The Web in 1909: E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”
Posted on | January 15, 2011 | No Comments
I first made my first estimation that the World Wide Web was useful in 1996 when I found this version of E.M. Forster’s short story “The Machine Stops.” I was teaching at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, and I had recently finished my PhD dissertation on Symbolic Economies and the Politics of Global Cyberspaces. It used dystopian/utopian writings, including nonfiction and cyberpunk novels, to examine the role of technology and money in modern society. I referred to Forster’s story in a chapter entitled “The Last Vehicle” about the politics of speed and the derealization of space in the telecinematic engines of networked virtual realities.
The story was written in 1909 by E.M. Forster, the celebrated author of A Passage to India and A Room with a View. He reacted strongly to the technological euphoria of H.G. Wells and The Time Machine with a response entitled, “The Machine Stops“, a harrowing short story of a civilization connected only by the wires of a collective machine intelligence. All the characters in his narrative lived in little hexagonal cells beneath the earth and were connected only by an electronic network.
The story centers around a woman, Vashti, and her son, who live far away from each other in separate cave-like rooms beneath the surface of the earth. One day before presenting an important lecture over the system, she is interrupted by her son, whom she has not seen in person since birth. She considers him bothersome, because he has no interesting ideas to offer except heresies about the machine. “The Machine proceeds–but not to our goals,” he warns. His concerns are met only with disgust by his mother.
His sad triumph is achieved when one day the machine breaks down.
…there came a day when, without the slightest warning, without any previous hint of feebleness, the entire communication system broke down, all over the world, and the world as they understood it, ended.
As Vashti and her son meet for the last time he tragically laments:
I am dying,–but we touch, we talk, not through the machine.
It is not overly surprising that Forster should take some time to write about the new networks. It was the time of the “Victorian Internet.” The skies of any major city during that time were black with the telephone and telegraph cables of competing companies looking to win a competitive share of the new market. During that year, Theodore Vail, the new chairman of American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), was lobbying hard for the government intervention that he thought would bring order and security to the very competitive market.
It was also an extraordinary time in that intersubjective relations in a telephonic environment was a historically unique phenomenon. Moreover, the disembodiment of voice communications and the immediate nature of communicating over long distances were startling issues for the Victorian era. The name “phony” actually came from the distrust people placed on the early phone calls.
Distances that had only recently been transformed by steam-based rail and ship travel after thousands of years of horse and wind-powered travel were suddenly challenged again by the near instantaneous communications of the telephone and telegraph.
Unlike H.G. Wells, who wrote of an underclass living below the surface supporting an upper class living high above (much like the later Metropolis) Forster saw the human population living below in support of the Machine. Despite these new technological developments in Forster’s time and the fascinating narrative he produced, one is left wondering whether he could really have foreseen the break with movement in the age of networked television and smartphones.
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Anthony J. Pennings, PhD is Professor at the Department of Technology and Society, State University of New York, Korea. Originally from New York, he started his academic career Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand before returning to New York to teach at Marist College and spending most of his career at New York University. He has also spent time at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. When not in the Republic of Korea, he lives in Austin, Texas.
Tags: A Passage to India > E.M. Forster > Symbolic Economies and the Politics of Global Cyberspaces > The Last Vehicle > The Machine Stops
Elements of Web Design
Posted on | January 14, 2011 | No Comments
I have been training students in web design and production since the mid-1990s, especially after the explosion of the Internet’s World Wide Web that set the standards for hypertext protocols, markup language, and web browsers. New York City’s “Silicon Alley” and companies around the tri-state region couldn’t get enough help “getting online.” By the time I left Marist College and moved to New York University, the number of students taught was in the hundreds.
I found that web design, although essentially operating at the surface level of the web production process, was an important skill. Many websites were pretty ugly. Remember the animated dancing Odies? Text that went all the way across the screen? Borders around images? And all the centered text? Designing web pages doesn’t necessarily require fine arts training (although it helps), but they do require following some basic guidelines and developing some appreciation for the aesthetics involved.
Luckily, I found Robin Williams four elements of design from her The Non-Designer’s Design Book extremely useful. She stressed adherence to 4 major design principles: Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, and Proximity (CARP). I have rearranged the letters differently at times but no matter the order, it is still these basic four. While they didn’t necessarily turn the student into a web artist, it certainly made an immediate impact in the quality of their design work. Plus, it was easy to convey and evaluate. Here they are with my notes:
- Contrast – Change fonts, colors, shapes, sizes, spaces, thickness, etc. in order to create striking differences that make the page interesting. One rule of thumb goes, if it’s not the same – make it different!
- Repetition – If it works – repeat it! Find items that are the same and use them again. Lists, for example, are good examples of repeating important information.
- Alignment – Find something to align with – even if it’s on the other side of the page. These days most design applications, even Powerpoint, will help you find alignment. Use it!
- Proximity – Group related items together. Don’t create relationships between different items.
I used to have my own HTML and web design tutorials online, but it got too complicated to keep up. I recommended w3schools.com for basic coding and lynda.com for design and complex web issues.
Note: I still use these tips as part of my Visual Rhetoric and Information Technologies class that I teach for SUNY Korea.
Citation APA (7th Edition)
Pennings, A.J. (2011, Jan 14). Elements of Web Design. apennings.com https://apennings.com/multimedia/elements-of-web-design/
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been a faculty member for NYU since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.
Tags: Alignment > Proximity > Repetition > Robin Williams > The Non-Designer's Design Book
Haiti Recovery Highlights Role of Mobile Technology and Electronic Money in Disaster Relief
Posted on | January 12, 2011 | No Comments
The level of horror and devastation experienced by Haiti a year ago today when it was hit with an earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter scale is beyond comprehension. Over 200,000 people were killed with another 300,000 injured. Some 2.3 million people were left temporarily or permanently homeless. The recovery process, while slow and ongoing, has shown that mobile technologies can play a surprisingly positive role in the disaster relief effort and suggests lessons for future response programs.
I know a lot of people who contributed to the relief situation in Haiti as did as our family via a text message that charged us $10 on my monthly Verizon phone bill. It was quick and relatively painless on our part and probably for many others. In ten days Americans pledged more than $30 million to the Haiti effort. You can still text ‘Red Cross’ to 90999 to aid relief efforts in that devastated country or text the word “HAITI” to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund (or “QUAKE” to the same number to donate $10 to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund).
Although important, relief attempts face perennial problems. Logistics involved in determining and gathering medical supplies, food, water, and shelter are extremely complex. Getting the relief to people in need without damage, hijacking, and in a timely manner has always been tricky. Infusions of free goods also run the risk of hurting the local economy as important commodities are shipped and given away, disrupting the local economy and devastating merchants who probably had their immediate inventory stripped away by damage, looting, or just plain charity to their community.
But that doesn’t mean analysis and innovative ideas can’t provide insights and some solutions to their predicament and other disasters requiring relief. One example is the increasing role of the mobile phone and another is the importance of money, both of which are becoming increasingly connected. These are highlighted in the video produced by Highest Common Denominator Media Group that was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation‘s Financial Services for the Poor initiative.
The earthquake delivered a severe blow to the island nation, devastating its economic development and destroying much of its infrastructure. An exception was the cellular telephone system that survived the earthquake and was actually credited for saving a number of lives as people trapped under rubble were able to call for help. The banking system and its ATM networks did not fare as well, denying people additional cash from their accounts. Mobile money using digital wallet technologies have been used to bypass the traditional banking system and its location-based ATM technology, providing payment options with only the use of the wireless environment. With mobile phones, movements of large amounts of cash can be avoided and crime is reduced. Funds donated for relief can sometimes be transferred right into a merchant’s or victim’s account or to a relief agency needing to purchase immediate supplies.
They are no panacea, but mobile technologies can be helpful in the right situations. Mobile phones are increasingly ubiquitous, especially in developing countries that have “leapfrogged” the traditional land-based telephone system. But in emergencies they can be distributed quickly, even dropped in by air if needed. Short Messaging Service or SMS text messaging has been used to share information about where to get food supplies, take showers, or get medical aid. To help overcome language problems in Haiti, FrontlineSMS gathered hundreds of Creole-speaking volunteers through Facebook and Twitter from the Haitian community dispersed around the world to translate thousands of text messages a day. In the aftermath of the quake, they created a medical reporting system to track diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis.
Thomson Reuters Foundation had just completed testing its new Emergency Information Service (EIS) as part of its Alertnet humanitarian new site and flew in a team to implement its communication system that could deliver “practical and actionable” information. Using the SMS address 4636, the EIS facilitated much of the information that was useful to the local population: available hospital services, blood donor requests, a missing person directory, employment opportunities and health advice such as how to sanitize water and monitor a sick child’s condition.
While texting and social media services raise questions about privacy and a world increasingly dependent on technology, their use in situations like these save lives, connect desperate people, and inform friends and relatives around the world of the status of people in these disaster zones. That is a valuable use of the mobile technology.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD is the Professor of Global Media at Hannam University in South Korea. Previously, he taught at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas and was on the faculty of New York University from 2002-2012. He also taught at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand and was a Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii during the 1990s.
Tags: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation > earthquake relief > Emergency Information Service (EIS) > Financial Services for the Poor > FrontlineSMS > Haiti > Highest Common Denominator Media Group > Red Cross > Thomson Reuters Foundation > Verizon phone bill > wireless
Common Carrier Law and Net Neutrality
Posted on | January 9, 2011 | No Comments
Common Carrier law reflects a business principle that strives to avoid discrimination in a wide range of commercial practices. The idea guided telecommunications regulation since early in the technological development of the telegraph and telephone. With the deregulatory tendencies around data communications, notions of common carriage were pushed aside as the Internet gained momentum.
However, the idea of net neutrality has resuscitated the notion of a common carrier as websites offering content such as music, search results, and video want to ensure that the telecommunications providers do not discriminate against them and offer comparable services at comparable rates and quality. Two good debates on net neutrality highlight the major issues.
Common carrier law was determined by the courts and regulators over time through comparison and case precedent. As put by Ithiel de Sola Pool in his classic (1983) Technologies of Freedom, “The telegraph was analogized to railroads, the telephone to the telegraph, and cable television to broadcasting.”[1]
Rather than reliance on the First Amendment that guarantees the right of free speech, telecommunications law developed partially from the Constitution’s requirement “To establish Post Offices and Post Roads,” but mainly from commercial law developed to protect the rights of consumers as well as suppliers.[2]
Legally, both railroad and telegraph technologies came to be designated as “carriers.” Telegraph law was based on the experiences of the railroads and, to some extent, the mails. The railroads began to come under fire for discriminating against farmers and in some cases, whole towns. Slowly, railroad law was forged which protected customers from being excluded from service and from being forced to give up their rights to equal access. Farmers, for example, needed to be protected from selective carriage schemes that might restrict the movement of farm produce and consequently manipulate the price of food commodities.[3]
Richard John discusses his book Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications about how political economy shaped American telecommunications.
But these laws were not without precedent. Postal service had long recognized the conflicts of interest that emerged when publishers gained control of postal services. If a single publisher could control the mail, it became possible for them to discriminate against other news publishers and refuse to carry their printed commodities. Thus the US Constitution, in Article 1, Section 8 allowed the young country to set up a postal system. Later, the 1866 Postal Roads Act included special privileges for telegraph companies, including the right “to run their lines freely along post roads and across public lands. It also permitted them to fell trees for poles on public land gratis.”
In return, the companies had to provide service like a common carrier. It had to serve all customers without discrimination. By 1893, the Supreme Court ruled that telegraph companies, though not strictly common carriers, were similar. The court members argued that telegraph companies were “instruments of commerce” and as such were required to provide service without discrimination to any customer.[4]
This legal stance grew out of the populist feelings of the time, which were mobilizing to counteract the power of the big corporate “robber barons” that controlled both the railroads and the telegraph companies. Later these precedents would guide telecommunications policy for telephone and data communications.
The telecommunications environment has changed since the competitive days of the 1990s when dial-up Internet Services Providers (ISPs) proliferated. Broadband services are now only offered by a few telcos and cable companies such as Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and Time Warner that are interested in offering content services that could potentially compete with other web services and sites.
Postscript
In 2023 I have taken up the issue of net neutrality that is based on the principles of common carriage.
Tim Wu coined the term net neutrality and explains why it is important. He integrates the idea of free speech as well.
Citation APA (7th Edition)
Pennings, A.J. (2011, Jan 09). Common Carrier Law and Net Neutrality. apennings.com. https://apennings.com/telecom-policy/common-carrier-law/
Notes
[1] Pool, I. (1983) Technologies of Freedom. Cambridge: MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 7.
[2] Ithiel de Sola Pool’s makes this case throughout his (1983) Technologies of Freedom. He traces the development of law and policy around three technologies, telecommunications (common carriage), broadcasting, and print. The Constitution is quoted from p. 17.
[3] Pool, I. (1983) Technologies of Freedom. Cambridge: MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 91.
[4] Pool, I. (1983) Technologies of Freedom. Cambridge: MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 95-103.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Anthony J. Pennings, Ph.D. is Professor at the Department of Technology and Society, State University of New York, Korea. From 2002-2012 was on the faculty of New York University. Previously, he taught at Hannam University in South Korea, Marist College in New York, Victoria University in New Zealand. He keeps his American home in Austin, Texas and has taught there in the Digital Media MBA program atSt. Edwards University He joyfully spent 9 years at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Tags: Common carrier law > free speech > Net Neutrality > Network Nation > railroad law > Richard John > telecommunications law > telegraph law
Napoleon III and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
Posted on | January 8, 2011 | No Comments
Unlike the US experience, the Europeans banded together at the nation-state level to guide the expansion of the telegraph. France’s Napoleon III called for the international conference that would lead to the establishment of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). “Its mission was to determine procedures, standards, and common rates between member countries, and to record telegraph traffic.”[1] The ITU would guide the future of the telegraph and its successors, the telex, the telephone, wireless radio spectrum, and other telecommunications technologies for the next century and beyond. .
Napoleon III, the nephew of the famous Napoleon Bonaparte, had years of experience using the telegraph and was convinced of its use in international affairs. Before America’s Civil War, Napoleon III was directing the Italian Campaign against Austria via telegraph from Paris. Having traversed the area via a secret railroad trip (also a new technology at the time), he subsequently directed the actions of his generals from his war room.
He also struck a deal with Paul Julius Reuter to transmit the text of his speech announcing the war against Austria to the London Parliament while he was giving it in Paris, marking one of the first times the telegraph was used as a political instrument. The 1859 offensive was so bloody, though, particularly the Battle of Solferino with some 6,000 dead and 40,000 injured, that not only was the Red Cross started and the Geneva Convention written, but a movement was initiated to try to harmonize international relations with the use of the telegraph.
The conference to coordinate European telegraphy convened in 1865. It consisted of some twenty European countries. Previously, several bilateral agreements had been reached between countries starting with a treaty in the 1840s between Austria and Prussia that set up a link between Berlin and Vienna.
The Treaty of Dresden created the Austro-German Telegraph Union in 1850 when Austria, Bavaria, Prussia, and Saxony agreed to coordinate their activities. In 1855, Belgium, France, Sardinia, Spain, and Switzerland formed the West European Telegraph Union. But the gathering in Paris was arguably the first veritable multilateral tradition that would pave the way for agreements to coordinate and regulate posts, railways, weights and measures, sea routes, and industrial patents.
Many delegates to the convention believed that the telegraph would lead to a new era of peace on the beleaguered continent. As they gathered in Paris, they quickly reached a consensus that coordination and cooperation were necessary. They began to examine the technical and accounting operations that would make a continent-wide telegraph system work. They also agreed on technical and accounting details. The Morse code and other specialized apparatus were quickly confirmed as European standards, despite Morse’s earlier experience of rejection when he traveled throughout Europe in the 1840s.[2]
Notes
[1] ITU quote from Armand Mattelart (2000) Networking the World: 1794-2000. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p.7.
[2] The creation of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in 1865 from Debora L. Spar (2001) Ruling the Waves: From the Compass to the Internet, a History of Business and Politics along the Technological Frontier. New York: Harcourt Press. pp.84-86.
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD was on the New York University faculty from 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global economics.
Tags: Austro-German Telegraph Union > Battle of Solferino > International Telecommunications Union > ITU > Napoleon III > Paul Julius Reuter > Treaty of Dresden
Chinese E-Commerce Group becoming a Global Power
Posted on | January 6, 2011 | No Comments
When Deng Xiaoping, the Communist leader who transformed China into state-run capitalism had his famous economic realization, “I can distribute poverty or I can distribute wealth”, he probably could not have imagined the power of the Internet and its e-commerce capabilities. Now, China’s Internet users has risen to nearly 620 million, twice as many as in the U.S. One of the earliest Chinese startups was the Alibaba Group, now considered its most dominant e-commerce player and a major force facilitating its international trade.
Jack Ma founded Alibaba.com in 1999 with 17 partners and quickly raised money from Softbank, Goldman Sachs, and other institutions to build the Alibaba.com site and brand. In a classic Internet rags-to-riches drama, Ma learned English by listening to the radio and created the company after he discovered the Internet while on a business trip to the US during the 1990s. The former English teacher and interpreter named the company after the main character in one of his favorite stories, the Arabic classic Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. For Jack Ma, Ali Baba was the kind son of a merchant who helped his village. It didn’t hurt that the name was easy to spell and a provocative name.
Since then, they have built an array of companies under the Alibaba banner, starting with Alibaba.com which was set up as a B2B (Business to Business) trading platform for small manufacturers to sell their products to each other. It has since expanded to offer a wide range of online services operating globally. Taobao.com, is the “online mall” with some 300 million customers that operates like a combination of Amazon and eBay, allowing approved sellers to auction or sell their goods outright.
Founded and owned by the Alibaba Group, Taoboa’s revenues reached US$29 billion in 2009 and are expected to grow significantly over the next few years. It deals in China’s currency, the yuan, and uses Alipay as the preferred payment platform. Alipay is an escrow-based online payment system which is owned by the Alibaba Group. The payment solution site has nearly 500,000 C2C, B2C and B2B merchants using its services, not including those on Taobao and Alibaba.
Based in Hangzhou, just inland from eastern China’s Shang Hai metropolis, the company focuses on three online opportunities:
– Using the www.1688.com site, the domestic business-to-business trade in China has been Alibaba’s financial base.
– The recent purchase of Vendio Services Inc. with its 80,000 merchants is a good indication of Alibaba’s global push. With recent funding from George Soros it brings together importers and exporters from more than 240 countries and regions with substantial English-literate populations. Alibaba UK focuses specifically on the retail marketplace in the United Kingdom.
– A new site (alibaba.co.jp) conducts trade to and from Japan. Yahoo Japan and Alibaba’s Taobao have connected e-commerce platforms. Yahoo Japan has opened a section in Chinese in its shopping section, carrying millions of products from China (in Japanese language) while Alibaba’s Taobao is offering wares from Japan-based companies on “TaoJapan”, a Chinese-language section on Taobao’s frontpage. Japanese telecom/media giant Softbank has a major financial interest in both Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.
As the economic momentum continues to move to Asia, e-commerce will continue to be in the center. AliExpress for example, continues to position itself as a fast and increasingly reliable channel for wholesale transactions targeting small and medium-sized suppliers and buyers who all agree to conduct even very small orders. This is the future of global business. The question is, who is going to gain the most? Will it distribute Deng’s prosperity or beggar thy neighbor?
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD is Professor of Global Media at Hannam University in South Korea. Previously, he taught at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas and was on the faculty of New York University from 2002-2012. He also taught at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.
Tags: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves > Alibaba Group > Alipay > B2B > China Internet Network Information Center > CNNIC > Deng Xiaoping > Softbank > TaoJapan > Vendio Services
The Deal with Facebook
Posted on | January 4, 2011 | No Comments
Goldman Sachs’ recent $450 million investment in Facebook only intensifies the scrutiny into this social networking giant which recently surpassed Google as the most visited site on the Internet.
Goldman’s investment puts it first in line to win the lucrative deal for a future IPO of Facebook as well as manage the wealth realized by Time Magazine’s Person of the Year Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives that could amount to over $16 billion.
Facebook, now valued at some US $50 billion gains some valuable time to develop without the scrutiny of investors demanding to know about its finances and strategy.
An interesting sideshow is the role of DST Global, a Russian firm that invested $50 million in the deal with Goldman and has been an important Internet investor in Russia and other parts of the world. Yuri Milner, DST Global’s CEO has expressed interest in social networking business models, particularly those that can mine emerging countries with millions of people making micro payments.
Facebook, which tallied over 500 million users by mid-2010 derives its value from the people that have joined it and also its network effects. In digital media, network effects increase the value of the network as more people join it. The fax machine for example, became increasingly valuable as more customers bought a similar device and connected it into the growing network. Facebook is designed to increase the interaction between its users and allow them to share information and links. Each Facebook user now averages over 130 “friends” and offers 90 pieces of content per month.
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.
Tags: Facebook valuation > Goldman Sachs > Mark Zuckerberg > Yuri Milner
E-Commerce and the Holidays
Posted on | January 3, 2011 | No Comments
By almost all accounts, it was a record holiday season for global e-commerce.
Comscore, one of the major trackers of e-commerce results recorded holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 56 days (November – December 2010) at $30.81 billion, a 13-percent increase over the same time period a year before. The week before Christmas was up 17 percent with $2.45 billion in spending.
CyberMonday, the first weekday after the Thanksgiving holidays reportedly experienced its first billion dollar day. While the day had never been a particularly lucrative one for retailers before the Internet, the increasing hype has actually made it into a major shopping day.
An IBM company, Coremetrics, reported that the individual online shopper spent an average of $194.89. This was up 8.3% from the $180.03 spent last year with richer shoppers driving the sales of luxury items up 24.3% over 2009 with jewelry doing particularly well. One trend worth watching is the use of mobile devices which were used for sales by about 4% of the digital shoppers. Some good news for employers concerned about a day of lost productivity was that shopping appeared to peak around 9am leaving employees to put in a full day’s work. Download their full report.
Factors driving the success included offers of free shipping, aggressive discounts and the ability to capture repeat sales by emailing customers from the previous year.
Projections for Asia were even higher with the Chinese expected to have a larger percentage of online shoppers buying online on CyberMonday than the US or Europe reported Retail in Asia.
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.
Tags: comscore > Coremetrics > CyberMonday > global e-commerce > holiday sales > online retail in Asia
Referencing this Material
About Me
Professor at State University of New York (SUNY) Korea since 2016. Moved to Austin, Texas in August 2012 to join the Digital Media Management program at St. Edwards University. Spent the previous decade on the faculty at New York University teaching and researching information systems, digital economics, and strategic communications.
You can reach me at:
apennings70@gmail.com
anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr
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