danah boyd brings us a discussion of "Glocalization" in the context of Web 2.0. Danah says,
…there is a global influence that is altered by local
culture and re-inserted into the global in a constant cycle. Think of
it as a complex tango with information constantly flowing between the
global and the local, altered at each junction.During the boom, there was a rush to get everything and everyone
online. It was about creating a global village. Yet, packing everyone
into the town square is utter chaos. People have different needs,
different goals. People manipulate given structures to meet their
desires. We are faced with a digital environment that has collective
values. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in search. For example, is
there a best result to the query "breasts"? It’s all about context,
right? I might be looking for information on cancer, what are you
looking for?
To this I’d like to add the concept of the info-shed. I’ll use Luxembourg and wholIy contrived data as an example. I suspect — but cannot prove today — that most of the bits originating in Luxembourg stay in Luxembourg. And that the searches, the retrievals to Luxembourg have a uniquely Lux-ish quality. Luxembourg is an info-basin within its own info-shed. There is probably a larger info-shed that is the EU, and the Brits may help fill a transatlantic basin, their traffic combined with Canada and the US. Both of these examples reflect a pernicious assumption about language as a dominant force on the info-shed and I have only started to unwrap the concept. I could be way wrong, in which case it will be back to slamming the post moderns and other productive activities for me. More on this later…
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hello i read your biography and found it very interesting indeed. I’d just like to say that if you’re still trying to find the truth then look no further than ISLAM. I am more than willing to help introduce you to it and maybe even clear any misunderstandings that you may have.
Peace,
Khalid (Manchester - UK)
Thanks for the generous offer of your time and energy Khalid, and I am going to take you up on it. But rather than spend the time you would commit on trying to educate and inform me, I would like you to visit a Friends meeting in Manchester and find out how you can use that energy to help them feed the hungry or ease the suffering of the poor in Manchester.
Quakers are notoriously easy to convince about almost anything, and as long as your convictions admit the existence of the spark of the divine within each and all of us, I am sure you will find converts!
Quakers are notoriously stubborn, as well, and given to service. Good neighbors.