9-22: A Tale of Three Differences
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
Or at least when it came to finding some sort of definition from Woolley prior to class discussion. I found that Wikipedia had easier access to definitions while the other two danced around the topic. Woolley wrote in a metaphoric style which was not easy to grasp at first. Heim delved into the technology. Wikipedia lays the information out much like an encyclepedia. This made the information incredibly easy to find though similarities can be found.
Like the Woolley and Heim articles, Wikipedia gives various definition of cyberspace. These include:
Or at least when it came to finding some sort of definition from Woolley prior to class discussion. I found that Wikipedia had easier access to definitions while the other two danced around the topic. Woolley wrote in a metaphoric style which was not easy to grasp at first. Heim delved into the technology. Wikipedia lays the information out much like an encyclepedia. This made the information incredibly easy to find though similarities can be found.
Like the Woolley and Heim articles, Wikipedia gives various definition of cyberspace. These include:
Cyberspace As a Metaphor
Cyberspace As an Incomplete Replica
Cyberspace As a 3-D Immersive Environment
Cyberspace As an Augmented Habitat
Cyberspace as an Arena of Artistic Creativity
These examples are similar to the various example used by Woolley and Heim. They (the examples) help to explain cyberspace in other terms in order to gain a deeper understanding of what cyberspace is.
posted by Red Head Matt at 11:21 PM
2 Comments:
I'll agree. But while anyone can edit them, there seems to be adequate support for their definitions. It's not like I define "2+2=Jello." Their like mini-articles presenting a new point with supporting evidence. Thus, yielding some form of definition of cyberspace as...well you get the point.
I see your comments have inspired an epistemological dicussion -- what counts are "real" knowledge -- how can we know if the information "anyone" puts out there in cyberspace is any good? Go for it. This is a tough one and one of the central questions of the course.
And yes, your observations about the "style" in each piece also fits nicely with the ideas I hoped would come up for discussion (heh heh you have fallen into my plan) --
"Woolley wrote in a metaphoric style which was not easy to grasp at first. Heim delved into the technology. Wikipedia lays the information out much like an encyclepedia."
How much do you think these differences have to do with medium genre and how much has to do with genre? Woolley = print literary; Heim = print philosophy/social sciencees; Wikipedia=online encyclopedia.
Each genre and medium has different audiences, different purposes and different rhetorical devices . . . good blog, Matt.
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