E-books and e-publishing by Samuel Vaknin (summer reading list txt) 📖

at low cost. This is

the equivalent of producing a talk show using a single home

video camera. And the contents will remain varied.

Naturally, marketing content (sites) will remain an expensive

art. Sites will also be richer or poorer, in accordance with

the investment made in them.

Non Linearity and Functional Modularity

The Internet is the first medium in human history that is non-linear and totally modular.

A television program is broadcast from a transmitter, through

the airwaves to a receiver (=the television set). The viewer

sits opposite this receiver and passively watches. This is an

entirely linear process. The Internet is different:

When communicating through the Internet, there is no way to

predict how the information will reach its destination. The

routing of information through the network is completely

random, very much like the principle governing the telephony

system (but on a global scale). The latter is not a point-to-point linear network. Rather, it is a network of networks. Our

voice is transmitted back and forth inside a gigantic maze of

copper wires and optic fibres. It seeps through any available

wire - until it reaches its destination.

It is the same with the Internet.

Information is divided to packets. An address is attached to

each packet and - using the TCP/IP data transfer protocol - is

dispatched to roam this worldwide labyrinth. But the path from

one neighbourhood of London to another may traverse Japan.

The really ingenious thing about the Internet is that each

computer (each receiver or end user) indeed burdens the system

by imposing on it its information needs (as is the case with

other media) - but it also assists in the task of pushing

information packets on to their destinations. It seems that

this contribution to the system outweighs the burdens imposed

upon it.

The network has a growth potential which is always bigger than

the number of its users. It is as though television sets

assisted in passing the signals received by them to other

television sets. Every computer which is a member of the

network is both a message (content) and a medium (active

information channel), both a transmitter and a receiver. If

30% of all computers on the Net were to crash - there will be

no operational impact (there is enormous built in redundancy).

Obviously, some contents will no longer be available

(information channels will be affected).

The interactivity of this medium is a guarantee against the

monopolization of contents. Anyone with a thousand dollars can

launch his/her own (reasonably sophisticated) site, accessible

to all other Internet users. Space is available through home

page providers.

The name of the game is no longer the production - it is the

creative content (design), the content itself and, above all,

the marketing of the site.

The Internet is an infinite and unlimited resource. This goes

against the grain of the most basic economic concept (of

scarcity). Each computer that joins the Internet strengthens

it exponentially - and tens of thousands join daily. The

Internet infrastructure (maybe with the exception of

communication backbones) can accommodate an annual growth of

100% to the year 2020. It is the user who decides whether to

increase the Internet’s infrastructure by connecting his

computer to it. By comparison: it is as though it were

possible to produce and to broadcast radio programmes from

every radio receiver. Each computer is a combination of studio

and transmitter (on the Internet).

In reality, there is no other interactive medium except the

Internet. Cable TV does not allow two-way data transfer (from

user to cable operator). If the user wants to buy a product -

he has to phone. Interactive television is an abject failure

(the Sony and TCI experiments were terminated). This all is

notwithstanding the combining of the Internet with satellite

capabilities (VSAT) or with the revenant digital television.

The television screen is inferior when compared to the

computer screen. Only the Internet is there as a true two-way

possibility. The technological problems that besieged it are

slowly dissipating.

The Internet allows for one-dimensional and bi - dimensional

interactivity.

One-dimensional interactivity: fill in and dispatch a form,

send and receive messages (through e-mail or v-mail).

Two-dimensional interactivity: to talk to someone while both

parties work on an application, to see your conversant, to

talk to him and to transfer documents to him for his perusal

as the conversation continues apace.

This is no longer science fiction. In less than five years

this will be as common as the telephone - and it will have a

profound effect on the traditional services provided by the

phone companies. Internet phones, Internet videophones - they

will be serious competitors and the phone companies are likely

to react once they begin to feel the heat. This will happen

when the Internet will acquire black box features. Phone

companies, software giants and cable TV operators are likely

to end up owning big chunks of the lucrative future market of

the Net.

The Solitary Medium

The Internet is NOT a popular medium. It is the medium of

affluent executives who fully master the English language, as

part of a wider general education.

Alternatively, it is the medium of academia (students,

lecturers), or of children of the former, well-to-do group. In

any case, it is not the medium of the “wide public”. It is

also a highly individualistic medium.

The Internet was an initiative of the DOD (Department of

Defence in the USA). It was later “requisitioned” by the

National science Fund (NSF) in the USA. This continuous

involvement of the administration came to an end in 1995 when

the medium was “privatized”.

This “privatization” was a recognition of the civilian roots

of the Internet. It was - and is still being - formed by

millions of information-intoxicated users. They formed

networks to exchange bits and pieces of mutual interest. Thus,

as opposed to all other media, the Internet was not invented,

nor was its market. The inventors of the telephone, the

telegraph, the radio, the television and the compact disc -

all invented previously non-existent markets for their

products. It took time, effort and money to convince consumers

that they needed these “gadgets”.

By contrast, the Internet was invented by its own consumers

and so was the market for it. Only when the latter was fully

forged did producers and businessmen join in. Microsoft began

to hesitantly test the internet waters only in 1995!

On Line Memories

The Internet is the only medium with online memory, very much

like the human brain. The memories of these two - the Net and

the Brain - are immediately accessible. In both, it is stored

in sites and in both, it does not grow old or is eliminated.

It is possible to find sites which commemorate events the same

way that the human mind registers them. This is Net Memory.

The history of a site can be reviewed. The Library of Congress

stores the consecutive development phases of sites. The

Internet is an amazing combination of data processing

software, data, a record of all the activities which took

place in connection with the data and the memory of these

records. Only the human brain is recalled by these capacities:

one language serves all these functions, the language of the

neurones.

There is a much clearer distinction even in computers (not to

mention more conventional media, such as television).

Raw English - the Language of Raw Materials

The following - apparently trivial - observation is critical:

All the other media provide us with processed, censored,

“clean” content.

The Internet is a medium of raw materials, partly well

organized (the rough equivalent of a newspaper) - and partly

still in raw form, yesterday’s supper.

This is a result of the immediate and absolute access afforded

each user: access to programming and site publishing tools -

as well as access to computer space on servers. This leads to

varying degrees of quality of contents and content providers

and this, in turn, prevents monopolization and cartelization

of the information supply channels.

 

The users of the Internet are still undecided: do they prefer

drafts or newspapers. They frequent well designed sites. There

are even design competitions and awards. But they display a

preference for sites that are constantly updated (i.e. closer

in their nature to a raw material - rather than to a finished

product). They prefer sites from which they can download

material to quietly process at home, alone, on their PCs, at

their leisure.

Even the concept of “interactivity” points at a preference for

raw materials with which one can interact. For what is

interactivity if not the active involvement of the user in the

creation of content?

The Internet users love to be involved, to feel the power in

their fingertips, they are all addicted to one form of power

or another.

Similarly, a car completely automatically driven and navigated

is not likely to sell well. Part of the experience of driving

- the sensation of power (“power stirring”) - is critical to

the purchase decision.

It is not in vain that the metaphor for using the Internet is

“surfing” (and not, let’s say, browsing).

The problem is that the Internet is still predominantly an

English language medium (though it is fast changing). It

discriminates against those whose mother tongue is different.

All software applications work best in English. Otherwise they

have to be adapted and fitted with special fonts (Hebrew,

Arabic, Japanese, Russian and Chinese - each present a

different set of problems to overcome). This situation might

change with the attainment of a critical mass of users (some

say, 2 million per non-Anglophone country).

Comprehensive (Virtual) Reality

This is the first (though, probably, not the last) medium

which allows the user to conduct his whole life within its

boundaries.

Television presents a clear division: there is a passive

viewer. His task is to absorb information and subject it to

minimal processing. The Internet embodies a complete and

comprehensive (virtual) reality, a full fledged alternative to

real life.

The illusion is still in its infancy - and yet already

powerful.

The user can talk to others, see them, listen to music, see

video, purchase goods and services, play games (alone or with

others scattered around the globe), converse with colleagues,

or with users with the same hobbies and areas of interest, to

play music together (separated by time and space).

And all this is very primitive. In ten years time, the

Internet will offer its users the option of video conferencing

(possibly, three dimensional, holographic). The participants’

figures will be projected on big screens. Documents will be

exchanged, personal notes, spreadsheets, secret counteroffers.

Virtual Reality games will become reality in less time.

Special end-user equipment will make the player believe that

he, actually, is part of the game (while still in his room).

The player will be able to select an image borrowed from a

database and it will represent him, seen by all the other

players. Everyone will, thus, end up invading everyone else’s

private space - without encroaching on his privacy!

The Internet will be the medium of choice for phone and

videophone communication (including conferencing).

Many mundane activities will be done through Internet:

banking, shopping for standard items, etc.

The above are examples to the Internet’s power and ability to

replace our reality in due time. A world out there will

continue to exist - but, more and more we will interact with

it through the enchanted interface of the Net.

 

A Brave New Net

 

The future of a medium in the making is difficult to predict.

Suffice it to mention the ridiculous prognoses which

accompanied the PC (it is nothing but a gaming gadget, it is a

replacement for the electric typewriter, will be used only by

business). The telephone also had its share of ludicrous

statements: no one - claimed the “experts” would like to avoid

eye contact while talking. Or television: only the Nazi regime

seemed to