Class Ten (November 20)

Covered in class ten were two presentations:

John presented the Catone paper which hinted at the huge variety of what is on the web, focusing on the idea of Web 2.0. The two basic ideas behind web 2.0 are (a) that the programs (and information sites) are housed not on ones own desktop, but on the internet itself. Second, Web 2.0 implies free access or use. Examples include Blogspot, Wikipedia, etc.

Web 2.0: a term introduced in 2004 to characterize design patterns in a constellation of new generation Web applications which may provide an infrastructure for more dynamic user participation, social interaction and collaboration.
www.csa.com/discoveryguides/scholarship/gloss.php

refers

to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services - such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies - that let people collaborate and share information online in ways previously unavailable. (source Wikipedia)
www.thewebworks.bc.ca/netpedagogy/glossary.html

Folksonomy: "is an Internet-based information retrieval methodology consisting of collaboratively generated, open-ended labels that categorize content ...
www.thewebworks.bc.ca/netpedagogy/glossary.html

Meghan presented the paper by Hall on "the virtual hamburger", a paper which pulled together several of the themes which focused the course. Once again, one of the major "surprise" comments was that the ideal size of an online class should be no different than an insite class, ie 12-20 students.

Two exercises explored the "Ideas worth trying" assignment, and summarized the course readings for generic themes and motifs.

We concluded with an examination of the concept of oral cultures, print cultures and electronic cultures. The term "secondary orality" was coined by Walter Ong to characterize contemporary electronic culture in which we have moved once again to a "kind of" orality, but based on print.


Harold Innis, canadian communication theorist and mentor to Marshall McLuhan uses the term "transpersonal memory" meaning “the art of writing provided man with a transpersonal memory. Men were given an artificially extended and verifiable memory of objects and events not present to sight or reflection.” If transpersonal memory is a significant component of print culture, the question is "how do we characterize contemporary memory?"