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