p2 lecture 3

21
Theories and interpretation of interactive media 3 / Vuorovaikutteisen median teoriat ja tulkinta 3 Frans Mäyrä Professor of hypermedia, esp. digital culture and game studies University of Tampere, Hypermedia Laboratory [email protected]

Upload: frans-maeyrae

Post on 05-Dec-2014

1.754 views

Category:

Technology


1 download

DESCRIPTION

Third lecture in the series "Theories and Interpretation of Interactive Media (P2)"

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: P2 Lecture 3

Theories and interpretation of interactive media 3 /

Vuorovaikutteisen median teoriat ja tulkinta 3

Frans MäyräProfessor of hypermedia,

esp. digital culture and game studiesUniversity of Tampere, Hypermedia Laboratory

[email protected]

Page 2: P2 Lecture 3

Lecture 3:

“Web / networking”: Theories of Internet and

World Wide Web

Page 3: P2 Lecture 3

From a communications channel into a living environment

• This lecture continues themes discussed last week in PC/communications lecture

• The emphasis here is on discussions that interpret hypermedia in terms of a network, rather than a communications channel

• Network is particular kind of structure, a web of relations

• ‘Web’ or ‘network’ are very relevant concepts for understanding current culture and society, since they characterise many contemporary technologies, social processes and intellectual developments

Page 4: P2 Lecture 3

Network theories• Multidisciplinary field:

– mathematical network theories (graphs of nodes, edges and directed/undirected connections)

– theories of technical/communications networks– network theories in natural sciences (complex systems,

emergent behaviours, thermodynamics, kinetics)– social network theories (actor network theories, social

network analysis)– network culture theories (on online subcultures, online art,

collaboration, activism)

Page 5: P2 Lecture 3

World Wide Web• Early experiments: oN-Line System, NLS (Douglas Engelbart),

Project Xanadu (Ted Nelson)• Tim Berners-Lee proposed a linked information system

(‘mesh’) for CERN in March 1989, and implemented the first World Wide Web system 1991

• Berners-Lee (1999, 3) has written how WWW evolved from his believe in power of “arranging ideas in an unconstrained, weblike way”:– Suppose all the information stored on computers

everywhere were linked … Suppose I could program my computer to create a space in which anything could be linked to anything. (Ibid., 4.) To improve “our Weblikeexistence in the world.” (Ibid., 133.)

Sources: Tim Berners-Lee (1989): “Information Management: A Proposal”. Online: http://www.nic.funet.fi/index/FUNET/history/internet/w3c/proposal.html

Berners-Lee & Mark Fischetti (1999): Weaving the Web. New York: HarperCollins.

Page 6: P2 Lecture 3

Critique of WWW• WWW architecture is very simple to implement, anyone can

link to anywhere• Since the end-node maintainer need not to reciprocate, there

is also ‘link rot’ (changed or removed address does not automatically update incoming links)

• Basic WWW system remains static, as there is no way the reader of page can add notes or further links to a document

• Ownership, responsibility and copyright payments are be difficult to implement or maintain as material is either completely locked away or completely open (cf. Xanadu)

• Open world of WWW is also “messy”: it relies on multiple different applications, file formats and (sub)standards

Page 7: P2 Lecture 3

Multiple evolutions• The “browser wars” were focused on additional functions that

each new browser version was able to support• Later the standards provided by W3C (World Wide Web

Consortium) have lessened the role of browsers• It is now possible to have dynamic web pages using various

scripts and programming techniques (e.g. AJAX, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

• Rather than web of static pages, WWW starts to function like interactive software interfaces - a new kind of medium

• Simultaneously, multiple services have been designed to make use of ‘power of networks’ in a socially and culturally oriented sense

Page 8: P2 Lecture 3

Networks as social change• Rise of the Internet and WWW as key media coincides

with the emergence of interpretations of society becoming “networked”

• E.g. Manuel Castells (1996) argued that network is the new paradigm for modern society, and claimed that more significance is attached to flows of information than to flow of power

• Often associated with globalization: work and production become redistributed in a manner that has powerful effects on global scale

Page 9: P2 Lecture 3

van Dijk: Network Society

Page 10: P2 Lecture 3

New media theory and social theories integrate• Numerous synthetic attempts have been

produced to describe the role of WWW in comprehensive manner

• In the following, Burnett & Marshall, Web Theory: An Introduction (2003) will be mostly used

• Focus on “Internet culture” in areas related to globalization, political economy, regulation, communication, identity and aesthetics

Page 11: P2 Lecture 3

Web as technology• The first perspective Burnett and Marshall highlight is one of

technology and secondly that of cybernetics• In technologically determinist perspective, one can theorise

how Web is a force that will fundamentally transform the society

• Cybernetics is the ‘science of systems of control and communication in animals and machines’ (Wiener, Bateson)

• Digitalisation of cultural information allows the associated social and cultural processes to become involved in programmed processes within the larger cybernetic, man-machine system of actions, reactions and feedback

Page 12: P2 Lecture 3

Web culture

• Web culture represents a new concentration on information and its directional flow

• Web culture can produce dislocations of identity and community

• Web culture facilitates the flow of information for the objectives of globalisation

• As one part of wider developments in networked IT, web can also be part of increasing surveillance (panopticon - a structure for total loss of privacy)

Page 13: P2 Lecture 3

Web as communication• Governed by mode of communication distinct from the

broadcast model, Web is more open to approaches derived from linguistics and discourse theory

• Communications in Web/Internet include all levels: interpersonal, group, organisational, mass communication, with the control variously distributed to participants

• Metaphor of ‘loose web’ to describe the varying degrees of engagement with the full spectrum of media forms that all fit somewhere in the complex whole of today’s WWW

Page 14: P2 Lecture 3

Webs of identity• Early cyberculture thinkers such as Sherry Turkle and

Allucquere Rosanne Stone did put much emphasis on fluidity of identity, as acted out in construction of ‘virtual personas’ in the Internet

• Radical postmodern theories, that mostly seem to apply within more extreme forms of Web culture

• A more “mainstream” phenomenon is construction of personal home pages and how “self” is being represented through them

• Burnett & Marshall argue that rather than in the area of reception, it is within the production of culture where the ‘loose Web’ will associated with broad-ranging social changes

Page 15: P2 Lecture 3

Web aesthetics• Web aesthetics has distinctive look & feel and an impact on

other media, but it is layered (a way of organising multiple conventions)

• Collage aesthetics, consisting of text-only lists and menus, icons and other application elements, combined within graphically rich, interlinked interfaces

• Web aesthetics is created in a constant tension between usability (pulling towards simplicity and established convention) and originality (playful innovation and subversive experimentation)

Page 16: P2 Lecture 3

Web economy• Web economy radically collapsed in 2000, but has continued to

grow steadily since then • In 2003, 77 million US persons used a computer at work, 55,5 %

of total US employment*• In 2006 the global value of online shopping was estimated to

reach US$218 billion, in Finland 3,3 billion euros**• Two mentalities, that of free information (the logic of public

library, or cultural gift) and commercial activity often appear to conflict or compete

Sources:* http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ciuaw.nr0.htm

** http://www.euromonitor.com/Online_shopping_sees_fraud_clouds_aheadhttp://www.deski.fi/page.php?page_id=11&tiedote_id=5261

Page 17: P2 Lecture 3

Web and politics• In 1990s, Web became associated with ‘new economy’ - the

vision of information society economics as based on information rather than material production

• Multiple national information infrastructure initiatives were launched

• Simultaneously ideas of privatisation, free market values and commodification of information became associated with ‘Internet economy’

• Still, such key concepts as author, creation, copy, or distribution become contested or redefined within the context of Web

• E.g. Lawrence Lessig has argued that current copyright laws are harmful for public good

• Another contested area remains in the area of free speech vs. regulation (e.g. violence, child pornography, racist or hatred speech)

Page 18: P2 Lecture 3

News and the Web• Standard evaluation criteria for news in mass media include

factualness, accuracy, completeness, and readability (McQuail, Media Performance. 1992)

• Burnett & Marshall name as ‘informational news’ the new mode of news that is typical for the Web:– transformation of the reader/viewer/listener into the

researcher– new kind of comfort with a range of multiple sources– the fluidity of media form– global community of interests– cf. personalised, or socially filtered news services (Google

News, Digg.com, del.icio.us social bookmarking service)

Page 19: P2 Lecture 3

Web of entertainment

• Examples of entertainment industry’s troubles with the Internet are particularly visible:– industry underestimated the impact of digital music

and downloads– industry perceives mp3 files and filesharing services

as threats rather than opportunities– sharing music fans are treated as criminals rather

than as early adopters or trendsetters– cf. a recent major Canadian study which points out

that those who download music from P2P networks also buy more music CDs than those who do not*

Source:* http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/ippd-dppi.nsf/en/h_ip01456e.html

Page 20: P2 Lecture 3

Social Web / Web 2.0

• Much research focused on ‘Semantic Web’• Simultaneously major popular attention driven to

‘social media’ or ‘Web 2.0’• New wave of easily accessible, dynamic web sites

which rely on social connections and networking around some particular interest or function

• “Web 2.0” concept was coined by Tim O’Reilly in 2004

• New services also often associated with “emergence”

Page 21: P2 Lecture 3

Emergence• Study of complex systems has pointed out how higher level

patterns can arise from multiple simple interactions or events• Within even a single web service, there might be population

level phenomena which exhibit emergent characteristics• The Web as a whole can also be understood in terms of “small

world network” where every page is linked to every other page through small number of hops

• A “power law” is also in effect: small number of Web pages gets majority of links and visitors, while majority of pages (the “long tail”) are rarely linked to or visited

Image source: www.wikimedia.org