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EFF "Net Culture & Cyber-Anthropology" Archive

http://www.eff.org/pub/Net_culture/
Last Updated Thu Mar 13 10:42:57 PDT 2003

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Files in this Archive

curtis_on_inet.article
File containing an article from UK's Guardian newspaper. Richard Curtis, screenwriter for "Blackadder" (a successful British comedy series) and the movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral," offers a humorous look at the Internet from the view of a novice user.
cyberspace.biblio
File containing Anne Balsamo's bibliography of Cyberspace, Cyberpunk, Electronic Communication, and Postmodernism materials. (March 1993)
cyborg_links.html
File containing links to cyber anthropology resources.
ethernet_history_gilder.article
File containing George Gilder's history of the ethernet entitled "Metcalf's Law and Legacy," first published in Forbes ASAP, September 13, 1993.
implications_of_info.article
File containing "The Implications of Electronic Information for the Sociology of Knowledge" by Richard A. Lanham, professor of English, UCLA. "This paper argues that the fundamental "operating system" for the humanities is changing from the book to the digital multimedia computer screen. It outlines the consequences of this move for the creation, performance, teaching, and study of literature, music, and the visual arts. It concludes with a suggestion for how this movement from page to digital display might inform the administrative changes forced upon the university by the current shortage of money."
internet.history
File containing a transcript of Geof Bowker's remarks as discussant on three very interesting papers on the history of the Internet at the recent conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science at the University of Virginia.
internet_sterling.history
File containing Bruce Sterling's "INTERNET : aka "A Short History of the Internet," published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1993.
joyce_prehistory_of_cyberspace.paper
File containing "Beyond Orality/Literacy Dichotemy: James Joyce and the Prehistory of Cyberspace" by Donald Theall (1992), which links the work of Joyce and his modernist contemporaries to the development of electric communication and to the prehistory of cyberspace and virtual reality.
net.history
File containing "The History of the Net" by Henry Edward Hardy (Sept 1993).
netizen.paper
"The Net and Netizens: The Impact the Net has on People's Lives" by hauben@columbia.edu. "We are seeing a revitalization of society. The frameworks are being redesigned from the bottom up. A new more democratic world is becoming possible."
overhearing_the_internet.article
OVERHEARING THE INTERNET by Robert Wright (1993) surveys what the internet is and ponders its social consequesnces.
usenet.faq
Usenet FAQ March 1994.
whatis_cyberspace.article
File containing "What is Cyberspace?" by David G.W. Birch & S. Peter Buck, Hyperion. The authors see cyberpsace as comprising "computers, telecommunications, software and data in a more abstract form," with the core being the Net, and see the works of such cyberpunk authors as William Gibson as being not-so-far-flung extensions of the realities that exist today and accurate predictions of the not-so-distant future.
whatis_internet.faq
What is the Internet? by Paul Jones. FAQ
whatis_usenet.faq
Usenet FAQ July 19, 1992
whats_internet.paper
What is the Internet, Anyway? by John S. Quarterman (1994). Introductory, and easy to read description of what the Internet really is.



Subdirectories in This Archive

Up to the Parent Directory
Artificial_life/
Adventures in artificial intelligence and artificial life! Articles in this directory include information about the philosophy, technology and social issues surrounding humanity's attempt to create life.
Consciousness/
What does it mean to think and how are our views of self and other affected by the profound forces of Cyberia/Third Wave/Information Era? This directory explores our understanding of the mind, consciousness, personality, identity, etc...
Criticisms/
This directory includes criticisms of Information Era society and general warnings about how not to overexagerate the utopian possibilities of a wired globe.
Cyberpunk/
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" - William Gibson. What will society be like in the near future? This directory focuses on one genre of futurists, the Cyberpunks, who present a particularly dystopic version of information society.
Cyborg_anthropology/
"Given the rate of change of biological evolution, and the fact that homo sapiens began appearing around 500,000 years ago, we're about due for some sort've evolutionary shift" - Selena Sol. This directory focusses on how technology infiltrates the body and what changes that process invokes in humanity.
Ethnic_studies/
How will the division between info haves and have-nots be affected by traditional racial/ethnic lines? And how can we mold our future in ways that discontinue previous mistakes and evils? This directory deals with race, ethnicity and culture, in Cyberia, and includes information about how cyberian societies will manage diveristy and conflict.
Folklore/
Including directories like Games, Hoaxes, Humor, Chain Letters, Art, Flaming, and Spam, this directory attempts to survey the newly developing folklore of the net.
Gender_issues/
How are the traditional issues relating to gender affected by the new social media? This directory covers such issues as gender swapping on the net, gendered linguistics in computer mediated communication, and gender issues in technology or technological disciplines.
Global_village/
The net is by nature a global creature. It is a sorry mistake to conceive of it legally, philosophically, or politically in terms of national, bordered states. This directory explores online jurisdiction and sovereignty issues, and the deterioration of the nation-state in cyberspace, as well as the policy and historical changes that such a transformation promotes. Also includes material about the development of networking around the world.
Hackers/
"Mentor was a hacker zealot who regarded computer intrusion as something close to a moral duty" - Bruce Sterling. This directory is devoted to thge anthropology of hackers, phreaks, crackers and their emerging culture. Hackers are to information as the underground railroad was to the slaves. Information wants to be free.
Handicapped_access/
Directory of information relating to online access for the handicapped/disabled.
Infotopia/
This directory includes all the wonderful (but questionably practical) visions of Information Era Paradise.
Linguistics/
Computer mediated.communication creates wholly new ways for humans to speak. Both empowering and limited as a form of communication, CMC, includes :) abilities and :( problems. This directory includes information on the effects of CMC on human communiation and the emerging linguistic rules and customs. "The discovery of the alphabet will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls" - Aristotle.
MOO_MUD_IRC/
This directory is devoted to the anthropology of Intenet Relay Chat, Multi-User Domains, and other real-time online inter-personal communication.
Misc/
Miscellaneous unsorted information
Net_info/
Basic Internet technical and introductory information
Postmodernism/
This directory deals with the postmodern philosophy and how it relates to the living experiences of cyberians.
Ritual/
Sex, Drugs, and Dance in Cyberia.
Statistics/
This directory includes all the statistics that we've been able to gather. Because oif the decentralized nature of the net, gathering statistics is particularly difficult and begins to show how Newtonian concepts of information management break down in the new era. Statistics become limited, if not useless, in a truly complex adaptive systems!
Virtual_reality/
A general catch-all directory for things having to to with "virtual reality", including technical as well as philosophical and editorial discussions of VR.
Virtual_community/
How are virtual communities different than communities IRL? This directory focuses on the virtual community, the problems they face and the power of connectivity they grant.



Related On-Site Resources

Net Information Archive
This directory contains miscellaneous networking information, some of it very outdated and here fo historical purposes only, including guidebooks such as EFF's Guide to the Internet, resource lists, beginner and introductory information, Internet/Usenet technical documents, and more.



Links to Related Off-Site Resources

Cosmopolis, a magazine on current affairs and culture in German and English
List of links to Cyborg Anthropology pages.
Cybersociology Newsgroups (Note:only available to you if your site carries them!)
alt.2600 Hierarchy
alt.comp.academic-freedom
alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk
alt.comp.acad-freedom.news
alt.culture.internet
alt.culture.usenet
alt.cyberpunk
alt.cyberpunk.movement
alt.cyberpunk.tech
alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
alt.cyberspace
alt.discordia
alt.extropians
alt.folklore.computers
alt.hackers
alt.industrial
alt.life.internet
alt.memetics
alt.music.techno
alt.net.personalities
alt.rave
alt.security
alt.security.pgp
alt.soc.ethics
alt.techno-shamanism
alt.uu.virtual-worlds.misc
alt.virtual hierarchy
alt.wired
comp.admin.policy
comp.ai Hierarchy
comp.org.cspr News and talk
comp.org.eff.talk
comp.patents
comp.risks
comp.security.misc
comp.security.unix
comp.society
comp.society.privacy
comp.virus
misc.legal.computing
misc.legal.moderated
news.admin.policy
rec.arts.bodyart
rec.music.ambient
rec.music.industrial
sci.crypt
sci.virtual Hierarchy
sci.virtual-worlds
soc.net-people
talk.politics.crypto



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