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Cyberculture Notes

The document discusses key concepts for analyzing cyberculture and the web sphere, including: 1) The web sphere is a collection of digitally linked web sites related to a central theme, and attention is given to how sites are linked and how producers construct and maintain sites. 2) To analyze the development of cyberculture, web materials must be captured in a timely manner due to the dynamic and ephemeral nature of online content. 3) Web archiving techniques are evolving to facilitate scholarly research of web sites, and robust analysis benefits from robust web archives.

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Jahnavi Doshi
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48 views2 pages

Cyberculture Notes

The document discusses key concepts for analyzing cyberculture and the web sphere, including: 1) The web sphere is a collection of digitally linked web sites related to a central theme, and attention is given to how sites are linked and how producers construct and maintain sites. 2) To analyze the development of cyberculture, web materials must be captured in a timely manner due to the dynamic and ephemeral nature of online content. 3) Web archiving techniques are evolving to facilitate scholarly research of web sites, and robust analysis benefits from robust web archives.

Uploaded by

Jahnavi Doshi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Web Sphere Analysis and Cybercultural Studies

Tuesday, September 6, 2022 9:17 AM

Web Sphere/Cyberspace Unit of analysis for cybercultural studies/to understand cybercultural phenomena.
Collection of dynamically defined digital resources from multiple Web sites related to a central theme or object
Relations between producers and users of Web material
Essence is the link - through which content is created, displayed, and distributed

attention is given to the hyperlinked context(s) and situatedness of Web sites, as well
as to the aims, strategies, and identity -construction processes of Web site producers,
as they are produced, maintained, and/or mediated through links.

Time Sensitivity To conduct any developmental analysis of cyberculture - the web materials need to be captured in a time sensitive
way.
Dynamism of sites in Web 1. Will continuously find new sites to be included within it
Sphere 2. Recursive to define a web sphere as it comprises of:
a. Pages referenced by included sites
b. Pages that reference included sites
Web content is ephemeral Transience: Expected to last for only a relatively brief time. From the perspective of the user, specialized tools and
techniques are required to ensure that content can be viewed again at a later time.

Construction: Web content, once presented, needs to be reconstructed or re-presented in order for others to
experience it.
Web pages are routinely reconstructed by computers without human intervention (when a request is forwarded to a
Web server).
Yet it requires some action by the producer (or the producer's server) to view the content again.
The experience of the Web, as well as the bits used to produce the content, must be intentionally preserved in order
for it to be reproduced.
Web content is permanent Web content must exist in a permanent form in order to be transmitted.
Previous versions of the website are destroyed, unless set otherwise, when updated by the producer.
Web archiving archiving techniques are evolving in such a way to facilitate scholarly research of Web sites.
Robust Web sphere analysis benefits from robust Web archives
identify and archive URLs by Web site producers that were reacting to the events of September 11.
9 types of producers identified posting personal expressions of the attack.
Salient feature: elucidated the attack or aftermath.

Analyzing what socio-political action was possible through expression on the web.

Study 1 was on: websites that allow people to contribute their personal expression or access expression posted by
others, expressions produced autonomously on a site (onsite) or jointly across sites (coproduced).
Study 2: Textual analysis to explore the particular forms of expression manifested on the Web. 3 weeks - grief,
bereavement to 3 months analysis, sense-making, and advocacy
Consensual hallucination - does not exist, shared environment that we access through a screen (for e.g. chat room) but
feels like a real space. Only our experiences are real, but
Solepsism My path through cyberspace is unique to me even if we have the same starting point. We live a solitary existence
online where the links serve only our interests. Identity becomes solely about me - solipsistic existence. No social
identity.
I am the center of everything
The internet keeps throwing information that aligns with my beliefs/misbeliefs, thoughts, tweets that read and re-
tweet will go to people with the same thought process. It is like an echo-chamber - where beliefs are shared within
the same groups - creating extreme groups/divisions

Html link is the key to the essay - dynamic environment (changing because we are continuously adding to the web)
Relationship b/w resources are constantly changing - changing shape of the web sphere

Dynamism: we add several petabytes to the internet everyday - more and more links and more and more resources - there is no cap - cyberspace is infinite in size - like the
universe
We all take different paths through cyberspace even if we start at the same point. We are each creating our web-sphere/cyberspace - my world and noone else's - we don’t
inhabit the same world.

North Korea - the residents are forced to walk through the same paths - no freedom for individual exploration and expression

Immediacy: PoV experience - go-pro tech - we're there - experience what others are experiencing - create increasingly realistic experiences
Hypermediacy: all information is mediated (speech - travels on soundwaves - air is the medium) - but if we can create experiences 'that is so immersive/realistic that we
lose track that we are watching/seeing/listening - it feels like we are really experiencing it

VR: it is the closest thing we have to hypermediacy - but is not immersive enough
Holodeck

The way we process information is different from the way we believe it.

Open-ended - we keep adding more links/resources


Dynamic - links keep shifting
The links don’t exist for me if I am not accessing them - I need to acknowledge them for them to continue existing

Legacy media: news channels (TV):


Immediacy - put the person in the moment by telling them about it.
Hypermediacy - immersing the person in the experience - cameras, sound, angles used for sport matches (we get really close to being with the person - as if we are living
their life)
Rebuilding sets - hyperrealistic - walking on set feels like you are in the real place (but we are not - we still remember it is a set - so it is not hypermediacy but close to it)

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