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i think the net is a fascinating place. or could be.
i dont think it has reached anything like its potential yet--mostly because the form of information transmission has not shifted away from a text paradigm. most information that circulates out there (here? where?) adopts the form of a copy of text, from search functions to layout. it is an interesting case of the power of existing frameworks for thinking about an essentially new medium, and how difficult a process it is to move beyond/break with them.
the net is one of the great collective inventions of the past decades. i like that it is collective.
like questions of form, social meanings of the net are still working themselves out.
sometime have a look at manuel castell's books, "the rise of the network society"--the first volume contains a wealth of data about the infrastructure, nature and distrubtion of web resources as of a copule years ago and functions as an interesting point of departure for conversation/analysis.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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