Dissertation (Chapter 6)

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6       Technacy and social action

 

     This dissertation  set out to explicate the new form of symbolic activity centred on computer communication. To accomplish the objectives of this dissertation, the information gleaned from a practical connection with people who use computers was put to use, and a linguistic theory  was adopted to provide a highly ordered approach to explaining how sense can be made of a highly complex semiotic  field.  This explication centred on describing computer activity  in terms of electronic language. While aspects of the second have been addressed as a description of technate cultures, and a functional description of meaning making, this chapter sets out to provide a more ideological picture of what people must do to make meaning in computer contexts.   When I first used the term technacy in 1988, the teachers exposed to the term understood me to mean a “technical literacy ” as opposed to what I was meaning ¾ a replacement of literacy. To overcome this perception, I found that comparing literacy and technacy in terms of what literate people do to make meaning in comparison with what people who have a technate ability do to make meaning was particularly useful. This was especially explicative to teachers who were practised in reading and writing  but who had not yet become highly technate.

     Since that time, however, complications to this agenda have arisen. What it meant to be literate in the last decade before computers were inserted into our cultural psyche was rather more clear cut than in this decade. Now, personal computers have been with us for over ten years, and even those who do not think they know anything about using computers are familiar with computers and their use in our society. The use of computers in business  and education has been enough to modify the consciousness of our society. At the least, most people have been the receiver of excuses for some business malfunction, namely, “… the computer  is down …”, “… the computer automatically charges that …”, “… you known how it is, the computer …”. Such has been the involvement of computers in our society that there is an expectation of what a computer can do, and what should be achieved with a computer even by those who do not use them! Everyday, people enter shops, travel agents, and other businesses expecting to be served by people who use computers as a tool for information  retrieval. The visitor to the travel agent is annoyed if on the spot a computer is not able to provide information as to whether there is a seat on the 24^th of December to Stockholm flying Garuda. Overall influences of computer meaning making are much more pervasive than these simple brushes with computer activity . Our exposure to computers is intensifying.

     The way literacy  has changed in the last decade, through the influence of computers in our society is just a reminder that literacy is not a single universal standard to which we can compare another meaning making contender^[1] (Pattison , 1982:vi & vii). There are, however, a number of general observations that can be made about literacy that can be the focus of an investigation of what it means to be technate. Pattison (1982) suggests that literacy:

1.      is foremost consciousness of problems posed by [written] language ;

2.      secondarily a skill in the technologies  by which this consciousness is expressed;

3.      cannot be expressed as a universal standard but only in terms of the culture  within which it is used.

Most people emphasise number (2), and fail to see the subordination of (2) to the social facts, in particular the cultural membership and goals that underlie points (1) and (3).

     Using the focus Pattison  has on literacy , our notions of Technacy can be extended by applying this focus. Technacy is considered here to be:

1.      a consciousness of the problems posed by electronic language;

2.      secondarily the skills in the technologies  by which this consciousness is expressed;

3.      a culturally charged set of activities whereby sense can be made of a diverse range of computer  oriented phenomena.

This focus is to be used as a way of extending the discussion concerning technacy  ¾ what people do in a cultural setting  in order to make meaning with electronic language.

A focus on technacy

     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  which we will here consider some aspects from our linguistic perspective  in terms of field , mode  and tenor  (Halliday , 1978).

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 ¾ 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 ¾ 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:

·        “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  ¾ 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 ¾ 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 lecturers 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  ¾ 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 ¾ that it is used, when it is used, and how it is used;

·        mind ¾ 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 ¾ 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 ¾ 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

     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 organised, and is not beginning to internally seize. Computers can become internally disorganised 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 programmes can be loaded to detect operating problems at digitological level:

·        disk fragmentation  ¾ the way digital elements are stored on a hard drive cause 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 ¾ after awhile 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  thereby to slowly eat up available memory;

·        overloaded system ¾ 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 ¾ 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 ¾ 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 ¾ 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, 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 programmes, 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

     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 centred 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 ¾ setting up automated settings to automatically create headings , paragraphs, and so on;

·        editing ¾ cutting & pasting, moving text  from one program  to another, inserting active units, etc;

·        styling ¾ creating special layouts across margins , using specialist fonts  and pictic elements;

·        creating tables and charts ¾ setting out text  in a tables or chart format, using the pre-defined settings to create lines between cells, etc;

·        copying ¾ 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 programmes. 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 organisation are available for “borrowing”? Some businesses prefer that “standard” letters and forms are used. For example, one organisation 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 ¾ outside of this no document was to be forwarded to a client. Other organisations 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 organisation set as they were precluded people from using the most valuable resources they had in composing  further computer documents.

Simulating

     Simulating involves skills of prediction, trial, analysis and re-prediction. It is about predicting the outcome of particular computer  activity , trialing that activity, and analysing 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 ¾ 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 ¾ 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 “concretised” in reaction to that immediate need.

Programming

     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” ¾ 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 ¾ a script ¾ 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 son on.

     Because of its complex nature, very few people can complete a program  without the addition 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; programmes 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  ¾ 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 allows 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 ¾ 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 ¾ 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 ¾ 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 his 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, 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 organisation is a technologist, understands programming and technological organisation and therefore is in a position to take his bank to a position of control in the marketplace, as is already happening 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.  

Social action

     Electronic language , when placed in a cultural setting , generates new fields of endeavour and converts old fields of endeavour 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 organisation. But perhaps of substantially more significance are those old fields of endeavour that are re-established with values: the highly institutionalised act of publishing can be self-publishing, marketing and advertising can be organised by one person, and radio broadcasts can be focussed for dissemination across the world . This is what people do when they are technate ¾ 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 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 ¾ 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 a buying something, or if access is via a home computer, it may be a part of an entertainment activity ¾ 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 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 ¾ the subject matter ¾ is often subversive; people who are not given a voice, or a substantial voice, in society, use this arena which has hallmarks of privacy ¾ 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 ¾ 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 ¾ 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.

The part electronic language  plays

     Electronic becomes central to many of these new or modified social activities. In many cases social action is taken almost entirely out of a physical setting and placed in cyberspace. Electronic language  entirely constitutes the “new” in these settings. Person-to-person chatting in a clubroom, or other location, when transferred to cyberspace ¾ in the form of Multi User Domain (MUD) chat lines ¾ becomes totally an activity  of electronic language. It is a new genre  of typed or written language subsumed in electronic language. Chatting this way mostly involves intimate, and/or informal language much like spoken “chatting”. Because of the anonymity of the setting people often reveal personal details that might be said only to intimate friends in spite of the fact that they do not know the person or other people involved in this “chat”.

     Because electronic language  subsumes a range of representation  systems, but at the same time allowing an almost seamless combination of these, more than one channel can be used to form a communication . Take for example an e-mail message I received from a person in USA recently. It was primarily composed of written-like text , had an attachment of a voice recording that was an extract from a presentation given in Washington, provided links to four pages  on two web  sites one in France and the other in Australia, and contained a second attachment in the form of a bitmapped photograph .

     Electronic language  brings enormous complexity to the mode of discourse. Fundamental to mode, when considering spoken/written language, is the distinction between speaking  and writing . Speaking and writing are two mediums of language. When considering electronic language, there are now three mediums ¾ speaking, writing and electronicity . It is possible to choose options in written language that reflects a spoken way communicating; it is also possible to speak, for example in a lecture, as one would write. In electronic language, those options of choosing language options that are like speaking and writing are not diminished, in fact they are extended. Besides selecting options in writing as we would speak, and vice versa, we also have electronic language options, where we have interactive links, self-changing options where different people are addressed because of some interaction, pictic representation , and so on. We can also have a number of permutations coded in electronic language:

·        spoken options in language  ¾ for example, intimacy, informality as one would speak ¾ presented in modifiable electronic language;

·        written options in language  ¾ for example formality,

·        electronic options in language  composed in written language ¾ for example, “see this line of words here, click on any word in this line and you will see what I mean by the above statement”.

     What is most entertaining, or for some un-nerving, is the fact that advertising and marketing in electronic language  can be made to seem entirely personal. A spoken text  can address the web -browsing individual using the browser ’s personal name ¾ simply a text analysis program  has obtained information  from the browser’s computer , interpreted that into digital speaking . Advertisements on a web page  can include the individual’s name; advertisements can be written like a personal letter. Sometimes advertisements function purely as “phatic communion”, using Malinowski’s term, that oils the activity  while waiting for some other event to occur, such as a search across the Internet  for some other information.

     Commonly appearing genres appearing in electronic language  mix spoken, written and electronic language options quite differently according to genre :

·        One  would expect the multimedia genre  to be the most electronic, but this is not the case. Multimedia is rather much more a mixture of video , print  (albeit rather short texts), photographs, and illustration . Why multimedia is presented in electronic language  is due to the fact that all of these semiotics  are able to be presented in an electronic digital medium. However, there is not commonly a mixture of modes of presentation ¾ spoken options are not presented in a written medium, for example.

·        Hypertext uses  written language  options in the main ¾ it simply turns written language into interactive written language.

·        Downloadable text is purely digitised written text, better used if printed out ¾ that was what it was created for; simply electronic language  is a means of world  wide distribution.

·        E-mail is perhaps one of the most electronic genres. Additionally it uses a rather unique set of linguistic options. It is “written” but often uses “spoken” options of language  that stress informality and intimacy. As well, electronic links can be inserted in e-mail allowing the reader to move to web  pages , photographs and sound  recordings.

·        3D Fiction is perhaps the most electronic of all genres using very few words, if any, little or no sound , but plenty of electronic links to highly graphic electronically built images. This genre  relates a series of events , putting the computer  user in the middle of any action that occurs in those events. As the story unfolds, the user is able to manipulate the mouse and/or joystick to move through the event, or influence the event by selecting a link. 3D Fiction is like a virtual world used in the culture  of virtuality as its most pervasive genre, however 3D Fiction is not a virtual world as it is programmed not to interact like a world but rather to relate a story, or event picticly with a number of strands to the happenings. It could be considered to be an almost purely electronic novel, rather filmic in some ways, but not photographic representation  rather more like drawings or illustrations.

     Electronic language  becomes central to many of the new genres placing into the new electronic space what would normally have been some other text , or some other physical action, in the physical world . Whatever becomes electronically mediated is changed because of the way the text or activity  is mediated by the language. We may like to consider that electronic language is multi-channelled but in comparison to physical human life, its representation  must be seen as an abstraction ¾ it is not life itself, even though it is much like life being interactive, encapsulating movement and activity, and is modifiable.    

Challenges to power

     Electronic language  rewrites power relations in social order. Perhaps one of the greatest trends that “electronicity ” favours is the trend towards democratisation of communication .

     Desktop publishing promised in the 1980s the possibility that an individual did not need the institutionalised setting of a publishing house to become “published”. Through word processing  and desktop  publishing  programmes one person could prepare a book, magazine or newspaper, print  it and make it look just the same as a text  produced by a publishing house. That was a promise of electronic publishing, but it did not eventuate because what powers publishing was not necessarily just the preparation of text and its printing, but also the distribution channels. So while an individual can compose a book and put it into print, there is no guarantee of success in publishing without a means of distribution.

     Web publishing has come closer to the democratisation of communication . Any person with about the same investment in time and machinery as desktop  publishing  required, can link a computer  to the Internet , create web  pages , advertise those pages across the Internet and obtain un-parallelled distribution. It is possible to have more than 1.5 million people work through a web site in a month. The problem of distribution, even world  wide distribution, has been solved in this electronic environment. Such is the power of the web that government agencies are now looking at web publishing in terms of “broadcasting”. In fact that Australian Broadcasting Authority has produced a paper  on the control of web publishing that likens web publishing to a broadcasting medium (ABA, 1996).

 

Diagram 50: The "home page" of "www.cnn.com" on August 13 at 7:33pm EDT (USA).

     It is suggested here that there is a trend towards democratisation that “electronicity ” brings to the world , but it must only be seen as a trend, it never is total; there is always a tension of power relations between institutionalised power and individual power. This tension is translated into the formulation of web  pages  and the evolving genre  of web publishing. While any person can obtain the tools necessary to build web pages, and as it is also inexpensive to build a web site, individuals can set up and run a web site with many hundreds of pages. In fact, once a site is on the Internet  it is difficult in some instances to tell whether the site promotes a single person or a large organisation. There are several sites on the Internet, now, that it is obvious that the organisation promoting the site is a monied organisation, or at least, the organisation is willing to spend large sums of money to differentiate themselves from other sites on the Internet.

     The environment created by electronic language  favours change; electronic language is highly modifiable, interactive, and tends towards building expectations of change when people interact with texts in that language. Large organisations who wish to differentiate themselves from all other web  sites are investing in high rates of change. For example, the CNN Interactive site (www.cnn.com) changes its news items on a half-hourly basis (see Diagram 50). The Time-Warner site “Pathfinder.com” has a highly interactive site that has required a substantial investment in graphic design, programming , and information  collection. It also changes substantially each hour and each day indicating that there is a large investment in the design and updating of this site.

     However, unlike book publishing, television and radio, publishing on the web  can still be done very successfully by very small organisations and/or individuals in competition with large organisations. To a certain extent, throwing resources at a site does not always make a good web site; making it highly interactive, modifiable and provide a personalised message to those who use the site makes for a better site ¾ it is an expectation that is growing amongst computer  users who surf the web regularly.

 

Diagram 51: The "Pathfinder.com" home page .

     The whole electronic language  communication  environment of the Internet  is confounding the regulators of knowledge  and information  in our society. Broadcast regulators are beginning to consider web  publishing as requiring regulation. Current proposals are in place to provide self-regulation of content included in web sites. However, the nature of the computing communications environment is that it is undergoing rapid change; this change has been occurring for the past 18 months at a rapid pace. So great is the pace that current proposals for regulation of the environment are feasible only for the way the web was six months ago and not in the way it is currently being organised. Additionally, those preparing legislation are unsure as to how to classify and how to regulate web publishing ¾ is it broadcasting, is it publishing? Issues of classification are unresolved even though it is considered that regulation should be in terms of the broadcasting act. And lastly, web publishing is confounding authorities because the Internet, the technology that transports the web has no boundaries the world  over. There is nothing stopping an individual from having information on a computer  in the Bahamas being available to people here in Australia. There is no way that information can be stopped from crossing world territorial borders when connected to the Internet; even in Singapore, where draconian measures are used to control information obtained on the Internet, those control measure are constantly challenged by new software  and new protocols people use including encryption software used to hide the nature of the communication. To effectively control the space of the Internet would require officials scanning millions of Internet packets a second, a task even too big for governments in the end.

     Another indicator of “electronicity ” favouring a trend towards democratisation of communication  is the fact that knowledge  and computing resources are truly distributed. Different to newspaper, television and radio broadcasting, Internet  transport requires that computing resources are distributed across the world  to survive a natural or human-caused disaster. The Internet has its origins in USA military activity  where the requirement for the Internet was that it be able to sustain a nuclear attack and still provide communications across the USA and secondarily the world. Even though some of the original organisational factors have been lost since the Internet has been put into the control of private and public organisations, the nature of the Internet is that resources are distributed ¾ there is no central controlling force, office or body . However, this distribution of resources must not be considered to be equally distributed across the world. It is quite unevenly distributed favouring countries such as the USA, UK, Canada and Australia over all other countries.

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 organise 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 programmes for solving other problems.

     A technate person extends potential  to mean because of the additional ways meaning can be made. The additional potential in 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 ¾ they want to be able to “write” documents, or organise business  information . They do not extend their “writing ” into composing  ¾ 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 ¾ 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 programmes ¾ 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^[2] 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 ¾ 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, is 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 organisation. In other organisations 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^[3].  

     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”.

 “How to go on . . .”

     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 characterisation 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. Conceptualising 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 organisation ; at a particular level of this organisation it can be seen how various semiotics can be subsumed into electronic activity through the endeavours 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 as 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 ¾ 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 conceptualised as a tool which creates a kind of open ended interaction ¾ the computer is 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 ¾ 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 reorganise itself in an interactive way. The computer in this picture of the world challenges the individual, causing the individual to reorganise 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.

 

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^[1]     Pattison  develops this theme, that literacy  is not a single universal standard, rather different cultures have different concepts of language  and different technologies  to express those concepts. Any notion of literacy changes with notions about language and with new technologies.

^[2] Survey conducted by Jenkins for Coopers & Lybrand (1995).

^[3] Consider the difference between Woolworths and David Jones. Woolworths grasped software  technologies  as a means to introduce manufacturer to shop front sales control over inventory ¾ Woolworths is a retail force making huge profits. David Jones having not adopted any technology to control inventory is now a declining retailer, making less profits, and controlling less of the market than they did five years ago.

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