Donnelly, David F.
taken from Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication: Vol.2 Issue.1 - Emerging Law on the Electronic Frontier
This article explores the threat to communication on the Internet by over commercialization.With the rapid expansion of commercialization on the Internet Donnelly isolates five major problems that he feels deserves immediate attention.First the effect that this growing commercialization will have on the Internet. Second how will it impact the development and direction of the Internet.Thirdly is there a fail-safe build into the Internet that will protect it from the possible negative effects of over commercialization.Fourthly, will computer mediated communications develop in the same manner that other media have in the past or will it assume a new form with new characteristics?And lastly “if over commercialization refers to a situation where the primary usage of a medium heavily favors the private interests of profit-driven corporations, to what degree will that situation obtain for the Internet?”Of particular interest in the article, especially pertaining to Free Radio, is his outlining of the ‘nature’ of the Internet and questioning each of the these wide-spread assumptions.These are that the Internet is free, that it is egalitarian, that it decentralized, that it is a peer-to-peer means of communication, that it is experimental, that it is autonomous, and that it is an anarchy.He looks at each one of this premises challenging their reality as well as their future on the Internet.In conclusion he puts forth a set ideas for the protection of the Internet from over commercialization but notes that laws governing commercial interests on the Internet will only succeed if they are enforceable by a shared cooperative effort involving private and nonprofit entities online where violations could be reported initially.
Fernback, Jan and Brad Thompson
1996‘Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?’
http://www.well.com/user/hlr/texts/VCcivil.html
A version of this paper, entitled "Computer-Mediated Communication and the American Collectivity: The Dimensions of Community Within Cyberspace," was presented at the annual convention of the International Communication Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 1995
An early exploration into the nature of Virtual Communities stressing the importance of communication as a means of structure.The article summarizes the positions of many early proponents virtual communities like Rheingold, Schwartz and McClellan while noting the importance of computer mediated communications in the development of virtual communities.Saying this however Fernback and Thompson take a pessimistic view to the world of communities that lie ahead for the Internet.They conclude that hegemony of our culture will maintain its dominance over the Internet, with communities being formed or reinforced when action is needed, rather than through discourse alone. They state that “although communities of interest have been formed and strengthened and have demonstrated a sense of solidarity, they have nevertheless contributed to the fragmented cultural and political landscape of the United States that is replete with identity politics and the unfulfilled promise of a renewed vita activa.”
Schwimmer, B.E.
1998‘Rationale and Romance in the Anthropology of Cyberspace’
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/cyberanthropology/paper.html
Paper presented at the CASCA/AES Annual Conference University of Toronto, May 10,
1998
This paper discusses the urban anthropological approach in terms of the problems faced in ethnographic virtual community research. Although central to the paper is an attempt to construct a conceptual framework and research agenda for anthropology of cyberspace, of particular interest was the comparative definition of urban communities to that of virtual communities.The idea of contextualizing a community’s definition and boundedness asserts that the boundaries defining a community should “not taken as givens, but must become primary subjects of investigation”.This idea boundaries and the context they take on for individual communities is of particular interest in the study of Free Radio both ‘real’ and ‘virtual’.