Re: [-empyre-] blogs cum. academia

[Jill Walker <Jill.Walker@huminf.uib.no>]

What causes what?

Brandon wrote:
<<i wonder if academia has its own conceptual 
"machinery" that shapes its discourses.  in other words, academia 
might be the exception to the rule: a discourse system that shape the 
technologies it ultimately uses.  hence that ugly term "innappropiate 
media"...>>

Interesting idea, but I feel sure there are convincing counter-examples, only I 
can't think of them ;)

Sitat saul ostrow <so5@nyu.edu>:
> Brando first the discourse shaped by its history tries to adapt the
> technology
> to itself -- then the technology goes to work reshaping the discourse --
> the
> nets information glut which was first understood to be a resource -- the
> world
> at your fingertips -- has now begun to infect not only academic discourse but
> to
> actually blur the nature of academic disciplines

hm. You know what, while I do think that the technologies we use in part shape 
what we are able to imagine doing, I think it's easy to make that assumption do 
too much work. Academic disciplines did not start to blur because of the Web. 
We've had information overload long before the Internet. We can certainly claim 
too mcuh for our technologies.

> we can also talk of transitional forms - which blogging would
> appear to me to be -- i.e.. it is something that is formally possible and
> may
> produce interesting possibilities which will eventually lead to it a
> abandonment

Then every form is transitional, yes?

Jill