Psyberspace

Posting this so I can update my McLuhan page.

Marshall McLuhan is making a comeback or at least many his ideas are. Twenty years after his death, many of his thoughts and ideas about technology are cropping up again. Especially now that many of these ideas seem quite prophetic. During his lifetime, many readers of his work assumed that his theories on mass communication revolved around television. Looking back on his work, many admirers are now realizing that most of his thoughts apply to the Internet. In his 1962 book, The Gutenberg Galaxy, he predicted that the print culture would eventually be replaced by the electronic age. In his well-known 1964 book, Understanding Media, he goes on to foretell how technology has and will continue to change social relations and attitudes. In fact, he describes future society as a global village in which “we are all within reach of a single voice or the sound of tribal drums.” McLuhan understood the incredible impact that technology would have on the world and added many new quotes to the language that are recognized today, one of the most familiar being, “the medium is the message.” While still controversial in some circles, McLuhan’s ideas remain thought provoking and enlightening.

Of all the McLuhan sound bites I have noticed in my current binge this one stands out. Maybe Windows has some life in it yet. From a nice Biographical Profile: Marshall McLuhan. This is not bad either: Wired 5.06: Street Cred “I am resolutely opposed to all innovation, all change. But I am determined to understand what is happening, because I don’t choose just to sit and let the juggernaut roll over me.”

Article by Steve Lawrence, NEC Research Institute

Articles freely available online are more highly cited. For greater impact and faster scientific progress, authors and publishers should aim to make research easy to access.

I wonder what wealth lies off-line? I wonder too what wealth lies buried and unused behind various proprietary systems? The un listed however can be searched! It is via relationships. People know stuff and will send you stuff. But then again some people are not “online” – still someone is bound to know them.

It adds up this: cyberspace is beyond any specific technology to access it.

It does not really seem to be a very well know phenomena outside of highly specialised circles – sort of proving his point. It seems to me it is as useful an idea as Bell’s Curve. Or is that just the bell curve 🙂 It strikes me that wealth is distributed in the Bradford way. This page is succinct. I’d like some graphics though.

Bradford’s law, sometimes called Bradford’s law of scatter, is useful, not just for writers and bibliographers, but for librarians doing collection development as well. 1/3 of the literature in a field can be covered in a small collection of core journals. To cover 2/3 of the literature, multiply the number of journals in the core by a constant (n) which varies by field. To have a comprehensive collection, multiply the number of journals in the core by the square of the constant.

Here is more on the chaordic principle that I sensed was missing from the firstmondy item linked below. I still don’t really get how Visa works, but I love the line ”Visa has been called “a corporation whose product is coordination.” Hock calls it “an enabling organization.” Here is the item: The Trillion-Dollar Vision of Dee Hock

This is one of Dee Hock’s favorite tricks to play on an audience. “How many of you recognize this?” he asks, holding out his own Visa card.

Every hand in the room goes up.

“Now,” Hock says, “how many of you can tell me who owns it, where it’s headquartered, how it’s governed, or where to buy shares?”

Confused silence. No one has the slightest idea, because no one has ever thought about it.

And that, says Hock, is exactly how it ought to be. “The better an organization is, the less obvious it is,” he says. “In Visa, we tried to create an invisible organization and keep it that way. It’s the results, not the structure or management that should be apparent.” Today the Visa organization that Hock founded is not only performing brilliantly, it is also almost mythic, one of only two examples that experts regularly cite to illustrate how the dynamic principles of chaos theory can be applied to business.

OtherWise Dee Hock – The Birth of the Chaordic Century: Out of Control and Into Order (Part 1 of 2)

Commentary by Melanie McBride on a book about McLuhan by Donald F. Theall.

Plenty of it here. Items on McLuhan. Rushkoff, Jon Lebkowsky items. A weblog, with posts from Bryan Alexander.

Here is a page of links. Collected by Roger Bourn. I have looked at one or two with interest, but can extrapolate that at least some will be to my taste from this one by Jerry Pournelli, on writing – especially paragraphs, which I am sure I have linked in the past, and which I need right now! This is the blurb on Roger’s site:

Welcome! Here is a collection of the best writing to be found concerning Critical Thought, and the Paradigm (and Ethics) of computing in our daily lives, with a list of the best writers who exhibit Critical Thinking in their work. Refresh this page often, as this site is growing. You are welcome to send additions.