldes det svik.
Knus det! I livets navn
skal urett falle.
Solskinn og brød og ånd
eies av alle.
Da synker våpnene
maktesløs ned!
Skaper vi menneskeverd
skaper vi fred.
Den som med høyre arm
bærer en byrde,
dyr og umistelig,
kan ikke myrde.
Dette er løftet vårt
fra bror til bror:
vi vil bli gode mot
menskenes jord.
Vi vil ta vare på
skjønnheten, varmen
som om vi bar et barn
varsomt på armen!
A norwegian socialist poet. I could not find an english translation. Sorry. From my HP, Nordahl Grieg
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Publishing myself
It was ever thus with writing....
Expressing me,
my words (im)press my vision on you.
Now make your own mark.
Your own impress.
Publish. Yourself.
From Nancy Kaplan's Kitchen
That is what a blog is.. publishing yourself! Nancy Kaplan is one of the pioners in hypertext research. Her most famous work is the online hypertext essaybutnotanessay stuff (we really do lack words for this new kind of writing!) E-Literacies.
I am writing a 'Glossary' post on her for my Electronic Writing class. It is due tomorrow.
I thus have to get up pretty early to finish it. What else is new? Always putting things off.. I am also getting a haircut tomorrow which is a pretty clear case of bad planning.. but I really do need that haircut. My hair is a mess for sure.
I did another search on my name by the way.. and I found a sister in comics.. She is blond though, and (possibly) a little bit more techie than me.. but I like her.. LOL.. Her name is Helen, sweetheart of the Internet.. Indeed.
And if I was american:
Norway: Du søkte på kvinnenavnet: Helen
Det er 2578 kvinner som har Helen som første fornavn.
Allright, I'm going to bed now!
Expressing me,
my words (im)press my vision on you.
Now make your own mark.
Your own impress.
Publish. Yourself.
From Nancy Kaplan's Kitchen
That is what a blog is.. publishing yourself! Nancy Kaplan is one of the pioners in hypertext research. Her most famous work is the online hypertext essaybutnotanessay stuff (we really do lack words for this new kind of writing!) E-Literacies.
I am writing a 'Glossary' post on her for my Electronic Writing class. It is due tomorrow.
I thus have to get up pretty early to finish it. What else is new? Always putting things off.. I am also getting a haircut tomorrow which is a pretty clear case of bad planning.. but I really do need that haircut. My hair is a mess for sure.
I did another search on my name by the way.. and I found a sister in comics.. She is blond though, and (possibly) a little bit more techie than me.. but I like her.. LOL.. Her name is Helen, sweetheart of the Internet.. Indeed.
And if I was american:
Helen is the #15 most common female name.
0.663% of females in the US are named Helen.
Around 845325 US females are named Helen!
source namestatistics.com
0.663% of females in the US are named Helen.
Around 845325 US females are named Helen!
source namestatistics.com
Norway: Du søkte på kvinnenavnet: Helen
Det er 2578 kvinner som har Helen som første fornavn.
Allright, I'm going to bed now!
Monday, April 05, 2004
Almost-mom-in-law is here
and there is much rejoicing! Everyone is really really tired though, because us that have not been on a plane half the globe had to go to the airport really really early... Me and Joppe didn't sleep at all tonight. I was vacuuming the floors 2pm last night. So here I am, too tired to be able to read any or do any schoolwork, and not in the mood for anything other than smoking and surfing while I wait for my class to commence at 6pm. This is just really a rant rant rant post. Whatever. I am sitting in the Tabula Rasa office, and the Turbo-Editor is editoring around me in such speed that I cannot see him, certainly not talk to him. He is in another timezone than me. Like I am a snail and he is a fly. Wow, there he goes again. Hm, I see there is SIMS on this computer...
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Bortkastet tid?
Du skal prøve å brekke foten. Bare for moro skyld. Helen 1998
Du vil fort oppdage fordeler og ulemper ved å være invalid. Fordelen er naturligvis at du blir oppvartet hjemme. Ulempen er at du oppholder deg mest nettopp hjemme. For hvis du skal ut er det bare problemer. Det er trapper overalt som utfordrer balansenervene. Det tar lang tid å hoppe seg opp eller ned, og uten gelender er du avhengig av hjelp. Når du endelig har karret deg opp er du våt av svette. Det er alldeles ikke heiser overalt, eller små bakker istedenfor trapper. Og om vinteren er krykkene våte når du går inn igjen, og dermed livsfarlige glatte. Jeg har hatt en god del små nestenulykker fordi en krykke uventet sklir unna. Det er ikke hyggelig..
Hjemme var problemet at TV-en og doet var i forskjellige etasjer. Men da hadde jeg i hvert fall noe å gjøre. Gøyalt.
Du er selvsagt også nødt til å være i kontakt med helsevesenet, og kanskje trygdekontoret. Der er det lover og regler du kanskje ikke vet om, men ikke tro at noen forteller deg noe frivillig. Har du rett på taxi hjem fra sykehuset? Be om det, spør, ikke tro at noen gir deg noe! Når du har funnet ut av alt sammen, kan du bare ta det rolig, for nå vil du ikke ha noe å gjøre de neste to månedene. Det er umulig å frakte en åpnet liter melk, for eksempel. Med tre ”føtter” har du ingen hender igjen. Du blir totalt avhengig av andre føtter du eventuelt har hjemme hos deg. ”Gidder du…” kommer du til å si fryktelig ofte. Du kommer til å se lassevis med dårlige TV-serier som forbrenner hjernen din til støv, og etter hvert får du fryktelig lyst til å gå tur i skogen eller ta en joggetur. Nettopp fordi du ikke kan gjøre det.
Det er altså mest ulemper. Men det er ingenting å snakke om, faktisk. For det går over, og på den bortkastede tiden har du kanskje fått en etterlengtet ferie, du har kanskje lært noe om helsevesenet, bra og dårlig, og du skjønner på en helt annen måte hvordan mennesker som ikke blir bedre har det hver dag hele tiden hele året. Mennesker som sitter i rullestol, eller må bruke krykker eller på andre måter møter uoverstigelige fjell av trapper hver gang de skal noe utenfor sitt eget hus.
Som souvenir har jeg en metallplate i venstreankelen.
Du vil fort oppdage fordeler og ulemper ved å være invalid. Fordelen er naturligvis at du blir oppvartet hjemme. Ulempen er at du oppholder deg mest nettopp hjemme. For hvis du skal ut er det bare problemer. Det er trapper overalt som utfordrer balansenervene. Det tar lang tid å hoppe seg opp eller ned, og uten gelender er du avhengig av hjelp. Når du endelig har karret deg opp er du våt av svette. Det er alldeles ikke heiser overalt, eller små bakker istedenfor trapper. Og om vinteren er krykkene våte når du går inn igjen, og dermed livsfarlige glatte. Jeg har hatt en god del små nestenulykker fordi en krykke uventet sklir unna. Det er ikke hyggelig..
Hjemme var problemet at TV-en og doet var i forskjellige etasjer. Men da hadde jeg i hvert fall noe å gjøre. Gøyalt.
Du er selvsagt også nødt til å være i kontakt med helsevesenet, og kanskje trygdekontoret. Der er det lover og regler du kanskje ikke vet om, men ikke tro at noen forteller deg noe frivillig. Har du rett på taxi hjem fra sykehuset? Be om det, spør, ikke tro at noen gir deg noe! Når du har funnet ut av alt sammen, kan du bare ta det rolig, for nå vil du ikke ha noe å gjøre de neste to månedene. Det er umulig å frakte en åpnet liter melk, for eksempel. Med tre ”føtter” har du ingen hender igjen. Du blir totalt avhengig av andre føtter du eventuelt har hjemme hos deg. ”Gidder du…” kommer du til å si fryktelig ofte. Du kommer til å se lassevis med dårlige TV-serier som forbrenner hjernen din til støv, og etter hvert får du fryktelig lyst til å gå tur i skogen eller ta en joggetur. Nettopp fordi du ikke kan gjøre det.
Det er altså mest ulemper. Men det er ingenting å snakke om, faktisk. For det går over, og på den bortkastede tiden har du kanskje fått en etterlengtet ferie, du har kanskje lært noe om helsevesenet, bra og dårlig, og du skjønner på en helt annen måte hvordan mennesker som ikke blir bedre har det hver dag hele tiden hele året. Mennesker som sitter i rullestol, eller må bruke krykker eller på andre måter møter uoverstigelige fjell av trapper hver gang de skal noe utenfor sitt eget hus.
Som souvenir har jeg en metallplate i venstreankelen.
Wireless Fidelity
‘WITH THE POWER TO CHANGE EVERYTHING’: A REVOLUTION YET AGAIN
An essay in Communication Environments, Master of Arts in Communication, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. 2003.
This time it is not wires but the air between them that is being transformed. Over the past three years, a wireless technology has arrived with the power to totally change the game. It's a way to give the Internet wing without licenses, permission, or even fees. In a world where we've been conditioned to wait for cell phone carriers to bring us the future, this anarchy of the airwaves is as liberating as the first PCs - a street-level uprising with the power to change everything. (Anderson, 2003)
The title of this essay plays on Sandy Kyrish’ title; ‘Here comes the revolution – again’ (1994). Kyrish evaluates the predictions for the information superhighway (broadband) in relation to the almost similar predictions for the cable TV. Now the next big revolutionary predictions are regarding wireless Internet. We are all getting used to wireless ‘gadgets’ in our daily lives, like remote controls and mobile phones. We are starting to take these for granted. Now wireless solutions for Internet access is the new ‘black’ in ‘tech fashion’. It’s amazing how mobile and wireless have come to dominate the telecommunication landscape in a very short period of time. (CUTLER, T. 2003. Eye On The Future. Telecommunications Journal of Australia. Volume 53, no.2.) It’s easy to confuse the mobile technology for Internet-access and the Wi-Fi technology. Wi-Fi is a wireless technology for the portable personal computer. Wi-Fi, short for wireless fidelity, makes it possible to access Internet on laptop PC’s without the hassle of wires when the user is in range of a base station (also called access point or ‘Hot Spot’). These base stations can be installed by anyone anywhere, like a business area, a school campus or a neighbourhood. Being much cheaper and more powerful than any mobile phone internet connection it is easy to see the possibilities. At the moment, most predictions for the Wi-Fi future are ecstatic.
In this paper I will discuss the predictions for ‘wireless fidelity’ as the new telecommunication infrastructure. I start with a discussion of the many predictions concerning Wi-Fi, especially in relation to Kyrish’s conclusions. Next I analyse Wi-Fi as a disruptive technology, before discussing how Norman’s information appliances and Wi-Fi can be an advantage to each other. Through these discussions I hope to show that Wi-Fi can be a valuable new addition to already established infrastructure and might just be the next disruptive technology, but not necessarily a revolution ‘that will change everything’.
For my research I used the online databases at the library at Swinburne University of Technology, an interview with ITS (Information Technology Services) at the same university, as well as online magazines and resources. There is an abundance of information about Wi-Fi online, and my selection may be random or unbalanced. I have however tried my best to get a balanced list of references. Some of my sources are press-releases from the wireless industry itself, and these need to be interpreted in light of these companies commercial interests. I will use the current situation in Melbourne and at Swinburne as a small case study.
The count on ‘hot spots’ online showed that Melbourne has become the Wi-Fi capital in Australia, and the country itself is nr.6 on Intel’s top ten hotspot-lists in November 2003. (Intel, 2003) USA is on top with 10859 hotspots. There are currently 452 hotspots in Australia, 324 in the state of Victoria and of those are 228 in Melbourne. (Sydney has 77 hotspots) Hotspots are now popping up at coffee shops, cafes, hotels, airports and university campuses .
Wi-Fi is becoming important for universities in the hunt for the best students . Richard Constantine, director of ITS at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, says the main reason to roll out Wi-Fi networks is to provide a greater student experience and boost the University’s appeal. Swinburne aims to be the leading Wi-Fi University in the Asia-Pacific region. (NELSON, D. 2003. Setting the Wi-Fi course. The Age, September 16. )
The pilot started last year has been a success, says Constantine. With 40 base stations around main campus and 20 laptops for students to let at the university library, the numbers of users are now up to a few hundred. By the end of 2003 Swinburne will have 200 base stations at Hawthorn campus – enough for complete coverage. (Personal communication, November 4, 2003).
Wireless access allows students to work online in groups anywhere within the campus. ITS is expanding the study of Wi-Fi by cooperating with the academics to look more closely at the benefits, for instance if it improves the grades for the students. In the pilot 72 percent of the students involved said the technology actually improved their ability to study, encouraging collaborative work and the use of the computer. (Nelson, 2003) Wireless Internet access will become more and more of an alternative for the students according to Constantine;
Wi-Fi is complementary at the moment, but it will change. At campus we will get areas with wireless internet access only. In time the wired internet access [pc-labs] will decrease while wireless will increase. Speed will be a lot faster when we upgrade from 11 MB to 54 MB within the next six months. (Personal communication, November 4, 2003)
The students have to authenticate with a VPN (Virtual Private Network) concentrator to ensure security when logging on. Constantine says nothing is bullet-proof, but that this is as good as the ‘wired’ security. He says that one third of the current students have laptops. Swinburne is also offering a wireless phone service that with the aid of headphones and laptops enables students to call their students for free within the campus area. (Personal communication) The staff will of course also use this service, and ITS expect significant savings from this. (Nelson, 2003) When calling to a number outside the area it will cost the same as a landline to landline call. The only problem ITS had with Wi-Fi was some initial drop-outs caused by the software, but this has been resolved. (Personal communication)
These numbers are surely encouraging, and they seem to be fulfilling the predictions about Wi-Fi that are easily found in specialized magazines as well as in the daily news. Most of these predictions are highly optimistic, you can smell the enthusiasm trough the many adjectives. A revolution yet again? The quote from the beginning of this essay is from Wired.com, and the article starts thus: The wireless Internet has arrived - and now the sky's the limit. It is a moment that echoes the birth of the Internet in the mid-'70s… (Anderson, 2003) It is safe to say that predictions about Wi-Fi have taken off recently, and most of them are from this year, 2003. The term ‘revolution’ is often used.
The technology is Wi-Fi, and it's the first blast in a revolution, called open spectrum, that will drive the Internet to the next stage in its colonization of the globe. Like the Net itself, Wi-Fi was confined to technical circles for years before exploding into the mainstream, seemingly out of nowhere. Over the past two years, it's become one of the fastest-growing electronics technologies in history. (Anderson, 2003)
We are on the brink of tech's next golden age, when Moore's law, broadband wireless, and nanotech will converge to create the Embedded Revolution. Combine a few thousand hungry new companies, top talent to run them, and VCs eager to back them, and we'll find ourselves in a wave of change that'll dwarf even the last one. (Malone, 2003)
Let’s go back to Kyrish (1994). She reminds us how cable TV was predicted to eliminate much physical travel and bring education, work and healthcare into the home, be of great benefit to working class viewers and cause dramatic social benefits. The latter by improving decaying social structures and enhance democratic processes and give better educated citizens. Cable TV did not fail as a communication service, but it is surely a disappointment if we compare reality and predictions, Kyrish says. Broadband, the ‘superhighway’, was also predicted to be a revolution.
The great high-speed wires would fill the homes with fantastic cultural offerings, restructure central social institutions, weaken or replace traditional shopping methods, increase worker productivity and reduce pollution. It would also enhance individualism and creativity over mass culture. Citizens would fulfil their intellectual, emotional and practical interests without leaving home, Kyrish found.
I will not evaluate how broadband have lived up to its predictions, but at a first glance one could say, sure, to some extent, it has happened . Not in the scale that was envisioned, though. We are i.e. still polluting the air driving to work, driving to the shop, or the doctor’s office. However, Kyrish did find interesting similarities in the predictions of the two; it was to make a more perfect world as well as become central and transform society. Such ‘autonomous technologies’ are sometimes falsely abstracted from their social and cultural context, Kyrish says.
Some of the predictions for Wi-Fi are general and vague, others are more specific, saying that Wi-Fi will be a universal standard, found in all kinds of communication gadgets and used by 99 million people by 2006 . (Anderson, 2003) One can read about a predicted 120,000 hot spots by 2007 against a current approximation of 20,000 worldwide , providing a low-cost or free broadband access for the users. (Farber, 2003) A survey interviewing about 500 business travellers, reports that most of them see Wi-Fi as vital for the future of their firm, and concluded that by 2010, wires would be a distant memory . (GARCIA, B.E. 2003. Intel, T-Mobile, Others Sponsor Event to Promote Wireless Internet Access. The Miami Herald Knight Ridder/ Tribune Business News, Sept. 25.) Also; Wi-Fi will mean a growth of multiplayer games, be normal in people’s homes and will give interactive TV a new meaning. (Jager, 2003) Once Wi-Fi is reasonably well established, it will change the way we think about the world. In particular it will change the way we think about control processes. (Jager) Conferences will take place spontaneously, no matter where the participants are. Phones may look like Star Trek badges pinned to clothes. (Stone, 2003) One sees the possibility for wireless technologies to shorten the ‘digital divide’ between haves and have-nots because of the opportunities this offers in urban centres. (MORSE, S. 2003. Internet for all. Telephony, July 14. Vol. 243.) All of these predictions are more than hinting at Wi-Fi as the next disruptive technology, and a research firm in the US supports this.
It is easy to at first compare these predictions with the old predictions about cable-TV and broadband Internet. If I am to exchange the words ‘fibre optic cabling’ and ‘broadband’ with Wi-Fi in the conclusion in Kyrish’ paper, this would be the result: In itself, Wi-Fi is not ‘revolutionary’; its powers and capabilities stem only from its use by society and Wi-Fi predictions that incorporate... unusually revolutionary or utopian possibilities will likely fail. This is however too easy a comparison. A disruptive technology is one that significantly changes the way people and systems operate (Wi-Fi Planet), but Wi-Fi can be disruptive without fulfilling all these predictions. Disruptive technologies challenge existing technology. In Wi-Fi’s case this would be the wired broadband infrastructure to Internet access (the new 3G mobile phone technology is currently more of a competitor). Any infrastructure, once in place, is hard to budge because of conversion costs, and it might not matter that the new solution is technically better than the old. (NORMAN, D.A. 1998. The Invisible Computer. Why Good Products Can Fail, The Personal Computer Is So Complex and the Information Appliances Are The Solution) Is Wi-Fi challenging it? Yes, but not necessarily in order to replace it, the only problem with having both is a bigger cost. Wi-Fi is designed to coexist with the wired networks rather than replace them. (Wi-Fi Planet) This is both a strength and a weakness for Wi-Fi since it makes it easier to gain a foothold in the market, but at the same time might make it difficult to become the leading technology. A disruptive technology is at first underpowered compared to the competition (broadband access is still faster than Wi-Fi), offering the same (or better) product than existing technology (internet access without the hassle of cables) and overpriced. (Norman) As we can see at Swinburne, the Wi-Fi is slowly taking over the wired technology because they can coexist. The technology will however need to be welcomed in the corporate market. Businesses might be thrilled by the new Wi-Fi technology, but they are also hesitant, being nervous about security and may be too comfortable with the current infrastructure . They may not be familiar with the new technology, and the IT-budgets are no longer as big as they used to be. (Wi-Fi Planet, 2002a) To change the infrastructure is costly and the security issue is always important for any corporation or small business. VPN is good enough says ITS-director at Swinburne, but the signals are still ‘walking’ trough walls, and some argue that this is not good enough . Recent new security technologies for Wi-Fi are also being critiqued. (Neset, 2003) Wi-Fi is therefore still viewed as secondary to wired. (Wi-Fi Planet, 2002) But again, if Wi-Fi is chosen as the only infrastructure, the business will need lesser cost for cabling and maintenance. The user can connect to Internet anytime and make the workforce truly mobile. (Wi-Fi planet, 2002)
For the private market, the first problem is the obvious need of a laptop. Not everyone can afford one. If you got one, you still face an even bigger problem if you want to use it at home: infrastructure. If you don’t want to pay for wired Internet at home in addition to your wireless, you will need to go to a hot spot area to get online. Or set one up with your neighbours.
Unforeseen problems could also surface. Mobile phones are currently under heat for being dangerous with excessive use, could Wi-Fi possibly be as well? What about disturbances from weather conditions, or electricity from trams? I have found none of these predictions online. But on the other hand, unforseen advantages might also arise: New technologies always spawn forth new uses that were unthought of prior to the introduction of the technology. (Norman)
Roaming, the ability to move seamless from one frequency to another and one Wi-Fi supplier to another have been a big problem for Wi-Fi users. But things are happening; BCI for instance announced that in September its product eZ-Wi will offer the customers of ISPs access to the Internet at all participating hotspots. And Cloud, a large European provider, announced at the ITU Telecom World exhibition in Geneva recently that international Wi-Fi roaming would get easier . (IHT. 2003. Wi-Fi access expands: Cloud and Boingo to share networks. IHT (International Herald Tribune) Tuesday, Oct. 14.)
Norman’s ‘information appliance’ is interesting when talking about Wi-Fi technology and roaming. An information appliance is a simple easy-to-use ‘gadget’ specialized in information, be it knowledge, facts, graphics, images, video or sound. (Norman, p. 53) Norman’s vision is that we should forget the technology behind – and only concentrate on the task that needs doing, using the correct easy tool for it. Examples of an information appliance are for example the mobile telephone or the calculator. These appliances are specialised in what they do, with no need to compromise like the current PC by trying to fit all into one. (Norman) The major competitor to the information appliances however is the PC, which again is a prerequisite for using Wi-Fi. These two different technologies may seem like big competitors. The relevance of this to Wi-Fi and wireless technology Norman describes best himself: All information appliances partake in similar families of interrelated systems. For these to work smoothly requires an efficient, omnipresent and invisible infrastructure. (Norman) Once the information exchange is standardized, the particular infrastructure within each appliance becomes irrelevant, because each appliance uses whatever fits best. (Norman, p. 132) Wi-Fi is only an infrastructure; it should not be the goal in itself, but an invisible well functioning tool we don’t need to know about. (Norman) Because of the different wireless infrastructure, the solution that can be envisioned today is to be able to use Wi-Fi (WLAN) where that is accessible, and then switch to more expensive mobile services outside the Hot Spot areas (Bluetooth might also help ). We don’t just get Norman’s invisible computer, we also gain the invisible internet. If my laptop can connect wirelessly to the Internet... then anything electrical can be connected to the Internet and controlled by anything connected to the Internet. (Jager) Already there are some hints of this happening , made possible because the industry has been investing in wireless infrastructure from the start . (NEW TECHNOLOGY WEEK. 2001. Wireless Firms, Lucent Announce $50M In Contracts. New Technology Week. Jan. 8.) I thus argue that we need not choose between the PC and the information appliances, as long as the infrastructure becomes invisible and seamless we can switch between them as we wish, the personal computer just being another information appliance we can use to whatever we think it do best. Today it is the individual who must conform to the needs of technology. It is time to make technology conform to the needs of people. (Norman) I could not agree more. When I searched the World Wide Web for information about Wi-Fi I felt drenched with technological language. This new technological innovation is in fact making itself difficult when it should be making itself accessible. The normal end user has no or little knowledge of this, and should not have to either. You shouldn’t have to know or care… We are told we need to know because we are driven by technology and technologists. (Norman) Norman said this in reference to the personal computer being hard to use and learn how to use. I would argue that this is a general problem in the telecommunication industry. Cutler talks about technocratic platforms and why they fail;
… why they fail to capture the morphing user environment, blindly searching for ‘killer applications’. Real world network solutions are hybrid networks – multimedia. Some of the ‘next big things’ will arise when we are liberated from the constraints of technology-defined platforms… We need to rediscover the fundamental role of end users in driving and shaping innovation from the edges of networks. (CUTLER, T. 2003. Eye On The Future. Telecommunications Journal of Australia. Volume 53, no.2.)
He is opting for the 3G technology as one of the solutions to save us from these technology defined platforms. Yes, it is one of the infrastructures that can be used, in coordination with others, like Wi-Fi. When the infrastructure is seamless, the possibilities are endless. Today the technology is also making it possible to use voice as a means of communication. The important development here is that we are breaking out of the single channel mediums of text or voice communications because the technologies of packet switching and broadband Internet are opening up the potential of what we used to call multimedia. (Cutler, 2003). A multimedia that is everywhere, invisible and unobtrusive. This availability might change society. Norman says that disruptive, revolutionary technologies change people’s lives and are difficult to cope with. The important question is again not how the technology is going to be like, but how we are going to be like. (BARR, T. 2000. Newmedia.com.au. The Changing Face of Australia’s Media and Communications. Australia: Allen & Unwin.) Different wireless internet technologies may in the end enable us to be online 24/7. Do we really need to be? Do we want to be? Already there are mobile-free zones in restaurants because of the disturbance and noise for other customers. With Wi-Fi it will be much cheaper to be annoying. Barr says the new ways of communication are contributing to social change, but that we hopefully will be enriched and enhanced by it, and not so much digitally determined. (Barr)
In conclusion, it may take a long time for disruptive technologies to get a foothold, but when they do, they can topple already established firms and dominate their field. By listening to their best customers, good firms have been known to stumble badly, because a new technology that clearly underperforms compared to mature products may become the market leader later. Customers are the ones defining what ‘best’ means. When the performance of a product is more than good enough for the market, the ‘best’ product will be that of better reliability and reputation, before again shifting to that of convenience, and then price. (CHRISTENSEN, C.M. AND ARMSTRONG E.G. 1998. Disruptive Technologies: A Credible Threat to Leading Programs in Continuing Medical Education? The Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Profession, Volume 18) The disruptive technology by being ‘good enough’ as well as cheaper steals the market away with aggressive marketing and new innovations. (Christensen and Armstrong) Examples of such aggressive marketing have currently started to appear, like the offerings of free access to the net via Wi-Fi. Some hotels and McDonald’s restaurants are for instance offering this to attract customers , and September 25 was Unwired Day in USA; hundreds of locations around the country offered free wireless internet access sponsored by big companies. In some McDonald’s restaurants in USA you can get free Wi-Fi access with the purchase of a Bic Mac Extra Value Meal. (COMMUNICATIONS TODAY. 2003. Wayport, McDonald’s Expand Wi-Fi Deal. Communications Today, July 9. Vol. 9), and universities like Swinburne offer it to attract students. Broadband is giving us great speed to the ‘digital superhighway’. Wi-Fi is giving us good speed, but it comes without the hassle of wires. There are problems and shortcomings that we are waiting for to be solved, but Wi-Fi is already getting faster, as at Swinburne, who promises an upgrade from 11 MB to 56 MB within six months. The biggest problem for Wi-Fi so far is security, but I have no doubt the industry have their best men and women working on this as I am writing this paper.
Professor Trevor Barr may just also agree that Wi-Fi could be the cheaper solution for empowered access for all. I will end this paper by quoting one of his ‘blueprints’ for Australia: ‘A vital component of the construction of an Australian advanced networked society is to make affordable high-bandwidth telecommunications available, preferably to all homes, institutions and offices.’ (Barr)
An essay in Communication Environments, Master of Arts in Communication, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. 2003.
This time it is not wires but the air between them that is being transformed. Over the past three years, a wireless technology has arrived with the power to totally change the game. It's a way to give the Internet wing without licenses, permission, or even fees. In a world where we've been conditioned to wait for cell phone carriers to bring us the future, this anarchy of the airwaves is as liberating as the first PCs - a street-level uprising with the power to change everything. (Anderson, 2003)
The title of this essay plays on Sandy Kyrish’ title; ‘Here comes the revolution – again’ (1994). Kyrish evaluates the predictions for the information superhighway (broadband) in relation to the almost similar predictions for the cable TV. Now the next big revolutionary predictions are regarding wireless Internet. We are all getting used to wireless ‘gadgets’ in our daily lives, like remote controls and mobile phones. We are starting to take these for granted. Now wireless solutions for Internet access is the new ‘black’ in ‘tech fashion’. It’s amazing how mobile and wireless have come to dominate the telecommunication landscape in a very short period of time. (CUTLER, T. 2003. Eye On The Future. Telecommunications Journal of Australia. Volume 53, no.2.) It’s easy to confuse the mobile technology for Internet-access and the Wi-Fi technology. Wi-Fi is a wireless technology for the portable personal computer. Wi-Fi, short for wireless fidelity, makes it possible to access Internet on laptop PC’s without the hassle of wires when the user is in range of a base station (also called access point or ‘Hot Spot’). These base stations can be installed by anyone anywhere, like a business area, a school campus or a neighbourhood. Being much cheaper and more powerful than any mobile phone internet connection it is easy to see the possibilities. At the moment, most predictions for the Wi-Fi future are ecstatic.
In this paper I will discuss the predictions for ‘wireless fidelity’ as the new telecommunication infrastructure. I start with a discussion of the many predictions concerning Wi-Fi, especially in relation to Kyrish’s conclusions. Next I analyse Wi-Fi as a disruptive technology, before discussing how Norman’s information appliances and Wi-Fi can be an advantage to each other. Through these discussions I hope to show that Wi-Fi can be a valuable new addition to already established infrastructure and might just be the next disruptive technology, but not necessarily a revolution ‘that will change everything’.
For my research I used the online databases at the library at Swinburne University of Technology, an interview with ITS (Information Technology Services) at the same university, as well as online magazines and resources. There is an abundance of information about Wi-Fi online, and my selection may be random or unbalanced. I have however tried my best to get a balanced list of references. Some of my sources are press-releases from the wireless industry itself, and these need to be interpreted in light of these companies commercial interests. I will use the current situation in Melbourne and at Swinburne as a small case study.
The count on ‘hot spots’ online showed that Melbourne has become the Wi-Fi capital in Australia, and the country itself is nr.6 on Intel’s top ten hotspot-lists in November 2003. (Intel, 2003) USA is on top with 10859 hotspots. There are currently 452 hotspots in Australia, 324 in the state of Victoria and of those are 228 in Melbourne. (Sydney has 77 hotspots) Hotspots are now popping up at coffee shops, cafes, hotels, airports and university campuses .
Wi-Fi is becoming important for universities in the hunt for the best students . Richard Constantine, director of ITS at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, says the main reason to roll out Wi-Fi networks is to provide a greater student experience and boost the University’s appeal. Swinburne aims to be the leading Wi-Fi University in the Asia-Pacific region. (NELSON, D. 2003. Setting the Wi-Fi course. The Age, September 16. )
The pilot started last year has been a success, says Constantine. With 40 base stations around main campus and 20 laptops for students to let at the university library, the numbers of users are now up to a few hundred. By the end of 2003 Swinburne will have 200 base stations at Hawthorn campus – enough for complete coverage. (Personal communication, November 4, 2003).
Wireless access allows students to work online in groups anywhere within the campus. ITS is expanding the study of Wi-Fi by cooperating with the academics to look more closely at the benefits, for instance if it improves the grades for the students. In the pilot 72 percent of the students involved said the technology actually improved their ability to study, encouraging collaborative work and the use of the computer. (Nelson, 2003) Wireless Internet access will become more and more of an alternative for the students according to Constantine;
Wi-Fi is complementary at the moment, but it will change. At campus we will get areas with wireless internet access only. In time the wired internet access [pc-labs] will decrease while wireless will increase. Speed will be a lot faster when we upgrade from 11 MB to 54 MB within the next six months. (Personal communication, November 4, 2003)
The students have to authenticate with a VPN (Virtual Private Network) concentrator to ensure security when logging on. Constantine says nothing is bullet-proof, but that this is as good as the ‘wired’ security. He says that one third of the current students have laptops. Swinburne is also offering a wireless phone service that with the aid of headphones and laptops enables students to call their students for free within the campus area. (Personal communication) The staff will of course also use this service, and ITS expect significant savings from this. (Nelson, 2003) When calling to a number outside the area it will cost the same as a landline to landline call. The only problem ITS had with Wi-Fi was some initial drop-outs caused by the software, but this has been resolved. (Personal communication)
These numbers are surely encouraging, and they seem to be fulfilling the predictions about Wi-Fi that are easily found in specialized magazines as well as in the daily news. Most of these predictions are highly optimistic, you can smell the enthusiasm trough the many adjectives. A revolution yet again? The quote from the beginning of this essay is from Wired.com, and the article starts thus: The wireless Internet has arrived - and now the sky's the limit. It is a moment that echoes the birth of the Internet in the mid-'70s… (Anderson, 2003) It is safe to say that predictions about Wi-Fi have taken off recently, and most of them are from this year, 2003. The term ‘revolution’ is often used.
The technology is Wi-Fi, and it's the first blast in a revolution, called open spectrum, that will drive the Internet to the next stage in its colonization of the globe. Like the Net itself, Wi-Fi was confined to technical circles for years before exploding into the mainstream, seemingly out of nowhere. Over the past two years, it's become one of the fastest-growing electronics technologies in history. (Anderson, 2003)
We are on the brink of tech's next golden age, when Moore's law, broadband wireless, and nanotech will converge to create the Embedded Revolution. Combine a few thousand hungry new companies, top talent to run them, and VCs eager to back them, and we'll find ourselves in a wave of change that'll dwarf even the last one. (Malone, 2003)
Let’s go back to Kyrish (1994). She reminds us how cable TV was predicted to eliminate much physical travel and bring education, work and healthcare into the home, be of great benefit to working class viewers and cause dramatic social benefits. The latter by improving decaying social structures and enhance democratic processes and give better educated citizens. Cable TV did not fail as a communication service, but it is surely a disappointment if we compare reality and predictions, Kyrish says. Broadband, the ‘superhighway’, was also predicted to be a revolution.
The great high-speed wires would fill the homes with fantastic cultural offerings, restructure central social institutions, weaken or replace traditional shopping methods, increase worker productivity and reduce pollution. It would also enhance individualism and creativity over mass culture. Citizens would fulfil their intellectual, emotional and practical interests without leaving home, Kyrish found.
I will not evaluate how broadband have lived up to its predictions, but at a first glance one could say, sure, to some extent, it has happened . Not in the scale that was envisioned, though. We are i.e. still polluting the air driving to work, driving to the shop, or the doctor’s office. However, Kyrish did find interesting similarities in the predictions of the two; it was to make a more perfect world as well as become central and transform society. Such ‘autonomous technologies’ are sometimes falsely abstracted from their social and cultural context, Kyrish says.
Some of the predictions for Wi-Fi are general and vague, others are more specific, saying that Wi-Fi will be a universal standard, found in all kinds of communication gadgets and used by 99 million people by 2006 . (Anderson, 2003) One can read about a predicted 120,000 hot spots by 2007 against a current approximation of 20,000 worldwide , providing a low-cost or free broadband access for the users. (Farber, 2003) A survey interviewing about 500 business travellers, reports that most of them see Wi-Fi as vital for the future of their firm, and concluded that by 2010, wires would be a distant memory . (GARCIA, B.E. 2003. Intel, T-Mobile, Others Sponsor Event to Promote Wireless Internet Access. The Miami Herald Knight Ridder/ Tribune Business News, Sept. 25.) Also; Wi-Fi will mean a growth of multiplayer games, be normal in people’s homes and will give interactive TV a new meaning. (Jager, 2003) Once Wi-Fi is reasonably well established, it will change the way we think about the world. In particular it will change the way we think about control processes. (Jager) Conferences will take place spontaneously, no matter where the participants are. Phones may look like Star Trek badges pinned to clothes. (Stone, 2003) One sees the possibility for wireless technologies to shorten the ‘digital divide’ between haves and have-nots because of the opportunities this offers in urban centres. (MORSE, S. 2003. Internet for all. Telephony, July 14. Vol. 243.) All of these predictions are more than hinting at Wi-Fi as the next disruptive technology, and a research firm in the US supports this.
It is easy to at first compare these predictions with the old predictions about cable-TV and broadband Internet. If I am to exchange the words ‘fibre optic cabling’ and ‘broadband’ with Wi-Fi in the conclusion in Kyrish’ paper, this would be the result: In itself, Wi-Fi is not ‘revolutionary’; its powers and capabilities stem only from its use by society and Wi-Fi predictions that incorporate... unusually revolutionary or utopian possibilities will likely fail. This is however too easy a comparison. A disruptive technology is one that significantly changes the way people and systems operate (Wi-Fi Planet), but Wi-Fi can be disruptive without fulfilling all these predictions. Disruptive technologies challenge existing technology. In Wi-Fi’s case this would be the wired broadband infrastructure to Internet access (the new 3G mobile phone technology is currently more of a competitor). Any infrastructure, once in place, is hard to budge because of conversion costs, and it might not matter that the new solution is technically better than the old. (NORMAN, D.A. 1998. The Invisible Computer. Why Good Products Can Fail, The Personal Computer Is So Complex and the Information Appliances Are The Solution) Is Wi-Fi challenging it? Yes, but not necessarily in order to replace it, the only problem with having both is a bigger cost. Wi-Fi is designed to coexist with the wired networks rather than replace them. (Wi-Fi Planet) This is both a strength and a weakness for Wi-Fi since it makes it easier to gain a foothold in the market, but at the same time might make it difficult to become the leading technology. A disruptive technology is at first underpowered compared to the competition (broadband access is still faster than Wi-Fi), offering the same (or better) product than existing technology (internet access without the hassle of cables) and overpriced. (Norman) As we can see at Swinburne, the Wi-Fi is slowly taking over the wired technology because they can coexist. The technology will however need to be welcomed in the corporate market. Businesses might be thrilled by the new Wi-Fi technology, but they are also hesitant, being nervous about security and may be too comfortable with the current infrastructure . They may not be familiar with the new technology, and the IT-budgets are no longer as big as they used to be. (Wi-Fi Planet, 2002a) To change the infrastructure is costly and the security issue is always important for any corporation or small business. VPN is good enough says ITS-director at Swinburne, but the signals are still ‘walking’ trough walls, and some argue that this is not good enough . Recent new security technologies for Wi-Fi are also being critiqued. (Neset, 2003) Wi-Fi is therefore still viewed as secondary to wired. (Wi-Fi Planet, 2002) But again, if Wi-Fi is chosen as the only infrastructure, the business will need lesser cost for cabling and maintenance. The user can connect to Internet anytime and make the workforce truly mobile. (Wi-Fi planet, 2002)
For the private market, the first problem is the obvious need of a laptop. Not everyone can afford one. If you got one, you still face an even bigger problem if you want to use it at home: infrastructure. If you don’t want to pay for wired Internet at home in addition to your wireless, you will need to go to a hot spot area to get online. Or set one up with your neighbours.
Unforeseen problems could also surface. Mobile phones are currently under heat for being dangerous with excessive use, could Wi-Fi possibly be as well? What about disturbances from weather conditions, or electricity from trams? I have found none of these predictions online. But on the other hand, unforseen advantages might also arise: New technologies always spawn forth new uses that were unthought of prior to the introduction of the technology. (Norman)
Roaming, the ability to move seamless from one frequency to another and one Wi-Fi supplier to another have been a big problem for Wi-Fi users. But things are happening; BCI for instance announced that in September its product eZ-Wi will offer the customers of ISPs access to the Internet at all participating hotspots. And Cloud, a large European provider, announced at the ITU Telecom World exhibition in Geneva recently that international Wi-Fi roaming would get easier . (IHT. 2003. Wi-Fi access expands: Cloud and Boingo to share networks. IHT (International Herald Tribune) Tuesday, Oct. 14.)
Norman’s ‘information appliance’ is interesting when talking about Wi-Fi technology and roaming. An information appliance is a simple easy-to-use ‘gadget’ specialized in information, be it knowledge, facts, graphics, images, video or sound. (Norman, p. 53) Norman’s vision is that we should forget the technology behind – and only concentrate on the task that needs doing, using the correct easy tool for it. Examples of an information appliance are for example the mobile telephone or the calculator. These appliances are specialised in what they do, with no need to compromise like the current PC by trying to fit all into one. (Norman) The major competitor to the information appliances however is the PC, which again is a prerequisite for using Wi-Fi. These two different technologies may seem like big competitors. The relevance of this to Wi-Fi and wireless technology Norman describes best himself: All information appliances partake in similar families of interrelated systems. For these to work smoothly requires an efficient, omnipresent and invisible infrastructure. (Norman) Once the information exchange is standardized, the particular infrastructure within each appliance becomes irrelevant, because each appliance uses whatever fits best. (Norman, p. 132) Wi-Fi is only an infrastructure; it should not be the goal in itself, but an invisible well functioning tool we don’t need to know about. (Norman) Because of the different wireless infrastructure, the solution that can be envisioned today is to be able to use Wi-Fi (WLAN) where that is accessible, and then switch to more expensive mobile services outside the Hot Spot areas (Bluetooth might also help ). We don’t just get Norman’s invisible computer, we also gain the invisible internet. If my laptop can connect wirelessly to the Internet... then anything electrical can be connected to the Internet and controlled by anything connected to the Internet. (Jager) Already there are some hints of this happening , made possible because the industry has been investing in wireless infrastructure from the start . (NEW TECHNOLOGY WEEK. 2001. Wireless Firms, Lucent Announce $50M In Contracts. New Technology Week. Jan. 8.) I thus argue that we need not choose between the PC and the information appliances, as long as the infrastructure becomes invisible and seamless we can switch between them as we wish, the personal computer just being another information appliance we can use to whatever we think it do best. Today it is the individual who must conform to the needs of technology. It is time to make technology conform to the needs of people. (Norman) I could not agree more. When I searched the World Wide Web for information about Wi-Fi I felt drenched with technological language. This new technological innovation is in fact making itself difficult when it should be making itself accessible. The normal end user has no or little knowledge of this, and should not have to either. You shouldn’t have to know or care… We are told we need to know because we are driven by technology and technologists. (Norman) Norman said this in reference to the personal computer being hard to use and learn how to use. I would argue that this is a general problem in the telecommunication industry. Cutler talks about technocratic platforms and why they fail;
… why they fail to capture the morphing user environment, blindly searching for ‘killer applications’. Real world network solutions are hybrid networks – multimedia. Some of the ‘next big things’ will arise when we are liberated from the constraints of technology-defined platforms… We need to rediscover the fundamental role of end users in driving and shaping innovation from the edges of networks. (CUTLER, T. 2003. Eye On The Future. Telecommunications Journal of Australia. Volume 53, no.2.)
He is opting for the 3G technology as one of the solutions to save us from these technology defined platforms. Yes, it is one of the infrastructures that can be used, in coordination with others, like Wi-Fi. When the infrastructure is seamless, the possibilities are endless. Today the technology is also making it possible to use voice as a means of communication. The important development here is that we are breaking out of the single channel mediums of text or voice communications because the technologies of packet switching and broadband Internet are opening up the potential of what we used to call multimedia. (Cutler, 2003). A multimedia that is everywhere, invisible and unobtrusive. This availability might change society. Norman says that disruptive, revolutionary technologies change people’s lives and are difficult to cope with. The important question is again not how the technology is going to be like, but how we are going to be like. (BARR, T. 2000. Newmedia.com.au. The Changing Face of Australia’s Media and Communications. Australia: Allen & Unwin.) Different wireless internet technologies may in the end enable us to be online 24/7. Do we really need to be? Do we want to be? Already there are mobile-free zones in restaurants because of the disturbance and noise for other customers. With Wi-Fi it will be much cheaper to be annoying. Barr says the new ways of communication are contributing to social change, but that we hopefully will be enriched and enhanced by it, and not so much digitally determined. (Barr)
In conclusion, it may take a long time for disruptive technologies to get a foothold, but when they do, they can topple already established firms and dominate their field. By listening to their best customers, good firms have been known to stumble badly, because a new technology that clearly underperforms compared to mature products may become the market leader later. Customers are the ones defining what ‘best’ means. When the performance of a product is more than good enough for the market, the ‘best’ product will be that of better reliability and reputation, before again shifting to that of convenience, and then price. (CHRISTENSEN, C.M. AND ARMSTRONG E.G. 1998. Disruptive Technologies: A Credible Threat to Leading Programs in Continuing Medical Education? The Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Profession, Volume 18) The disruptive technology by being ‘good enough’ as well as cheaper steals the market away with aggressive marketing and new innovations. (Christensen and Armstrong) Examples of such aggressive marketing have currently started to appear, like the offerings of free access to the net via Wi-Fi. Some hotels and McDonald’s restaurants are for instance offering this to attract customers , and September 25 was Unwired Day in USA; hundreds of locations around the country offered free wireless internet access sponsored by big companies. In some McDonald’s restaurants in USA you can get free Wi-Fi access with the purchase of a Bic Mac Extra Value Meal. (COMMUNICATIONS TODAY. 2003. Wayport, McDonald’s Expand Wi-Fi Deal. Communications Today, July 9. Vol. 9), and universities like Swinburne offer it to attract students. Broadband is giving us great speed to the ‘digital superhighway’. Wi-Fi is giving us good speed, but it comes without the hassle of wires. There are problems and shortcomings that we are waiting for to be solved, but Wi-Fi is already getting faster, as at Swinburne, who promises an upgrade from 11 MB to 56 MB within six months. The biggest problem for Wi-Fi so far is security, but I have no doubt the industry have their best men and women working on this as I am writing this paper.
Professor Trevor Barr may just also agree that Wi-Fi could be the cheaper solution for empowered access for all. I will end this paper by quoting one of his ‘blueprints’ for Australia: ‘A vital component of the construction of an Australian advanced networked society is to make affordable high-bandwidth telecommunications available, preferably to all homes, institutions and offices.’ (Barr)
Mortal and Immortal
The viability of the on-line communication space EHC as a place for social interaction.
An essay in Cultural Convergence, Master of Arts (Communication), Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. 2003.
In this paper I will discuss the viability of the on-line communication space ‘EHC’ as a place for social interaction. I myself have been a member of EHC since the very beginning in January 2001. The forum has thus lasted almost 3 years. I asked members of EHC to help me with this essay by writing their thoughts about the EHC as a social space and virtual community, and I have therefore quoted them extensively throughout the essay.
EHC is a closed forum that was created for a specific purpose. EHC is short for Elven High Council, so naturally all of the members consider themselves ‘elves’. Elves are immortal beings, beautiful and wise, good or evil. But as the months went by, members started loosing their elven masks. The mortal humans behind the computer-screens became more or less visible. Members started to share pictures, real life events and physical presence when meeting in real life (IRL). Elwe (20) say:
‘The Elven High Council is a group of individuals originally gathered to discuss Utopia or Utopia-related topics, and more specifically centred on the elven race. I believe it was an original idea and certainly a creative one. Gradually we started moving away from simply elves and simply Utopia - the debates and eventual creation of a 'Lost Soul' rank so that the members who left the elven race could remain and continue to be brethren of sorts.’
Members in EHC are from all over the world, are 12 to 50 years old and live in different time-zones. Today many members are not even playing the online game that is the basis for the forum, but they are still members of EHC. What is EHC? ‘Elven High Council ’, EHC, is a forum for role-playing game (RPG) players, more specific players who have chosen to play ‘elf’ in the RPG ‘Utopia ’. According to the makers of Utopia , more than 80,000 players are battling it out in this fantasy text-and table based online game. In the game you are the ruler of a province, which again is a part of a kingdom of 25 provinces. Provinces and kingdoms battle it out in wars or personal attacks to gain in size and wealth. When you choose your province, you have several options for your province, for example your race, be it human, orc, elf or other. This helps the roleplaying aspect, and it attracts people who love J.R.R. Tolkien and his world in ‘Lord of the rings’. From the website of the game one can read;
‘Welcome to Utopia, a world where reality and dreams come together, a world where the lowliest of peasants can become the world's greatest heroes. A world unlike any other that you may have experienced now stands before you.’
From this game, alliances form to plot wars and strategies in online forums. EHC is not an alliance, but more a gathering of elves. It was created to talk about elven strategies, and to become a member you had to prove you played elf in Utopia. EHC has its own ‘founding father’ document.
The most used space, or ‘thread ’, in EHC is no longer the ‘Strategy’ one, but the ‘General Talk’, and many of the members have not played Utopia for years. I am one of those who managed to quit the game, but still hang around the forum. Why? The roleplaying aspect is still in play, and the members still consider themselves ‘elves’. Even for those that have quit the game Utopia, many common interests are still present. We like elves, for one. Naturally the genre of fantasy-literature is a shared interest, as well as RPG in general. Most of the threads in the forum are based upon the elven character of the member or the ruler of a province in Utopia. Those that are not are ‘General Talk’ and ‘Book Club’.
The roleplaying threads have become less used, as the members are more and more themselves, i.e. out-of-character (OOC). The roleplaying as well as the game factor is becoming less interesting for the members as they get to know the mortal humans behind. The forum has a way of sending messages to other members, there is a voting-section and rules for titles and ranks are in place. Each member has a profile to introduce themselves with, but most are like Bicep’s; it doesn’t really tell anything.
Before I start to discuss the viabilities of EHC as a social space for interaction, I want to look at what a virtual community is, and how we define a community in the physical world.
It is not easy to define what a community is, because of the abstract and complex nature of it. Surratt (SURRATT, C.G. 2001. The Internet and social change. USA: McFarland&Company, Inc.) says that according to Bell and Newby (1974) there has never been developed a theory of community or a good enough definition of what a community is. Surratt however says that a community is ‘people who interact within a limited territory and who share a culture’. She also talks about Ferdinand Tonnies (1887) divide between community (gemeinschaft) and association (gesellschaft). In the pre-capitalist community people was bound together by kinship, shared values and tradition, and social identity arised from common identity and kinship. An association is in contrast a social organization in which people typically have weak social ties and a great deal of self-interest.
Where does EHC fit in? According to Naimark (NAIMARK, M. 1990. Realness and Interactivity. In: LAUREL, B, ed. The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design) , virtual reality requires realness as well as interactivity. He says that the movie world understands realness but not interactivity, while the computer world understands interactivity but not realness. EHC is a forum based on text, so it is not like the movie world at all. How do we get a feeling of realness?
‘Nations must exist in the minds of its citizens in order to exist at all. ‘Virtual communities require an act of imagination to use,’ points out Marc Smith… ‘and what must be imagined is the idea of the community itself.’ (RHEINGOLD, H. 1993. The Virtual Community. )
To look at EHC as a community does therefore require a fair bit of imagination. The physical bodies of the members are scattered around the globe, and may never actually meet. The society is an illusion formed by the technology but more importantly the willingness of the user to treat it as if it were real. Fosheim Grønstad argues that the virtual world is just as real as the physical one. (FOSHEIM GRØNSTAD, O. 1999. Design av virtuelle flerbrukerverdener for fritidsbruk). Like a deaf person’s experience of being treated as an equal in a text-based forum is very real for him. Even though members only communicate through text, they still get to know each other, and after a while a sense of belonging, friendship and community starts to emerge.
‘Virtual communities… [are] social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace. ’ (Rheingold)
Rheingold says that in order to make a community work, ‘at least some of the people [must] reach out through that screen to affect each other’s lives.’ TURKLE, S. 1996. Virtuality and its discontents. In: Life on screen. Identity in the age of the internet.) With the basis of these definitions there is no doubt that EHC is a virtual community. It may have started out as an association, but morphed into a community as time went by.
‘As with Jaina, I think some members of EHC grew on me and that's what draws me back in here. Plus it gives me the opportunity to interact with people from around the world that share similar interests. (..) A very diverse community that seem to fit together into a complete picture.’ (MrNypps, 21)
But how viable is this community as a space for social interaction? Members of EHC do not only communicate with each other through the forum. They use instant messengers, chatrooms, webcameras as well as telephone or audiochat. Some have met in real life (IRL) and four people have married (Jaina and Mani, Rand and Gaia). They are however still coming back to the text-based EHC forum.
‘Why? Good question. I guess, like everyone else, it's gotten to be sort of a comfort zone for me. At first it was just fun and games and nonsense, but as fringe trickled in and out throughout the ages, there's always been a core group of people around. I'm closer to some than others, but I feel like I have a sense (however false it may be with respect to real life) of who most people are.’ (Mireille, 19)
Mireille touches upon two important aspect of a community. It is a place to feel safe (comfort zone) and friendship. These two are linked in real life, in trust. People we meet in a virtual community may not be someone we know well before we trust them with personal information. We are after all hiding behind our anonymity. We choose some that we reveal our real names to, but for the most part we are only known as the avatar we choose to be. Dreyfus (2001) argues that meaning in our lives requires genuine commitment and real commitment requires real risks, and that the anonymity and safety of virtual commitments on-line would lead to a life without meaning. He claims that it’s easy to become addicted to the web because the anonymous spectator takes no risks, all possibilities are open, and there is no fixed identity that could be threatened by disappointment, humiliation, or loss. He further argues that online friendships are not strong.
‘Furthermore, we would be tempted to avoid the risk of genuine commitment and so lose our sense of what gives meaning to our lives.’ (DREYFUS, H.L. 2001. On the Internet. Thinking in action)
Reid agrees that this is problematic , and to some extent so do members from EHC.
‘In fact, I specifically talk to a couple people… about IRL issues because they afford the benefit of having real opinions and feedback, but [with] the near-confidentiality of a diary.’ (Mireille)
Mireille treats some of the EHC-members as a form of diary, and she also admits that the friendships she has might not be real. She can afford to trust them with personal stuff because she knows they won’t be able to touch her IRL unless she lets them. Elwe says:
‘Currently, I am far more attached to my group of real life friends, but that is mostly because each of us has a stake in our relationship… While I consider myself friends with the members of this community, I don’t think that we share the bond of humility that usually binds friends together. If I were to meet someone from this community in real life, I think I might become extremely attached to them because of the near three year experience I have had with them, and that bond of humility might exist then.’ (Elwe)
Mireille takes no risk in telling her EHC friends about herself, but if Mireille met those she has ‘used’ as a diary, she would probably feel the humiliation of a person she has never actually met knowing intimate details of her personal lives or problems. Elwe have not revealed so much, but he has still shared a lot of thoughts, fun and discussions online. What might happen then is that if Mireille and Elwe were to meet someone from the forum they would probably discover they already were closer friends than they both thought.
To take Elwe’s thoughts further, the ‘humility’ of IRL-friends stem from having to bring the body with you. It is more real. The body might not do the things your brain want it to, or look the way you want it to. Dreyfus says that the shape and movement of our bodies play a crucial role in our making sense of the world. Is Elwe more real then IRL than online? Or is it possible that Elwe might show his truer self online? Elwes friends online and offline both know him, but in a different way. This touches upon the way we think of ourselves, our identity. Surratt says that to have an identity is to be situated within a particular social framework. As human beings we travel in many different social situations, we play a number of roles and thus have many social frameworks. She says that our identity is a collection of identities situated in each of those social situations. EHC was based upon a RPG. Roleplay is a natural way to communicate for Utopia-players. Is it possible then that members of EHC fake their online-selves?
‘I, myself, stay pretty true to who I really am when I'm here. If for no other reason than that it would be difficult to keep up the ruse for 3 years! :) I might actually be a little more "outgoing" here than in real life... at least around people I don't know. What you see of me here is how I act around my friends.’ (Mireille, 19)
‘I think small changes occur in that I might say things on-line I would not utter otherwise as there is much less accountability on-line. My personality also often changes with the group of people I am with. I am more creative and quiet when with a group of ‘social recluses’ but when I am with a group of socialites and active people, I often become far more sarcastic and active myself. I think I would prefer to think of it as being able to pull out a part of my identity that can not exist in either of those situations when I speak on-line. I am far more open with people online, I think.’ (Elwe, 20)
‘In real life, as my friends see it, I'm quite shy. Whereas here I'm known as "the nippleman". I guess in here I don’t really care about how people think of me; I'm free to act as I want without the social behaviour criticism as IRL does... No, no identity loss at all. If not, I've gained more knowledge about myself by being in here. By being here I can let out another side of me and let my imagination run wild.’ (MrNypps, 21)
‘It’s still me, just a bit more open, I don't think I'm loosing my identity, perhaps just making it stronger by being able to say what I want.’ (Jaina, 20)
This fits well with what Reid say about a more inhibited behaviour online than offline. Surratt argues that our online-selves are more ‘true selves’; ‘… the most complete conceptualizations of ‘true self’ anyone has yet been able to devise and present’. (Surratt) It is then easy to think that online selves are better than IRL-selves, that it would be better to live all our lives online. But remember Dreyfus, who argues that friendships online may not be as deep. The anonymity is the basis for both effects, and it is therefore hard to gain the benefits without the drawbacks. Dreyfus does however agree with Turkle when he says; ‘The Net frees people to develop new and exciting selves.’ Turkle is interested in how we can get the best of both kinds of community. She says that we belittle our experiences online at our own risk , and that ‘each reality of self gives way to reflexive questioning, irony and ultimately the playful probing of yet another reality. The centre fails to hold.’ (Turkle) In other words, we grow and gain from our virtual lives. Our identity is not one, but many. ‘‘We live in each others brains, as voices, images, words on screens’, said Rheingold in the online discussion. ‘We are multiple personalities and we include each other.’’ (Turkle) All the ‘multiple personalities’ of EHC got together, and what did they do? They started to form a community, to build an online society. EHC has titles and ranks, the elves gain in status according to their activities and presence. Rheingold has observed that people build virtual communities wherever computer-mediated-communications (CMC) becomes available. He thinks this is because the informal public spaces have disappeared from our real lives, and because CMC enables people to do new things. Rheingold talks about ‘collective goods’. In EHC the collective goods were to learn how to play elf in the RPG ‘Utopia’, to share ones knowledge about the gameplay. It still is to some extent. But it has also become a forum where members talk about everything and anything, from world-politics, day-to-day problems and funny stories to marriage and birth. Perhaps in some small way EHC has become an electronic agora for its members. An agora where one may talk more freely and act more natural than one does IRL. After a while members start to feel attached to online friends and acquaintances. Rheingold argues that a community is a matter of emotions as well as a thing of reason and data. The computer-screen may even cease to exist for a while, and the online community is all there is for the time being. Turkle agrees that virtual communities may prove positive for the self. People who have no experience of virtual communities might think the users are losers, computernerds with no friends. I have limited space in this essay to enter these discussions more, but I think Mireille sums it up so well that I will let her ‘rant’ on about it:
‘... well, when you consider how I found out about it and how active I used to be, it'd be awfully hard to convincingly argue that I'm not a loser. What kind of people feel more comfortable typing back and forth to nameless, faceless people than talking to the real ones around them? Ones who are insecure and shy, I suppose. Both adjectives that can apply to me sometimes. It depends on how you take the online thing though... For a while there, I think I somewhat withdrew from IRL because I was so much more comfortable just chatting and posting with the people around here. Especially when things were going badly IRL, I could lose myself in my little online communities and forget that things were crap in the real world. But then I got fed up with myself, turned it around and actually was more confident and outgoing IRL because I'd been nursing that side of my personality online. And the confidence boost of endless compliments (even if they are from little computer nerds; no offence to any of the guys here, of course) on my pictures didn't hurt either. :)
So despite what some technophobes like to purport, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with using the Internet as a means of social interaction (though preferably not a primary one). On the contrary, there is a lot of redeeming value to EHC outside of just fun "social interaction." Nowhere else would I have the opportunity to get such a global perspective on things, or be a part of an open forum including people of different ages and walks of life. We all DO have real lives; we go to school or work or whatever. Hell, some of the younger ones of us have "grown up" together in a crazy sense of the term. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was vaguely interested in watching the changes in people as they graduated from high school or muddled their way through various universities and into the job market.’ (Mireille, 19)
At its peak EHC had around 360 members. Today it is only 73, and only about 20 are still logged on so often as to be called active. Because the RPG factor of the forum no longer is as important for the members, new elven players are not recruited. Without new blood, EHC might be destined to die. Some members might then loose contact with each other, while others have had their lives radically changed, like getting married to another member. Others are to be found somewhere in between, with some friends they will choose to stay in touch with. Much like any other community when members move or things change. I do however believe that EHC might be around a little while longer.
This place gives me something to do every once in a while when I'm on the computer for hours at a time doing research anyways ... its good to know other people are out there. (Thalia)
‘I'm here more or less by accident, but I don't stay here accidentally, I choose to stay.’ (Jaina, 20)
EHC is a virtual community, a space for social interaction that serves its members well by being in some small (yet not insignificant) way their electronic agora. The rules for virtual communities and IRL communities are different, yet similar. They both offer different things, fulfil different needs in us. I believe that most ‘elves’ in EHC have gained from their membership, like Mireille who gained more confidence IRL because of EHC. To have EHC as the only community where one feels belonging may on the other hand be boring, and Dreyfus’ critical voice may come too close to the truth. But then that is the way with most good things in life; too much of it is not good for you.
An essay in Cultural Convergence, Master of Arts (Communication), Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. 2003.
In this paper I will discuss the viability of the on-line communication space ‘EHC’ as a place for social interaction. I myself have been a member of EHC since the very beginning in January 2001. The forum has thus lasted almost 3 years. I asked members of EHC to help me with this essay by writing their thoughts about the EHC as a social space and virtual community, and I have therefore quoted them extensively throughout the essay.
EHC is a closed forum that was created for a specific purpose. EHC is short for Elven High Council, so naturally all of the members consider themselves ‘elves’. Elves are immortal beings, beautiful and wise, good or evil. But as the months went by, members started loosing their elven masks. The mortal humans behind the computer-screens became more or less visible. Members started to share pictures, real life events and physical presence when meeting in real life (IRL). Elwe (20) say:
‘The Elven High Council is a group of individuals originally gathered to discuss Utopia or Utopia-related topics, and more specifically centred on the elven race. I believe it was an original idea and certainly a creative one. Gradually we started moving away from simply elves and simply Utopia - the debates and eventual creation of a 'Lost Soul' rank so that the members who left the elven race could remain and continue to be brethren of sorts.’
Members in EHC are from all over the world, are 12 to 50 years old and live in different time-zones. Today many members are not even playing the online game that is the basis for the forum, but they are still members of EHC. What is EHC? ‘Elven High Council ’, EHC, is a forum for role-playing game (RPG) players, more specific players who have chosen to play ‘elf’ in the RPG ‘Utopia ’. According to the makers of Utopia , more than 80,000 players are battling it out in this fantasy text-and table based online game. In the game you are the ruler of a province, which again is a part of a kingdom of 25 provinces. Provinces and kingdoms battle it out in wars or personal attacks to gain in size and wealth. When you choose your province, you have several options for your province, for example your race, be it human, orc, elf or other. This helps the roleplaying aspect, and it attracts people who love J.R.R. Tolkien and his world in ‘Lord of the rings’. From the website of the game one can read;
‘Welcome to Utopia, a world where reality and dreams come together, a world where the lowliest of peasants can become the world's greatest heroes. A world unlike any other that you may have experienced now stands before you.’
From this game, alliances form to plot wars and strategies in online forums. EHC is not an alliance, but more a gathering of elves. It was created to talk about elven strategies, and to become a member you had to prove you played elf in Utopia. EHC has its own ‘founding father’ document.
The most used space, or ‘thread ’, in EHC is no longer the ‘Strategy’ one, but the ‘General Talk’, and many of the members have not played Utopia for years. I am one of those who managed to quit the game, but still hang around the forum. Why? The roleplaying aspect is still in play, and the members still consider themselves ‘elves’. Even for those that have quit the game Utopia, many common interests are still present. We like elves, for one. Naturally the genre of fantasy-literature is a shared interest, as well as RPG in general. Most of the threads in the forum are based upon the elven character of the member or the ruler of a province in Utopia. Those that are not are ‘General Talk’ and ‘Book Club’.
The roleplaying threads have become less used, as the members are more and more themselves, i.e. out-of-character (OOC). The roleplaying as well as the game factor is becoming less interesting for the members as they get to know the mortal humans behind. The forum has a way of sending messages to other members, there is a voting-section and rules for titles and ranks are in place. Each member has a profile to introduce themselves with, but most are like Bicep’s; it doesn’t really tell anything.
Before I start to discuss the viabilities of EHC as a social space for interaction, I want to look at what a virtual community is, and how we define a community in the physical world.
It is not easy to define what a community is, because of the abstract and complex nature of it. Surratt (SURRATT, C.G. 2001. The Internet and social change. USA: McFarland&Company, Inc.) says that according to Bell and Newby (1974) there has never been developed a theory of community or a good enough definition of what a community is. Surratt however says that a community is ‘people who interact within a limited territory and who share a culture’. She also talks about Ferdinand Tonnies (1887) divide between community (gemeinschaft) and association (gesellschaft). In the pre-capitalist community people was bound together by kinship, shared values and tradition, and social identity arised from common identity and kinship. An association is in contrast a social organization in which people typically have weak social ties and a great deal of self-interest.
Where does EHC fit in? According to Naimark (NAIMARK, M. 1990. Realness and Interactivity. In: LAUREL, B, ed. The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design) , virtual reality requires realness as well as interactivity. He says that the movie world understands realness but not interactivity, while the computer world understands interactivity but not realness. EHC is a forum based on text, so it is not like the movie world at all. How do we get a feeling of realness?
‘Nations must exist in the minds of its citizens in order to exist at all. ‘Virtual communities require an act of imagination to use,’ points out Marc Smith… ‘and what must be imagined is the idea of the community itself.’ (RHEINGOLD, H. 1993. The Virtual Community. )
To look at EHC as a community does therefore require a fair bit of imagination. The physical bodies of the members are scattered around the globe, and may never actually meet. The society is an illusion formed by the technology but more importantly the willingness of the user to treat it as if it were real. Fosheim Grønstad argues that the virtual world is just as real as the physical one. (FOSHEIM GRØNSTAD, O. 1999. Design av virtuelle flerbrukerverdener for fritidsbruk). Like a deaf person’s experience of being treated as an equal in a text-based forum is very real for him. Even though members only communicate through text, they still get to know each other, and after a while a sense of belonging, friendship and community starts to emerge.
‘Virtual communities… [are] social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace. ’ (Rheingold)
Rheingold says that in order to make a community work, ‘at least some of the people [must] reach out through that screen to affect each other’s lives.’ TURKLE, S. 1996. Virtuality and its discontents. In: Life on screen. Identity in the age of the internet.) With the basis of these definitions there is no doubt that EHC is a virtual community. It may have started out as an association, but morphed into a community as time went by.
‘As with Jaina, I think some members of EHC grew on me and that's what draws me back in here. Plus it gives me the opportunity to interact with people from around the world that share similar interests. (..) A very diverse community that seem to fit together into a complete picture.’ (MrNypps, 21)
But how viable is this community as a space for social interaction? Members of EHC do not only communicate with each other through the forum. They use instant messengers, chatrooms, webcameras as well as telephone or audiochat. Some have met in real life (IRL) and four people have married (Jaina and Mani, Rand and Gaia). They are however still coming back to the text-based EHC forum.
‘Why? Good question. I guess, like everyone else, it's gotten to be sort of a comfort zone for me. At first it was just fun and games and nonsense, but as fringe trickled in and out throughout the ages, there's always been a core group of people around. I'm closer to some than others, but I feel like I have a sense (however false it may be with respect to real life) of who most people are.’ (Mireille, 19)
Mireille touches upon two important aspect of a community. It is a place to feel safe (comfort zone) and friendship. These two are linked in real life, in trust. People we meet in a virtual community may not be someone we know well before we trust them with personal information. We are after all hiding behind our anonymity. We choose some that we reveal our real names to, but for the most part we are only known as the avatar we choose to be. Dreyfus (2001) argues that meaning in our lives requires genuine commitment and real commitment requires real risks, and that the anonymity and safety of virtual commitments on-line would lead to a life without meaning. He claims that it’s easy to become addicted to the web because the anonymous spectator takes no risks, all possibilities are open, and there is no fixed identity that could be threatened by disappointment, humiliation, or loss. He further argues that online friendships are not strong.
‘Furthermore, we would be tempted to avoid the risk of genuine commitment and so lose our sense of what gives meaning to our lives.’ (DREYFUS, H.L. 2001. On the Internet. Thinking in action)
Reid agrees that this is problematic , and to some extent so do members from EHC.
‘In fact, I specifically talk to a couple people… about IRL issues because they afford the benefit of having real opinions and feedback, but [with] the near-confidentiality of a diary.’ (Mireille)
Mireille treats some of the EHC-members as a form of diary, and she also admits that the friendships she has might not be real. She can afford to trust them with personal stuff because she knows they won’t be able to touch her IRL unless she lets them. Elwe says:
‘Currently, I am far more attached to my group of real life friends, but that is mostly because each of us has a stake in our relationship… While I consider myself friends with the members of this community, I don’t think that we share the bond of humility that usually binds friends together. If I were to meet someone from this community in real life, I think I might become extremely attached to them because of the near three year experience I have had with them, and that bond of humility might exist then.’ (Elwe)
Mireille takes no risk in telling her EHC friends about herself, but if Mireille met those she has ‘used’ as a diary, she would probably feel the humiliation of a person she has never actually met knowing intimate details of her personal lives or problems. Elwe have not revealed so much, but he has still shared a lot of thoughts, fun and discussions online. What might happen then is that if Mireille and Elwe were to meet someone from the forum they would probably discover they already were closer friends than they both thought.
To take Elwe’s thoughts further, the ‘humility’ of IRL-friends stem from having to bring the body with you. It is more real. The body might not do the things your brain want it to, or look the way you want it to. Dreyfus says that the shape and movement of our bodies play a crucial role in our making sense of the world. Is Elwe more real then IRL than online? Or is it possible that Elwe might show his truer self online? Elwes friends online and offline both know him, but in a different way. This touches upon the way we think of ourselves, our identity. Surratt says that to have an identity is to be situated within a particular social framework. As human beings we travel in many different social situations, we play a number of roles and thus have many social frameworks. She says that our identity is a collection of identities situated in each of those social situations. EHC was based upon a RPG. Roleplay is a natural way to communicate for Utopia-players. Is it possible then that members of EHC fake their online-selves?
‘I, myself, stay pretty true to who I really am when I'm here. If for no other reason than that it would be difficult to keep up the ruse for 3 years! :) I might actually be a little more "outgoing" here than in real life... at least around people I don't know. What you see of me here is how I act around my friends.’ (Mireille, 19)
‘I think small changes occur in that I might say things on-line I would not utter otherwise as there is much less accountability on-line. My personality also often changes with the group of people I am with. I am more creative and quiet when with a group of ‘social recluses’ but when I am with a group of socialites and active people, I often become far more sarcastic and active myself. I think I would prefer to think of it as being able to pull out a part of my identity that can not exist in either of those situations when I speak on-line. I am far more open with people online, I think.’ (Elwe, 20)
‘In real life, as my friends see it, I'm quite shy. Whereas here I'm known as "the nippleman". I guess in here I don’t really care about how people think of me; I'm free to act as I want without the social behaviour criticism as IRL does... No, no identity loss at all. If not, I've gained more knowledge about myself by being in here. By being here I can let out another side of me and let my imagination run wild.’ (MrNypps, 21)
‘It’s still me, just a bit more open, I don't think I'm loosing my identity, perhaps just making it stronger by being able to say what I want.’ (Jaina, 20)
This fits well with what Reid say about a more inhibited behaviour online than offline. Surratt argues that our online-selves are more ‘true selves’; ‘… the most complete conceptualizations of ‘true self’ anyone has yet been able to devise and present’. (Surratt) It is then easy to think that online selves are better than IRL-selves, that it would be better to live all our lives online. But remember Dreyfus, who argues that friendships online may not be as deep. The anonymity is the basis for both effects, and it is therefore hard to gain the benefits without the drawbacks. Dreyfus does however agree with Turkle when he says; ‘The Net frees people to develop new and exciting selves.’ Turkle is interested in how we can get the best of both kinds of community. She says that we belittle our experiences online at our own risk , and that ‘each reality of self gives way to reflexive questioning, irony and ultimately the playful probing of yet another reality. The centre fails to hold.’ (Turkle) In other words, we grow and gain from our virtual lives. Our identity is not one, but many. ‘‘We live in each others brains, as voices, images, words on screens’, said Rheingold in the online discussion. ‘We are multiple personalities and we include each other.’’ (Turkle) All the ‘multiple personalities’ of EHC got together, and what did they do? They started to form a community, to build an online society. EHC has titles and ranks, the elves gain in status according to their activities and presence. Rheingold has observed that people build virtual communities wherever computer-mediated-communications (CMC) becomes available. He thinks this is because the informal public spaces have disappeared from our real lives, and because CMC enables people to do new things. Rheingold talks about ‘collective goods’. In EHC the collective goods were to learn how to play elf in the RPG ‘Utopia’, to share ones knowledge about the gameplay. It still is to some extent. But it has also become a forum where members talk about everything and anything, from world-politics, day-to-day problems and funny stories to marriage and birth. Perhaps in some small way EHC has become an electronic agora for its members. An agora where one may talk more freely and act more natural than one does IRL. After a while members start to feel attached to online friends and acquaintances. Rheingold argues that a community is a matter of emotions as well as a thing of reason and data. The computer-screen may even cease to exist for a while, and the online community is all there is for the time being. Turkle agrees that virtual communities may prove positive for the self. People who have no experience of virtual communities might think the users are losers, computernerds with no friends. I have limited space in this essay to enter these discussions more, but I think Mireille sums it up so well that I will let her ‘rant’ on about it:
‘... well, when you consider how I found out about it and how active I used to be, it'd be awfully hard to convincingly argue that I'm not a loser. What kind of people feel more comfortable typing back and forth to nameless, faceless people than talking to the real ones around them? Ones who are insecure and shy, I suppose. Both adjectives that can apply to me sometimes. It depends on how you take the online thing though... For a while there, I think I somewhat withdrew from IRL because I was so much more comfortable just chatting and posting with the people around here. Especially when things were going badly IRL, I could lose myself in my little online communities and forget that things were crap in the real world. But then I got fed up with myself, turned it around and actually was more confident and outgoing IRL because I'd been nursing that side of my personality online. And the confidence boost of endless compliments (even if they are from little computer nerds; no offence to any of the guys here, of course) on my pictures didn't hurt either. :)
So despite what some technophobes like to purport, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with using the Internet as a means of social interaction (though preferably not a primary one). On the contrary, there is a lot of redeeming value to EHC outside of just fun "social interaction." Nowhere else would I have the opportunity to get such a global perspective on things, or be a part of an open forum including people of different ages and walks of life. We all DO have real lives; we go to school or work or whatever. Hell, some of the younger ones of us have "grown up" together in a crazy sense of the term. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was vaguely interested in watching the changes in people as they graduated from high school or muddled their way through various universities and into the job market.’ (Mireille, 19)
At its peak EHC had around 360 members. Today it is only 73, and only about 20 are still logged on so often as to be called active. Because the RPG factor of the forum no longer is as important for the members, new elven players are not recruited. Without new blood, EHC might be destined to die. Some members might then loose contact with each other, while others have had their lives radically changed, like getting married to another member. Others are to be found somewhere in between, with some friends they will choose to stay in touch with. Much like any other community when members move or things change. I do however believe that EHC might be around a little while longer.
This place gives me something to do every once in a while when I'm on the computer for hours at a time doing research anyways ... its good to know other people are out there. (Thalia)
‘I'm here more or less by accident, but I don't stay here accidentally, I choose to stay.’ (Jaina, 20)
EHC is a virtual community, a space for social interaction that serves its members well by being in some small (yet not insignificant) way their electronic agora. The rules for virtual communities and IRL communities are different, yet similar. They both offer different things, fulfil different needs in us. I believe that most ‘elves’ in EHC have gained from their membership, like Mireille who gained more confidence IRL because of EHC. To have EHC as the only community where one feels belonging may on the other hand be boring, and Dreyfus’ critical voice may come too close to the truth. But then that is the way with most good things in life; too much of it is not good for you.
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