Absolutely. - Mark Krynsky

*salute* - Mo Kargas

I like it, but I think it doesn't go far enough. The telephone allows you to communicate. But when you hang up the phone the call is gone. The internet has persistent objects that can be manipulated, so it is also about cooperation and collaboration. - Neil Kandalgaonkar

Technology sure makes that communication much easier, though. Long live Friendfeed! - Josh Haley from iPhone

FWD: @scobleizer - directeur

I always thought the Internet was for porn. At least that's what I learned one year at SXSW. - Robert Scoble

Robert, you still owe us (me and Joge) $5000, btw ;-) - directeur

I think porn falls under the connecting people with shared interests and needs. ;-) - Brian Sullivan

Hmmm -- I think saying the" internet is not about technology, it's about the communication" is like saying driving is not about the car, it's about the journey. I like John Dupuis' way of putting it -- the communication part was an emergent property -- Michael Neilson has interesting things to say on this topic, too, but I've gotta dash so I'll link later. - Mickey Schafer

YAY, I love the internet. Couldn't agree more. GLOBAL unfettered communication amongst all peoples, socio-economic class, philosophy, etc. is what it's all about; whereas, the technology is there to support the communication layer. THAT is very important in the DESIGN of Information Systems. - Susan Beebe

The following (wild) question just dawned on me: If in 1440—the approx. year of Gutenberg's press—a global electronic network had magically emerged instead, A) What purpose would the power structure at the time deem for it, and B) How would it actually be used within the first few decades? Hundred years? - Micah

Micah, The Gideon Society would have saved a lot of money on printing costs and no need for this ====> http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Eric Logan

Eric, :) yes, that youtube vid is a classic. - Micah

Any relation to Bret? :) - April Buchheit

Neil: different communication formats have varying values for similar properties, such as bandwidth, delay, and rate of decay - Mike Chelen

Neil: Good point about persistence, except that Twitter has objects called tweets that last only about 7 days ;) - Alex Schleber

Alex: one compensating strength is that posts are publicly web accessible, allowing them to be independently mirrored - Mike Chelen

High communication: words. Medium communication: pictures. Low communication: grunt, poke. - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

Internet = TV + Radio + Books + Newspapers + Magazines + Telephone + Soapbox + [add your medium] = Media melting pot - Ciro

Actually, the Internet may be about the incarnation of cosmic consciousness, and may not be primarily about anthropocentric intraspecies communication. I only half jest -- sometimes species are only vehicles that don't necessarily understand their function in the big picture, or what they are birthing. With the Internet, one senses something trying to pull itself together that is bigger than human. - Sean McBride

let's say it again: it's. com. mu. ni. ca. tion. :) - Alberto D'Ottavi

+1 Mike Chelen; to Ciro, Alberto -- conflating function, social value, and technology diminishes the ability to understand what the "internet" is/does/could be, etc. The internet is not portable; certain technological devices are. The infrastructure that supports portability is inconsistent; radio rarely is. It's very difficult to "listen" to books using the internet; the internet is the medium of transaction and transfer. And I believe it is actually important to the most avid fans of this medium to be able to keep these things separate. A fork is not the same thing as a chopstick even though both get food into a mouth. - Mickey Schafer

I agree with you 100% - The connections made here can't be made anywhere else! The transparency and accessibility of people, good people, is prevalent! - Angels In Action

I didn't read all the comments above, but I don't think it's just communication. It's also about knowledge, data, availability of knowledge and data. creativity, etc... I'm afraid with this situation of lots of social networks people are a bit too preoccupied by the community-factor. Internet is more than that. Please don't forget that. - Ton Zijp

To Mickey: 1. "The Internet is not portable; certain technological devices are." splitting hair...Give me the Internet without the "technological devices" as you call them. 2. "The infrastructure is inconsistent..." Video is video, audio is audio...otherwise the TV is also inconsistent and so is the radio and books, I digress on this one. 3. " And I believe it is actually important to the most avid fans of this medium to be able to keep these things separate." They can if they want to... 4. "A fork is not the same thing as a chopstick even though both get food into a mouth." of course, in both cases I get fed and who says that I don't prefer the chopsticks to the fork??... - Ciro

Ton, I agree! Ciro -- As someone who teaches undergrads who have to use technology and the net, I can't afford to be blithe about "they can if they want to". One of my interests is the relationship between discourse and behavior, so for kicks, I conducted a survey last year to get a feel for how students related to tech developmentally. One overwhelming result was that sometime during high school, the boundary between machine and internet began to erode. This may not seem like such a big deal, but it had surprising behavioral consequences. In the pen-and-paper/brick-and-mortar world, students organized and saved work as a matter of habit. However, the more they conflated the computer and the internet, the greater their loss of understanding of how their work was being stored. They didn't think about saving things in multiple places; many weren't aware of how many different options they had. As a result, students lose work -- and some of it very important -- in part because they forget to treat the computer as a machine. - Mickey Schafer

I don't agree. Technology IS COMMUNICATION. Please consider W.J. Ong's Orality & Literacy or Pierre Levy's essays. Our literacy is still evolving and that's possible just because we can write (and communicate) with different technologies. So... Nice quote indeed, but wrong. - Matteo Balocco

Bruce: language, art, and gestures are all forms of communication technology, each of which can be used to greater or lesser effect - Mike Chelen

Internet is technology, great and simple technologies which work well and so you can focus on communications stuff - Luca Zappa @zaps

Mickey: internet access may not yet be a universal commodity like paper, yet this property can shift rapidly in degree, redefining its qualities. regarding user expectations, to some extent this may be addressed through improved software design, for example google docs automatically save every few seconds - Mike Chelen

Matteo: is that different from saying that all communication is a form of technology? - Mike Chelen

Mike, I'm afraid it is different. While communication is a natural competence shared by all the living beings, technology is just an optional layer for just a niche of them. So we may say that all the technologies carry some informations (and we must consider them communication) but certainly not all communication is a form of technology. - Matteo Balocco

However we agree that this is nothing more than an academic discussion. The quote by Taylor is still really good for some slideshows. :) - Matteo Balocco

Mickey, thanks for your feedback. I don't disagree with any of your latest observations regarding the importance of keeping machine (medium) and internet (content) separate and the dangers of not doing so...My point was simply directed at the idea that in the context of pure content utilization, the hardware such as the cables (or airwaves) as transport media and content presentation devices such as as the PC, are intrinsically necessary for the consumption of such content and that such content, because of technology, is being presented more and more varied "multimedialic" forms (video, audio, etc.) - Ciro