BKINTDRM.RVW   971113

"Internet Dreams", Mark Stefik, 1996, 0-262-19373-6, U$30.00
%A   Mark Stefik stefik@parc.xerox.com
%C   55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA   02142-1399
%D   1996
%G   0-262-19373-6
%I   MIT Press
%O   U$30.00 800-356-0343 fax: 617-625-6660 curtin@mit.edu 
%O   www-mitpress.mit.edu
%P   412
%T   "Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors"

If you don't know where you're going, that's probably where you'll end
up.  A great many statements, pronouncements and opinions regarding
the current "extended" Internet (or, in Quarterman's term, the Matrix)
and any future developments from it are based not on reality, but on
unconscious assumptions that the net is a library, TV, playground,
workshop, meeting place, alternate world, community, market, or some
other metaphor.  Stefik has collected and excerpted visions from a
variety of sources to try and present a range of options, and to
promote discussion of these underlying assumptions: are they valid,
are they helpful, and what are they missing?  The articles come from
classics such as Vannevar Bush's "As We May Think" (his "memex" is
often cited as the seminal idea behind hypertext and the World Wide
Web), through the artistry of Julian Dibbell's "A Rape in Cyberspace"
(items as compelling as this are seldom found in technical works), to
Scott Cook's bad-tempered "Technological Revolutions and the Gutenberg
Myth."

Part one looks at the metaphor of the library.  Hypertext, the move
from books to digital media, intelligent agents, currency in
literature, intellectual property values, non-informational aspects,
and the preservation of culture are included in the topics raised. 
For those who have looked at the net as a cultural entity, the library
is the symbol most frequently used for comparison.  Still, these
essays do manage to present the classic ideas without being
repetitious.

Part three looks at the electronic marketplace and commerce.  The
business approach to the net tends to be the least examined aspect:
those interested in the Internet as a sales tool simply want to get on
with it and close the deal.  "Business on the net" books tend to be
simplistic and seldom have a solid grasp on the reality of either the
technology or the culture of the net.  While brief, this section
covers every pertinent topic that I have seen discussed in almost all
books on the digital economy, and makes a reasonable introduction to a
generally sloppy field.

Parts two and four appear, to me, to be very strongly related.  Part
two looks at email, and does a decent job.  Part four looks at other
forms of computer mediated communication, but primarily emphasizes
real-time social communication.  (The particular example used is the
MUD - multiple user domain - but IRC - Internet Relay Chat - would be
very similar.)  On the one hand, therefore, the two parts are simply
alternate technologies with the same objective.  In correspondence
with Stefik, he has noted that he was trying to bring out the image of
the sense of place involved in chat "rooms."  In hindsight, his
objective is accomplished, although not strongly.  I may be the wrong
person to note this distinction, since long experience with mailing
lists has given me a sense of "place" in regard to them as well.

The metaphors that might be called passive entertainment (newsgroup
lurking and Web browsing) and work get rather short shrift.

It is, of course, not possible to examine all the metaphors for the
net and would be very difficult to collect all the common ones.  Those
presented are a good start, and a prompt for further discussion. 
(While archetypes and myths do get frequent mention, their use does
not contribute greatly to the book in its current form.)  Hopefully,
this work may promote further explorations of other Matrix metaphors -
 which, in turn, may lead to an expanded second edition.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997   BKINTDRM.RVW   971113