Technacy and Social Action

Technacy and social action . . .

What people do when electronic language is used as a tool of communication involves working with a consciousness, and a set of skills within a particular cultural setting some aspects which we will here consider from our linguistic perspective.

Consciousness of electronic language

Technacy primarily is about a new consciousness, an extended consciousness beyond oracy and literacy that encompasses the problems posed by a new language order — electronic language. Consciousness of language (spoken and written) is taken here to be a description of the relations people believe to exist between language, the mind and the world. Most people go through the day without exercising their consciousness of language. To be aware of every word and its ramifications might be either sublime or petrifying. Yet consciousness of language is innately human. It shows itself most in the way we play with language — puns, slang, rhyme and a host of other verbal tricks. Similarly, consciousness of electronic language is taken to be a description of the relations people believe to exist between electronic language, the mind and the world.

Electronic language is a new language order; within this language structure a wide range of seemingly disparate semiotic orders are subsumed. The computer can be programmed to, for example:

• "speak", or it can accept my speech and respond in computer activity;

• be a photographic reproduction tool;

• be a drawing, or plan drafting tool.

In the non-technate mind, the consciousness of these semiotics bears the history of each semiotic — their tools of construction, their channel, their expression form, the separation and borders. The non-technate person in preparing a lecture would work from one semiotic to another, considering to visit the library for a book, seek to copy text from that book onto a plastic overhead, preparing a set of overhead slides by pen, choosing a photograph on paper, and so on. The kind of engineering to bring this all together is a separated set of traditions, origins and channels; the consciousness that works with this must work with this practical set of problems of engineering — a relatively fixed set of semiotic orders within a set of physical boundaries.

But for a technate consciousness, where the possibilities of electronic language come into play, these boundaries of mind are modified. The lecture is prepared in a presentation program, the on-line library of the Word Wide Web is consulted, a photograph is down loaded and included in the presentation, a building plan is included in the computer presentation, and the presentation is accomplished by taking the lecturer’s personal computer and plugging it in to an overhead projector. These are not boundaries then in the technate mind. What would normally be seen as separating one semiotic from another are integrated allowing a seamless set of activities of preparing text that includes photograph, drawing, overhead projection slide and a written speech; these semiotics are integrated and are seen to be all solved by way of the computer. When the mind accepts the fact that libraries are on-line digitised repositories available regardless of distance, photographs are viewable by way of the screen, and presentations combining texts of a range of semiotics can be prepared from a distance, by groups of people working and communicating on their computers, then that mind views the world from a technate point of view.

To be technate requires both consciousness and language — electronic language. This is to suggest that to be technate, there is a placement of electronic language, the mind and the world in a particular juxtaposition. It is possible to identify:

• electronic language — that it is used, when it is used, and how it is used;

• mind — that it is possible to think in terms of electronic language and particular constructs of electronic language without converting electronic back to literate;

• the world — a focus and involvement in particular with contexts that have been constituted through electronic language that do not arise in literate culture.

The whole context of language, mind and world become new in the context where a shift in language occurs. New technologies of the mind arise, because the context has now changed with this new linguistic formation. Writing is not just working with a pen on paper; it is interacting with a complex program that has in-built languaging contained in databases of words (spelling dictionary and thesaurus), grammar checkers, and style checkers. Additionally, the context of writing is one where the composer of text has available a wealth of other electronic texts that can provide "cut and paste" additions from previous works of the same composer, or from other composers separated in time and distance, but available by computer linkages such as computer networks. Writing now is about interacting with a world of texts and people which bring about new forms of writing, and new formulations of writing. The writer is a chooser in a totally new way: in building the future so much of the past can be quilted together from active and available files from across the Internet, the intranet of work, or from one’s own computer.

To be technate is primarily about this consciousness or awareness that the world of text making and production has changed because of electronic language; it is to be aware of text making and its associated problems within the context of operation. Secondarily, however, technacy is about the skills through which technacy, or this awareness of electronic language, is expressed.

Skills through which technacy is expressed

The technologies of electronic language might be defined as those developments of electronic language that have a cost to the user. The cost may be the purchase or the payment of a teacher, or the cost of purchasing a computer and spending time (another cost) in order to learn how it works. The technology, or technologies, developed as a result involve skills which enable the person to complete tasks or do work that would otherwise have been impossible or very difficult for the person to accomplish — a difficulty or impossibility, such as the person who researches, on the Internet, world-wide availability of a particular type of computer part in less than four minutes. Technologies associated with technacy can be identified as: operating, composing, simulating, and programming.

Operating is a set of skills that require a person to focus on activities at the level of synthesis, particularly in starting a computer, loading files, working with objects and active units. Operating involves using a keyboard, mouse, and other peripheral devices to provide the computer with input that forms the human part of the human-computer dialogue. When using a keyboard or other peripheral device, the human must select from the range of options defined on the computer screen using active units as a resource with which to reply to the questioning of the computer.

A part of the skill in operating a computer has nothing to do with electronic language and is mostly unavailable to even the most technate people unless that person is either very perceptive, or has a full-time job of tending and using computers and comes into contact with many computers over time to deduce aspects of this knowledge. What is unavailable to most computer users is to do with the sounds of a computer when it is beginning to operate, the time it takes to begin the start-up sequence, the "whirr" of the disk drive, and the sounds of the modem when it is connecting to another computer. These are operational indicators that a computer is active, digitologically well organized, and is not beginning to internally seize. Computers can become internally disorganized and the first sounds of this include lengthy loading times, or odd sounds that may not usually occur. Should these eventuate, then an operator must know how to translate such detection into human activity at the level of synthesis. Various administrative programs can be loaded to detect operating problems at digitological level:

disk fragmentation — the way digital elements are stored on a hard drive causes contiguous data to be dropped in smaller and smaller fragments on a hard drive; the effect of this is to slow the operation of saving and loading information to and from the hard drive; a defragmentation program is required to be run to eradicate this problem from time to time;

loss of RAM — after a period of operating a computer without turning the computer off and then on random access memory leakage occurs; leakage is the non-allocation of random access memory to a current working program which causes it to slowly eat up available memory;

overloaded system — an overloaded system can be detected by the sounds of the hard drive increasing dramatically for an apparent little gain in change on the screen; the computer is swapping data in and out of RAM to do simple operations; some of the current programmes on display on the screen need to be closed;

sluggish network connections — when communicating with other computers, network connections sometimes become sluggish due to lack of RAM on the local computer; identifying when network communications are slow because of a local condition and when it is a result of a network condition is a part of operating a computer; usually detection that it is a local problem is indicated by comparison of activity in one session with another or comparison with other computers on the network with the computer in the operator’s control; if the local computer is similar in build to another computer, and the sluggishness indicated by a slow copy rate from one computer to another, then there may be a problem with the local computer and it may need refreshing.

Day-to-day troubleshooting the operation of a computer is a major part of the skill in operating. Within a business setting, many of these tasks cannot be accomplished by the average computer user; a system administrator, help desk assistant or other more knowledgeable person is required to settle the problem. Operating a computer becomes, then, a shared activity sometimes even stopping the course of work in a business until the "expert" user, or "help desk operator" can be present. In some businesses, the computer technician becomes the central focus of the business — controlling, maintaining and servicing the business from a "hands-on" perspective, having control over the activities of the business in a way, and with the control, like no manager has ever had control over the business.

Operating one computer brand, or another computer brand pose quite substantial differences. For example, operating a Macintosh in comparison with operating a Windows Compatible machine requires quite different skill in detecting malfunction and rectification of the problems; the noises are different and the sense of one noise from another can mean quite different things. However, the problems are quite similar and have a surprising similar set of features. Even differences from one machine of the same brand to another machine of the same brand can be quite substantial. In-depth experience with one machine, and a broad appreciation of a number of machines can provide an individual with a sense of when problems of operating are likely to be the cause of a current situation. The reality is quite different, however. Computer technicians become ideologically, and in their minds, practically oriented towards one or other machine type. Instances have been observed in the course of this study where the Macintosh technician has not been available and all other technicians would not even attempt to solve a Macintosh problem. In this business setting where such instances were observed, IBM compatibles were the machine of choice because of the availability of software for that type of business on IBM compatibles. The few Macintosh computers on the premises were adopted for the design department expressly for the same reason — availability of software for a business purpose. Ideological barriers were apparent in the use of one machine or another, even to the point where, in spite of the capability of computer technicians who normally worked with IBM compatibles, they would not solve Macintosh problems.

Detection of operational problems is not limited to the starting and stopping of the computer; it is also a part of the activity of computing at all times when inputting data, when running presentation programs, and so on. Electronic language is active, and part of that activity is to do with the way data is swapped from one place to another, or with the way RAM is translating that data. When a program slows to a point where the activity displayed on the screen comes to a halt or when the timing of the next action is slow to appear, the operator must know when that activity is a problem, just the characteristic of the particular machine or when a problem has occurred and the machine will not operate any more. To some extent, then, a person who does not have all the skills necessary to operate a computer needs to become adept in knowing when to call in the technician, and when it is a simple matter of turning the machine off and starting again, thereby refreshing the computer.

Composing is a set of skills that are used in conjunction with a programmed semiotic order. One semiotic or another is selected by invoking a program, at the rank of file in synthesis, within which the meaning making options of that semiotic are available when the computer is operated. Should a "written language" semiotic be the central point of interest in a program it is often called a "word processor", or a "desk-top publishing program". Composing, with reference to a "word processor", refers to the set of skills required to construct "print-like" texts. With a "drawing" program invoked, a person would use a different set of skills to "compose" a "drawing". Composing is a general term used to refer to those skills that a person may use to construct any text using a program centered on a particular semiotic.

When composing using a word processor, there are particular skills that are additional to what would traditionally be identified as skills of writing. These skills of composing include:

formatting — setting up automated settings to automatically create headings, paragraphs, and so on;

editing — cutting & pasting, moving text from one program to another, inserting active units, etc;

styling — creating special layouts across margins, using specialist fonts and pictic elements;

creating tables and charts — setting out text in a tables or chart format, using the pre-defined settings to create lines between cells, etc;

copying — using other computer based texts to copy paragraphs, quotations, etc.

It is these skills, and others almost too numerous to name, which make composing a new activity. It is not that skills related to constructing sentences, spelling words and such like are replaced. Rather, it is the fact that constructing sentences, and spelling words are subsumed under layers of activity to do with making program selections, cutting, pasting, and so on.

A major part of composing has to do with identifying the potential of options available at any one juncture. Composing does not occur in isolation from all other composing; it is part of the on-going evolutionary structuring of texts in electronic environments. Resources from which a particular composing activity may begin include such things as clip-art, on-line libraries of photographs, spelling dictionaries, other documents, and so on.

The challenge of composing is to knowing how to obtain resources from which a starting-point can be set, and secondly, how to move on from there to modify that starting text into what is required. For example, a composer may adopt the layout of another document on file, or even cut and paste large portions of text from another document; the next steps of modifying those borrowed selections to mould them into an expression that is consistent with the balance of the composition is the challenging step.

Composing is an activity of orchestrating a large number of variables quite unlike "writing". Composing also involves borrowing, and knowing how and when to borrow "text" at a much higher rank than "writing". Writing is usually a feat of "wording"; composing is an activity of "objectifying" or working at the rank of "object" within a particular program or set of programs. Depending on the selection in place, an object can be as small as a "word" or it can be as large as a complete photograph, or an entire document.

Composing, then, has an element of politics that may not be at first apparent to the composer. How much of each text, and how many of the texts on-line within an organization are available for "borrowing"? Some businesses prefer that "standard" letters and forms are used. For example, one organization required from the writer that every document raised for any client be a standard document available on the network and modified only in those places so marked — outside of this no document was to be forwarded to a client. Other organizations allow borrowing from any other person’s documents, except the Managing Director’s documents. In some settings, every document is copyrighted, marked with the composer’s name and warnings of rights and uses marked in small text on every page. In spite of the capacity for substantial savings in computer based communications being available in that business, the sensitivities of the organization were dominant as they precluded people from using the most valuable resources they had in composing further computer documents.

Simulating involves skills of prediction, trial, analysis and re-prediction. It is about predicting the outcome of particular computer activity, trialing that activity, and analyzing the results of that activity in comparison with the stated objectives. Simulating is a recursive activity that is repeatedly brought back onto itself. Skills of simulating can be applied on top of other skills, such as operating and composing. Key elements of simulating involve working in a bricolage style — a style of working with successive trials to eventually work towards a successful outcome.

Simulating is not particularly anything much to do with computer activity; it could be applied to "writing". In fact, the concept of "writing" a series of drafts to eventually work up a "text" that is to meet the requirements of such a text has all the elements of simulation. However, what has brought about such a wide usage of simulation in the context of computing is that with a computer such a wide range of options can be held in a highly fluid state that it makes simulation workable as a method of operation without causing too much work on the part of the human simulator. For example, an entire 400 page book can be held in fluid arrangement for an indefinite period of time on a computer. Experimentation with everything from the total layout of the book, to individual wordings, inclusion of special tables of contents, and so on, can be worked on over any period of time required. Numbers of trial copies can be made in "print" until eventually the text is in a shape that is considered by the simulators to be adequate for the purpose.

Simulating, in its fluidity, allows the goal of an activity to be highly negotiable for a much longer time — the semiotic horizon of the people involved in raised providing a heightened potential of goals that may be attained. Simulation applied to a business setting, where change is now a major feature, is an ideal tool to use for business planning and business development. The whole management team can work collectively on a planning assignment, keeping the goals of the exercise fluid and the parameters open; however, should immediate and swift action be required to meet competition in the marketplace, or to meet some other problem that needs immediate action, the results of that planning can be quickly shaped and "concretized" in reaction to that immediate need.

Programming is a constructive activity that would perhaps be considered as composing other than that it is the most basic computer activity required to build instructions for computer operation. It involves composing a "language-like" text that is interpreted by the computer as a set of binary instructions. There are many different metaphors of programming "languages" — object oriented programming languages being the latest coding metaphor. A programming language is itself a special semiotic, the options of meaning within that semiotic being consistent with a chosen metaphor and inserted as a special program in a computer system. The result of programming — a script — is saved to disk, then compiled to form binary files which can be interpreted by a computer as a set of instructions.

Programming is a highly complex and entirely "conventional" activity. It is about constructing a set of instructions for a computer to operate in the way other programmes operate, but to provide a set of options in electronic language that may not be available in any other program, or more likely, that are not available in that specific formulation in any other program. Programmers must be aware of the audience who will use the program, the way they relate to that audience, the type of control they have over that audience by limiting or allowing access to the resources of the local computer, other computers on a network, and all other resources available to computers via peripheral input, such as CD players, disk drives, and so on.

Because of its complex nature, very few people can complete a program without the aid of other programmers. The complexities of interface programming, structuring and storing data, addressing other computers across networks, creating an interactive environment where the program user can halt computer activity and re-start that activity again, not losing any data, requires complex knowledge and skill in manipulating and making available the range of options necessary at any particular point in the operation of a program. Programmers usually work in teams, each with their own speciality; programs are created as a composite of the aggregate of all knowledge and skill of a number of people.

While programming is a skill of technacy, it is not considered that all technate people are required to be programmers — this is similar to the capability of people who are said to be "literate" but who would not be able to "write a book". In much the same way as a person could be "literate" and being able to appraise a book, reading and making use of its contents, a technate person must be able to use a program, appraise it, compose with it, simulate with it and make choices as to a preference of one program or another.

However, the power of a computer to mean is controlled by those who program. To some extent it is possible for a lone programmer to construct an entire program, however social conditions rarely exist that allow that much power to be placed in the hands of one person, particularly in a business setting where a business must continue with or without a particular individual. It is ideal that a person who is an ordinary user of a computer learns how to program — then the total set of meaning making possibilities is available and the power to mean, and the power to compose is enhanced substantially. A desire of computer users since computing became so central to human activity is the construction of a program that would end the need to program. Many attempts have been made in this regard, but all have failed; programming is an activity that occurs within the confines of another program already and the construction of another program to program is accomplishing the same task as the other. Simplification of programming has also been tried — that is, simplification of the complex task of programming. But simplification cannot be done without reducing the capacity to mean and make meaning, and therefore does not achieve its goal of allowing ordinary users to program.

Programmers rise to a special position, and have a position of control, in a business where computers are the mechanisms for controlling that business — in this decade, that includes most of the top 2,000 businesses within a country like Australia. Often managers who know little about programming must let the future of the business be determined by their programmers who are the only ones who can determine the feasibility or possibility of a particular goal. I have been in positions where, knowledgeable about management and marketing and also knowing programming, I have been asked to advise the management about the reliability of decisions made by the programming staff. Additionally, I have been secured on numbers of occasions to independently assess the responses of a programming staff to a manager’s request, advising the manager concerning the veracity of the response(s) and the strategic value of the course taken by the programming staff. Without that input, managers of those businesses would be assigning to programmers the task of managing and controlling the business. Particularly in the banking world, where the whole activity of banking is based on technology, it is only a matter of time until the "Information Technology" manager rises to become the Managing Director. In some smaller banks, such as the Advance Bank, this is already the case. The Managing Director of that organization is a technologist, understands programming and technological organization and therefore is in a position to take his bank to a position of control in the marketplace, as is already happening, with the Advance moving from fifteenth to fifth largest bank in Australia over the last two years.

Cultural setting

People can only be considered to be technate in terms of a particular cultural setting within which this extended consciousness is developed, and set of skills is acquired. What people do, as technate people, must take into account the setting: the social action that takes place, the part that language plays across a variety of channels, and the new social order that comes into play because of the technology and its use.

Electronic language, when placed in a cultural setting, generates new fields of endeavor and converts old fields of endeavor into activities with a new set of values. Home banking, "broadcasting" information across the web, and participating in on-line chat session are all social activities constituted by computing activity made possible through electronic meaning making organization. But perhaps of substantially more significance are those old fields of endeavor that are re-established with values: the highly institutionalized act of publishing can be self-publishing, marketing and advertising can be organized by one person, and radio broadcasts can be focused for dissemination across the world. This is what people do when they are technate — this is what technate people become engaged in and what social action becomes a part of their repertoire.

Computer systems coupled with network facilities, like the Internet and dial-up computer services, such as CompuServe, America On-line, and Microsoft Network (MSN), bring opportunities for banks and financial institutions to allow customers to obtain their own financial information directly from host computers. Customers can view statements, move money from one account to another and manage investment portfolios. The social action involved here is the obtaining of financial information and creating financial transactions. Electronic language enables this social interaction to occur.

In essence, this activity of "home banking" is a renewal of the activity of banking — it is "banking made new". In older banking paradigms, people entered a bank branch office, completed paper forms according to a strict set of guidelines, presented these to a teller who then interpreted the forms into some type of computing entry. Often the computer entry did not match the paper forms. For example, to move money from one account to another, a person would need to complete a withdrawal and deposit slip to represent taking money from one account to another. The teller, on the computer at the counter, would then proceed to make an entry against one account (debit), an entry against a second account (credit) and an entry into the main system to indicate the record of paper forms, and signatory status; this involved a delay of at least twelve to fifteen hours (usually night time) before the transaction was completed. In this new paradigm, the action does not involve paper forms at all. A person is able to act on accounts directly, making as many actions as required with no delay in the system. The "home computer" is connected, via the network to the "host" computer allowing direct and immediate completion of the transaction.

The banking individual has a new relationship with her/his bank. The social action of maintaining banking records is now passed to the customer. Whether a customer uses an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM), Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale (EFTPOS) device or a connection via the Internet, the action of maintaining banking records passes from banking employees to either the customer or some other person not in the employ of the bank. Maintaining banking records is now secondary to some other activity, such as buying something, or, if access is via a home computer, it may be a part of an entertainment activity — web surfing is now an activity of entertainment that rivals television for some people and doing simple banking activities is a part of that entertainment. Banking is a social activity "made new" through the use of electronic language.

There is, however, new social action that has never existed prior to the potential of electronic language being introduced into society. The World Wide Web gives individuals a world-wide presence that was not possible prior to the introduction of the Internet and use of electronic language in that context. The social action involved in disseminating information and interacting with people on the World Wide Web is like a number of pre-existing social activities, but is also dissimilar in a number of ways:

The social action of web page communication is like "broadcasting" but is not broadcasting. Broadcasting involves a central source to automatically "pump" out a single signal, like radio or television into the airwaves. Web page dissemination is only achieved when a person working on a computer requests a page. Secondly, it is not necessarily a single signal; different to radio or television signals, the web page can contain information that is pertinent to the individual who requested that page. The web is an interactive environment whereas a broadcasting environment is not.

Web page communication is like "bill board advertising" but it is not. Bill board advertising usually has a single message, is graphic and is placed in a public arena. The web is a public arena, but it is viewed in the isolation of where a person works with their own personal computer. Information on a web page can be tailored. The requesting Internet Protocol (IP) Address can be read by the web server, and information pertinent to a person’s location in the world can be added or deleted from the page.

There are similarities to storage of information in a book, or journal, within a library. Using the web is like looking for information in a journal. The origins of the web were from academic settings where the atomic scientists in CERN Switzerland wished to disseminate and maintain information in an easily up-dateable and immediately accessible format in their area of research. Articles cross-referenced other articles maintained on other computers, some separated by the Atlantic ocean. While many web pages are like journal articles in format, subject-matter and use, web pages are not like journal pages in their interactiveness, and their immediate up-dateable form. The action of looking for information is entirely a new way of looking for information in that whole text searches can be accomplished, not just searches for titles and authors common in a library. This searching can also be achieved on a world-wide basis, not just a local library basis.

Putting information on the Internet via the world wide web is like publishing, yet it is not publishing. Publishing involves the production of a number of copies of some text; while a copy of each page is taken by a person visiting your web site, that copy is not permanent, nor is it an exact copy; it is often modified in some way to fit a browser that may or may not display information in the way other browsers do, or it may be modified to suit the individual reading the page. Additionally, the institutional setting of publication, where investment of time, effort and materials is also missing. Any person with a personal computer can put up a web page.

Web page building and information dissemination is a new social action. The field is the activity of preparing, hosting and maintaining web pages. The second-order field — the subject matter — is often subversive; people who are not given a voice, or a substantial voice, in society, use this arena which has hallmarks of privacy — one person at a time, in the privacy of using his/her own computer, obtaining a web page from another private computer, albeit in a public arena — to present information that may otherwise be disallowed using other channels of communication. It is a way for an individual to have a public/private voice; public in that the page is available to any person who wishes to request it, private in that it is read in a private manner.

Electronic language makes new old orders of social action in the publishing and information dissemination arena. Desktop publishing cuts away the necessity for a large institutional setting within which publishing is enacted. New social action comes into play — a person can write, edit, print, and distribute a "book", "paper" or "magazine". The web enables people to advertise and market on a world scale; this has only been possible for large institutions who have resources to obtain world coverage in newspaper, television or other media.

What a technate person does

Within this cultural setting people who are technate are those who are participants in that culture at the least as operators of a computer, and composers of electronic texts, or who actively organize simulations, or who are programmers at the other end of the spectrum. At a minimum a person must operate a computer, but there must be some reason for operating a computer. People do not usually master the complexities of a computer by simply operating one; a computer is an enabling tool with which a person composes computer texts, simulates a particular problem, or programs for solving other problems.

A technate person extends their potential to mean because of the additional ways meaning can be made. The additional potential is only and always with regard to a particular context. Simply by being technate a person does not add potential to mean; but by a person becoming aware of electronic language, learning skills of technacy and applying it in a particular setting, such as for example, building a personal web site, or being employed as a technical writer, a person extends his/her potential to make meaning.

Few people understand the additional potential electronic language adds to a person’s repertoire to make meaning. Most people approach a computer from a literate perspective — they want to be able to "write" documents, or organize business information. They do not extend their "writing" into composing — that is, constructing text seamlessly across a number of semiotics in a computing environment. Others use computers because they must. In one business setting in which I was involved for over six months, all people in that business setting knew how to use only one program on the computer — Word for Windows. Anything outside of that program was unknown territory. They were using Word for Windows as a great typewriter, and little other than that. The same group, when made aware of a computer as a means of "composing" extended their own capabilities beyond that one program not only enlivening their own documents, but also extending their potential to make meaning. Within one month of making this group of people aware of the notion of "composing" had extended their meaning making into building web pages, PowerPoint overhead slides, and using e-mail on a daily basis.

Even fewer people actually use the power a computer affords to make meaning using a computer. While every windows computer fitted with a multimedia card can be used to insert sound bytes into documents, cut and paste photographs into PowerPoint slides, and link spreadsheet cells to numerical information in a document, in a survey of 1,200 computer users in business, only 6 people in fact used more features than simply text production in the prior two months of the survey (RTA, 1994). A more recent survey of 200 people in a larger corporation indicated only 8 people in 500 used anything other than two programs — Word for Windows or Excel (a spreadsheet program). Only six of these 8 actually linked a spreadsheet with a document (CBA, 1995).

Some of the most technate people are amongst the highest paid people in our society because of their power to use a computer. A survey of 300 technical writers and programmers in Sydney indicate that all of them earn more than $80,000 per annum and 100 of these earn in excess of $250,000 per annum. One of the 300 earned $475,000 in the year prior to the survey.

A new social order is now developing; an order based on the capacity of people to make meaning with electronic language. It is not the hardware technologist who has the upper hand and the control — this is borne out on the world-wide scale by comparing the influence and power of Microsoft, the software house, in comparison to Intel, the hardware manufacturer. Microsoft is the pacemaker, setting the pace for Intel to match. Microsoft is the wealthiest manufacturer with Intel always struggling to make profits. And it is Microsoft who has the most potential to change public thinking, working and activity through not only producing the most used software in the world, but also controlling information about that software, and information embedded in that software. Challenges to Microsoft’s position, such as by Netscape, are being met with huge marketing ferocity and potent strategic planning to ensure that Microsoft’s position is not taken by another. The majority of these strategies are being played across the Internet, using electronic language as the most potent weapon in this business war.

Within business, software technologists are creating new positions for themselves, in some cases, as managers of increasingly powerful "Information Technology" departments. The drive to out source information technology, in part, has been a drive to reduce the power of technologists by placing them outside the organization. In other organizations where out sourcing has not been the selected strategy, technologists and in particular software technologists are the new controllers of the business. Some managing directors, to shore up their position, are taking on technical advisers who can aid decision making in terms of the available technology; others are in control of businesses that are ceasing to be relevant because of their lack of technological understanding, and are therefore in decline.

What a technate person does includes exercising the power of computer meaning making, and exercising the power to control that meaning making capability. This is a new position being created by software technology houses and by those who understand the power of electronic language in these commercial settings made "new".

A central argument of this dissertation (following Wittgenstein’s proposal) is that "knowing how to go on" involves an acquaintance of the many and varied and often times disparate technologies whereby we make meaning. Wittgenstein used "… knowing how to go on …" as his simple characterization of what it meant to know a language; it is knowing how to carry on from this point. A person knows how to pick up the cultural activity from this point and continue. This means that we don’t all know language in complete ways; we are variously into language. In electronic language, for example, we don’t all know everything about computing but a computer user knows what to do from this point on.

While, in the context of computers, we may often seem to think that we work seamlessly from one technology to another, computing, however, must be seen both in terms of its seamlessness and in terms of the disparate origins of each technology. Conceptualizing computer activity in terms of "electronic language", it is argued, provides a way of both marking out the boundaries of subsumed semiotics, and providing a view on their integration into a meaning making set of tools. Through enumerating the characteristics of "electronicity" we obtain a view of a semiotic field that has replicas of the old "worded" technologies and edifices of the new active electronic meaning making potential. Through stratification we obtain a view of electronic activity as involving different orders of organization; at a particular level of this organization it can be seen how various semiotics can be subsumed into electronic activity through the endeavors of computer programming. Through a study of the functions of this electronic language we view how these disparate orders are used to function to: provide interpersonal contact, create texts, and represent our world within which we live.

This dissertation illustrates how changes in cultural and mental tools have consequences for social order: for practices of work, the nature of problems that people solve at work, and consequently the evolution of higher mental function (cf. Vygotsky, 1978, for example pp. 52-57). The attitude we can take to electronic language, in the light of this dissertation, and in terms of Vygotsky’s argument concerning the nature of tools, is that by tracking the new working relations and the new problem solving activities of the computer we obtain a clearer view of the evolution of human consciousness. The change in the meaning potential of human beings is not just an issue of upgraded literacy, as explained in this dissertation, it is a question of cultural evolution, and ultimately of cognitive evolution because we can see that cognitive development is dependent on the mediating tools — that is, the tools that mediate when we are solving problems.

The open ended-ness of engagement with a computer is crucial to understanding the likely directions of cultural consciousness. Vygotsky leads the way in this by suggesting that higher mental function is a direct result of the social relations into which we enter and the type of tools we bring to bear to solve problems. Furthermore, the computer environment may well be an instance of Vygosky’s idea of the zone of proximal development. If a person is isolated, and we determine what problem solving is possible to be completed in that isolation in comparison with a person in interaction with another person who knows the context better, the potential of the individual is seen to be far greater in the light of that interaction. The person can grow and develop rather than just learn. The computer may well be conceptualized as a tool which creates a kind of open ended interaction — the computer makes possible contact with the culture and people within that culture extending the person’s ability to solve problems. The computer is not just a powerful pen, it is actually the potential architect of new states of mind — this is one reason for the importance of understanding electronic language.

Vygotsky (1978) reverses the usual practice of picturing the brain in isolation and in a commanding position in culture; for Vygotsky, cognitive development is a notion where the external relations of the world challenge the brain to reorganize itself in an interactive way. The computer in this picture of the world challenges the individual, causing the individual to reorganize itself in the light of this new interaction. Interaction with a computer is interaction with the distillation of intelligence of the culture — many thousands of people have influenced its development and have placed in the computer a cultural intelligence that, when used, challenges the cognition of the individual user. Coming to understand electronic language is more than explicating a semiotic system; gaining insight of electronic language is to gain insight of the evolution of cognition.