The Machine is Us/ing Us(Final version)

Text is linear Text is unlinear Text is often said to be unlinear 　 Text is unlinear when written on paper 　 Digital text is different. Digital text is more flexible. Digital text is moveable. Digital text is above all… hyper hypertext is above all… hypertext can link here here and here anywhere virtually virtually anywhere Oct 17, 1996 Most early websites were written in HTML HTML was designed to define the structure of a web document. p is a structural element referring to “paragraph” LI is also a structural element referring to “List Item” As HTML expanded, more elements were added. Including stylistic elements like <b> for bold and <i> for italics Such elements defined how content would be formatted. In other words, form and content became inseparable in HTML Digital Text can do better. Form and content can be separated. RSS/XML XML was designed to do just that. <title>does not define the form <title>does not define the form,It defines the content Same with <link> and <description> and virtually all other elements in this document. They describe the content, not the form. So the data can be exported, free of formatting constraints. Latest News 　 Anthro Journals With form separated from content, users did not need to know complicated code to upload content to the web, Create Blog Your blog has been created! There’s a blog born every half second and it’s not just text… Movies on YouTube Photos on Flickr XML facilitates automated data exchange two sites can “mash” data together flickr maps Who will organize all of this data? TAG anthropology Web2.0 Who will organize all of this data? We will. You will. XML + U & Me create a database-backed web a database-backed web is different the web is different the web we are the web When we post and then tag pictures we are teaching the Machine. Each time we forge a link, we teach it an idea. Think of the 100 billion times per day humans click on a Web page teaching the Machine the Machine the machine is us the machine is using us Digital text is no longer just linking information… Hypertext is no longer just linking information… The Web is linking people… Web 2.0 is linking people… …people sharing, trading, and collaborating… …people sharing, trading, and collaborating… …people sharing, trading, and collaborating… edit this page We’ll need to rethink a few things… We’ll need to rethink copyright We’ll need to rethink authorship We’ll need to rethink identity We’ll need to rethink ethics We’ll need to rethink aesthetics We’ll need to rethink rhetorics We’ll need to rethink governance We’ll need to rethink privacy We’ll need to rethink commerce We’ll need to rethink love We’ll need to rethink family We’ll need to rethink ourselves. Michael Wesch　Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology　Kansas State University