> If we existed in the 40's and 50's we would probably all get the "Classic
> Computer Newsletter" via First Class mail. In the 60's and 70's the "cool"
> communication technology of choice was amateur radio. In the 80's many
> GCCIs formed using dial up bulletin boards, and in the 90's the Internet
> and SMTP mailing lists became the technology of choice.
Don't you think that you also changed focus ? At one time you
would have described yourself as an radio amateur, but now
more as computer 'hobbyist' - not only the media has changed,
also the message. With the interest for new medias, also your
interest in the message changed (And when I say you, I talk
also about myself, and changes I noticed). Over the years new
interests develop, even if it looks only like a media change.
Now here comes a difference in your society/club paradigma:
They are often message based and not media. Let me explane,
I'm also member in several historical societies for ralway
(tram) history. These clubs are _very_ message (theme)
orientated. Even when 'modern' technology like news, WWW,
video, or what ever is available _and_ known to the members
(often used in dayly business life) they are still comunicating
thru you 40ish 'Classic-What-Ever-Newsletter' delivered by mail.
Shure, today they are no longer produced with typewriters and
Spiritusumdrucker (sorry missing word - a copyingdevice using
special sheets and spirit for duplication), but rather on PCs
or high class DTP stations, but thats just the tool.
> I've participated in GCCIs using all of the above technologies and
> experienced "community drift" in all of them. Community drift occurs when
> members of the community begin to use a different technology base in
> preference to the existing base for the commons. Once started the drift
> tends to increase until the entire community has shifted. I don't know how
> many radio operators I heard complaining about "why should I dial up some
> BBS when we could just chat on 10 meters?" The answer was time shifting.
> The move to the internet from BBSes was cost.
Or you are changing your environment - if I look back, with every
of these shifts, also some friends left, and I found new ones. Not
every electronic geek changed to radio (with me) and not every radio
amateur changed to computers (in the same way than I).
BBSes have build a _new_ and different society, and have _not_
replaced radio - this replacement is strict personal - if I meet
old friends, I'm sometimes _realy_ astonished about things that
are still going on in the radio scene (And of course - never forget
there is packed radio - who needs internet :)
> The move from plain text to
> HTML is being motivated by the ability to communicate more clearly.
Move to HTML - why not - there is no big difference between
*bold* and <b>bold</b>, since HTML is not a graphig layout
language - But who the heck needs all this >FONT></FONT> stuff ?
It's like when (GUI based) word processors became available -
everybody was using italic bold capitals to say hello for a short
time, but that sopped soon (only the PowerPoint guys need more time :)
> I particularly liked the "you American's assume everyone has high speed
> access" rant. I'm actually the worst kind of technocrat here because I'm
> sitting right smack in the middle of the mecca of high tech and using
> technologies that may never escape the San Francisco Bay area into the
> mainstream. However, one need only compare that comment to the BBS'ers
> comments of the FIDO days which went something like, "You guys are so
> arrogant, you assume everyone has Internet access." to understand just how
> irrelevant such a stance is. The world moves, no one understands this
> better than computer collectors.
Bandwidth demand is always bigger than bandwidth supply - just look
at me, at home I have ISDN - poor 64 (or 128) K of transmission and
the web is boooooring slow, if they use all this graphics. Shure, the
connection is semi permanent, but slow (and somewhat expensive - 5c
a minute, city tariff).
> You *will* get high speed affordable internet access. You may get it much
> later than other parts of the world but I can recognize a steam roller when
> I see it. You got a telephone right? And then FAX machines etc, etc. The
> world *will* move away from plain ASCII into something more expressive.
Affordable isn't fast, and AFAI think text based communication with
only a little or no controll over the display will still rule where
the message is more important than the media - just remember radio -
why they are still alive (and producing some _real_ good shows) when
there is colour TV ? (No, I'n not talking about holerödulieö dudel
music chanels :)
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
Received on Fri Jan 08 1999 - 12:34:24 GMT