Re: CS-234 Discussion

CS234 <cs234@lhmerino.dont-email.me> wrote:

This thread is intended for the students of CS-234:

Technologies for democratic society

 
How does Usenet fit into the vision presented by Licklider and Taylor in
"The Computer as a Communication Device"?
 
Reflect on:
- Which aspects of their vision are realized through Usenet?
- What aspects have evolved differently from what they imagined?
 
Feel free to respond to comments made by your classmates as well.

Usenet's origin really embodies a number of the visions
that Licklider and Taylor
outlined in "The Computer as a Communication Device,"
perhaps most specifically computers enabling global,
collaborative communication.
Usenet also allowed different people to share information,
ideas, and discussions across distributed networks, promoting
the sense of a connected community, much like the envisioned
"online interactive communities." The course of evolution
taken by Usenet, however, diverged in important ways.
Whereas Licklider and Taylor envisioned even more active,
 real-time collaborations running in parallel
with human thought processes
, in general, Usenet supported asynchronous discussions.
Their vision of such online communities also suggested more organized,
curated methods of communication in contrast
to the decentralized, unmoderated spams,
 and content fragmentations characteristic of Usenet