The Machine is Us/ing UsBy Michael Wesch

The Machine is Us/ing Us

Text is liner

Text is unliner

Text is said to be unliner

Text is often said to be unliner

Text is liner when written on paper

Digital text is different.

Digital text is more flexible.

Digital text is moveable.

 

Digital text is above all ... hyper.

 

hypertext can link

 

here

 

here

 

or here...

 

virtually anywhere

 

anywhere virtually

 

anywhere virtual

 

Most early websites were written in HTML.

 

HTML was designed to define 

the structure of a web document. 

<p> 

is a structural element referring to "paragraph"

<LI> 

is a structural element referring to "List Item"

As HTML expanded, 

more elements were added, 

including stylistic elements 

like <b> for bold and <i> for italics

such elements defined 

how content would be formatted

In other words 

form and content became inseparable 

in HTML.

Digital Text can do better.

Form and content can be separated.

XML was designed to do just that.

<title> does not define the form. 

It defines the content.

Same with <link> and <description>

and virtually all other elements in this document.

They describe the content, 

not the form.

So the data can be exported, 

free of formatting constraints.

With form separated from content, 

users did not need to know complicated code

to upload content to the web.

and it's not just text...

XML 

facilitates automated data exchange two sites

can "mash" data together.

Flickr maps

Who will organize all of this data?

We will.

You will.

XML + U & Me create 

a database-backed web 

a database-backed web is different

the web is different

we are the web

We Are the Web

by Kevin Kelly

When we post 

and then tag pictures

teaching the Machine 

to give names,

we are teaching the Machine.

Each time we forge a link,

we teach it an idea.

Think of 

the 100 billion times per day 

humans click on a Web page

teaching the Machine

the Machine

the machine is us

the machine is using us

the machine is us

Digital text 

is no longer just linking information...

Hypertext 

is no longer just linking information...

The Web 

is no longer just linking information...

Web is linking people...

Web 2.0 is linking people...

Web 2.0 is linking people...

...people sharing, trading, and collaborating...

We'll need to rethink a few things...

We'll need to rethink copyright

We'll need to rethink authorship

We'll need to rethink identity

We'll need to rethink ethics

We'll need to rethink aesthetics

We'll need to rethink rhetorics

We'll need to rethink governance

We'll need to rethink privacy

We'll need to rethink commerce

We'll need to rethink love

We'll need to rethink family

We'll need to rethink ourselves.

by

Michael Wesch

Assistant Professor of Cultural AnthropologyKansas State University

Digital ethnography

@ Kansas State University

http://mediatedcultures.net/