Creating culture through remix

Many of us are accustomed to relying on a retweet, status update, video upload or hyperlink as a means of sharing information. Within this sharing we build communities through common interests, gain acceptance and understanding of others, and experience places that otherwise would always remain foreign to us. These ubiquitous acts allow us to move seamlessly between our two roles of consumer and producer, participating in the production of our culture. Each time we share we view something that is produced we essentially are actively engaged in remix culture. To Knoble and Lankshear (2008) “remix means to take cultural artifacts and combine and manipulate them into new kinds of creative blends” (p. 22).” Perhaps to many of us, it simply means actively using the tools we have available to us in our daily lives.

What to many of us is an obsolete thought is the fact that our use of these tools is in contradiction of the traditional ways in which people were to interact with the media. In the read only culture of the past we simply consumed. (Lessig, 2008). Newspapers, books, television shows and movies were ‘taken in’ - media was served to us. Through this media we defined our culture. Fast-forward to a world filled with digital technology, which “changed how we think about access to culture” (Lessig, 2008). We now not only see culture through what the media gives us, we use media ourselves to create our culture. Each one of us have the ability, if we wanted, to create our culture and we do so without even knowing it. Uploading a movie onto YouTube that was created using iMovie and inserting a song that was downloaded off of iTunes seems nothing more than a few hours work. What we forget is that in the process we accessed information that really didn’t belong to us. Permission wasn’t obtained to use the latest song as background music to accompany personal photos or videos. We simply thought since we have access, we also have permission. And quite frankly even if we knew it may be wrong, the ease of accessibility trumps the feeling of doing something wrong.

Case study: Punjabi culture remixed

Defining culture and traditions

“Culture is the conduit of past to future, the vessel of memory of countless generations of the past to countless generations in the future, an inheritance and a memorial” (Deneen, 2008, p. 65). According to Deneen (2008), culture is the way in which people come together to create meaning, to share values, build a basis by which grief and joy is measured, shared and expressed. How we share the cultural knowledge that we amass is varied through our geography, our tools, our habits and our gender.

Traditions are social constructs used to create identity. Traditions are based on and defined by a group’s past and are fluid enough to change with the group’s current existence. Traditions stem from the embodied cultural capital of the group, Eisendstadt (as cited by Linnekin, 1983) says, “the selection of what is culture is always made in the present; the content of the past is modified and redefined according to a modern significance” (p. 241). Traditions are easily adapted to accommodate the changes in time and place of the group. The content of traditions is “ . . . redefined by each generation and its timeliness may be situationally constructed” (Linnekin, 1983, p. 242).

For first generation Canadians of Punjabi heritage, remix is a way of life. Being Canadian they grow up experiencing what is seen as the ‘mainstream’ way of growing up: watching Sesame Street, joining sports teams at school, juggling homework and figuring out what university or college to attend. Along with this ‘mainstream’ growing up is the culture that many of them experience at home. This culture is vastly different- language, music, food, and cultural norms that perhaps sometimes seem to clash with what the rest of the kids at school are doing. In many ways these two cultures found no way to co-exist. One existed out the home in the public sphere of school/work another inside the home with friends and family of the same origin. New media dramatically changed that.

Music as a means of creating culture

“Far from simply "reflecting" social processes, music provides contexts in which cultural meaning is formulated and negotiated. Among diaspora communities, music is vital for formulating diasporic cultural identity” (Diethrich, 1999, p.39). For the Punjabi community this certainly is true. Music is a way for Punjabis scattered all over the world, to connect back to the heritage and culture that is rooted in India. Often referred to as desi or Punjabi music, for young people, “music is used not only to cross the distance to India, but to create an entirely new space, one that asserts and affirms both aspects of their hyphenated identities” (Diethrich, 1999, p.36).
Today’s music remixes.

According to Shirky (2008), “Our electronic networks are enabling novel forms of collective action, enabling the creation of collaborative groups that are larger and more distributed than at any other time in history” (Shirky, 2008, p.48). Because members are no longer bound by proximity, groups can exist and meet no matter where individual members may reside. This is seen in the Punjabi music scene. Websites such as simplybhangra.com connect Punjabi’s from across North America, Britian and India, all sharing their thoughts on music and it’s cultural significance or impact.

Punjabi Music creating culture

Punjabi musicians teaming up with mainstream North American hip hop artists is one way in which youth see their culture being remixed.



Seeing mainstream North American artists perform their own versions of Indian songs is another way in which youth see their culture literally incorporating two worlds.



The use of Punjabi music at Bhangra competitions is also another way in which remix culture is flourishing. Youth use bhangra music alongside hiphop and pop music to combine energetic routines. The moves in these routines are themselves remixes-choreographing traditional Bhangra (Punjabi dance) with other dance genres without missing a beat.



These competitions not only feature remix through the music and dance, but also through their programs. VIBC, Vancouver International Bhangra Competition is one example where youth are connecting the many cultures that make up their world.

A shift in culture

The challenge comes when these remixes are done without giving permission or credit to the works that are used. Many Punjabi music songs are remixed by artists who sell and produce music as well as by the general public who remix through the use of their laptops-simply because they have the tools and the imagination to do so. Music producers and DJ’s like TigerStyle and create mega hits, seamlessly fusing Indian beats with mainstream music. Their “mix produces the new creative work-the “remix”. (Lessig, 2008, p. 69).



Traditional copyright laws may not be followed because music is being remixed and reproduced without the permission of artists. At an even simpler level, YouTube is inundated with videos of Punjabi music where the slides use movie clips, images of celebrities, without any real sense of permission. Perhaps one of the biggest ironies is that in many cases the artists who have created remixes are now seeing their work remixed by youth. Many of these youth remix simply because they can “access is the mantra of the YouTube generation (Lessig, 2008, p.46).

The issues that exist with this remixing of culture go beyond technology. A shift in the very culture that exists within the Punjabi community is also subject to change. Traditional songs now contain modern themes, beats and lyrics. Events that at one point could be classified simply as Punjabi or Western, are now mixing both. Perhaps as mentioned above this is less of an issue, this is a natural phenomenon-traditions change with time and place. Even further, given that remix is synonymous with so much of what we do, we will simply see it as it is what it is- the world we live in.


Sources

Deneen, P. (2008). Technology, culture, and culture. New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology & Society, 2163-2174. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.
Diethrich, G. (1999). Desi Music Vibes: The Performance of Indian Youth Culture in Chicago. Asian Music, 31 (1) 35-61. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/834279 (April 7, 2011) .

Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2008). Remix: The Art and Craft of Endless Hybridization. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(1) 22-33. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30139647 (April 8, 2011) .

Lessig, Lawrence (2008). Remix Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. New York: The Penguin Press.

Linnekin, S. (1983). Defining traditions: variations on Hawaiian identity. American Ethnologist, (10)2, 241-252.

Shirky, C. (2008). Here Comes Everybody. New York: Penguin Press.

Videos:

Baronroflcopter. (2010, June 8). Jay-Z and Punjabi MC Mundian to bach ke live at Rock am Ring 2010. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOnz35MzlYc&feature=related

Gurrvy. (2008, July 21). Nachna onda nahi. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNIZ8Phmh4U

Ladygagamex. (2009, September 4). The Pussycat Dolls feat. A.R. Rhaman Jai Ho! Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ9_8wxofik&feature=fvst

Redman07. (2010, March 8). Kollaboration 10 Bhangra Empire. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oepvmYWYwU

Sites:


http://www.simplybhangra.com

http://www.tigerstyleonline.co.uk/

http://www.vibc.org

COMM 597, ASSIGNMENT 3

COMM 597, ASSIGNMENT 3, a set on Flickr.

Aldous Huxley believed that technology was creating an "atmosphere of passivity" that stifled artistic expression and suppressed creative culture. Although his thoughts were expressed in 1927, these ideas are particularly interesting today in the context of new media publishing. I will explore these ideas through this flickr photo essay.

Distributive Publishing, Communities and Knowledge

The different and evolving mediums of communication throughout the span of human civilization contributes to the development of specific forms of knowledge gathering and dissemination. The isolated communities of the hunter gatherers that communicated to co-create knowledge and innovate to survive has evolved through different communication mediums and technology into a much ‘smaller’   connected, networked world of global communities of practice.

These networks and communities of practice communicate to co-create new knowledge and innovation in all aspects of humanity; as examples – business , healthcare, entertainment , socialization, emergency response, and education.“ It appears that the very cognitive structure of the individual human being and the formal patterns of human social relations are intimately linked to the forms or systems of communication that are predominant in certain eras” (Rowland, 2007, p. xii).

Each of the media used by people creates its’ own space necessary to share and communicate knowledge to others. The well known the ‘media is the message ‘ by Marshall McLuhan

could be changed to the ‘media is part of the message;’ and the message still needs to be received, assimilated in context and put into action demonstrating knowledge.

Knowledge can exist in two forms; explicit and tacit. Explicit knowledge is generally defined as external well defined written knowledge. This is knowledge that can be spoken, written and is objective information. Tacit knowledge is personal, usually appears in interpersonal interaction and is contextual and difficult to communicate (Luoma & Okkonen, 2009).  It is the sharing of tacit knowledge through proximity and social networks and communities of practice that Web 2.0 and social media is contributing to. Etienne Wenger is an acknowledged scholarly expert on Communities of Practice (COP)  and on his website http://www.ewenger.com/theory/  describes  “Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor: a tribe learning to survive, a band of artists seeking new forms of expression, a group of engineers working on similar problems, a clique of pupils defining their identity in the school, a network of surgeons exploring novel techniques, a gathering of first-time managers helping each other cope” (Wenger E. , 2006).  COP have been an integral component of human learning and knowledge generation and sharing from the very beginning of humanity. The knowledge generated and how it is disseminated and demonstrated through human behavior has changed through how the media can be used through space (proximal and distance) to connect individuals and groups of people.

Media and Ways of Knowing in Early Civilization

“An oral culture without writing, print or electronic media, seems to be biased toward a particular pattern of sensory and expository capacity that encourages ways of seeing, hearing and indeed knowing that are remarkably different when other forms of communication are more prominent” (Rowland, 2007, p. xii).

Mankind began to communicate with each other by imitating images they saw with drawings on cave walls and scratching in the sand. Oral cultures require people to be in close proximity to each other for learning and dissemination of knowledge through story telling and narratives. Proximity required people to be in close physical space with each other and participate in groups/tribes to survive and disseminate knowledge and create innovation together.The physical pace of life would be slow, the opportunity to share and co-create with people and cultures not in their own tribe few and far between due to the distance of physical geography, lack of transportation and lack of numbers of people.  Stories, memorization and music were a way to bridge space and time and pass culture and knowledge through generations. Shirky  (2008) defines a community of practice as “ a group of people who converse about some shared task in order to get better at it” (pg 100). It requires the conversation between a group of people to create and share knowledge. Conversational knowledge creation is suitable for environments where  “the knowledge is not centralized, but resides with multiple owners who may be located far apart” (Wagner, 2004, p. 266). While Wagner is referring to knowledge management in today’s world of globalization and social media it is relevant to a time period on history of a culturally diverse, geographically isolated oral and auditory civilization.

Text and permanent recording of Knowledge

The use of text was originally used as a form of accounting or counting for business. Innovation and creativity are typically driven by survival but also by markets and business as organizations of varying strengths and sizes.  Knowledge develops and is created by communities of internal networks and structures through relationships, trust and social capital (Prusak, 2001) The well known ‘ a man is as good as his word” his reputation and ability to be trusted while still relevant, was critical in pre oral and oral and early literate cultures.  The creation of new knowledge is through the combination and exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge at the intellectual and social level of individuals and organizations (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). “ Most of the world’s early civilizations came into being using writing as their dominant medium of communication” (Crowley & Heyer, 2007, p. 4). Writing and literacy provided a new method of transmitting knowledge across space and time. Writing could be a method of transmitting information or instructions from an individual or through letter writing between individuals. Writing and literacy created a decrease in value on more traditional forms of knowledge and invested greater power and information in those that were literate in reading and writing. A more permanent form of media on clay tablet, papyrues and paper that kept knowledge and information that could be referred back to and kept records of.  Paper is light and portable allowing an increase of information, knowledge to be transported across physical geography over periods of time (Crowley & Heyer, 2007). 

Those who could read and write and afford books became the keepers of knowledge and power. Information and knowledge in the form of the book and manuscript became powerful and communities of practice that formed around this medium were those of the aristocracy, the courts, the church, religions that co-created knowledge to the benefit of those on power. Information was transmitted to the general population and the population was controlled through information and not encouraged to participate in church and government.The social capital and networks in the writing age were through very specific institutions and the people in those institutions.Nahapiet and Ghosal (1998) identify networks of relationships as the central proposition of social capital and that  ‘much of the capital is embedded within networks of mutual acquaintance and recognition”(Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998, p. 243). 

The Beginning of Mass Media

The Printing Press was the start of mass media, text literacy, the education system. It provided a method of disseminating information to people, control of consistent messaging by governments. Printing provided the opportunity and access to information to everyone, and the interpretation of that information was now able to be formed by the individual and not the elite. COP’s were able to form around ideas and ideology from the same information (books).  Printing increased every man’s range in time and space, bringing together times past and times to come, near and distant, peoples long dead and peoples still unborn” (Mumford, 2007, p. 94). Information and knowledge becomes increasingly moveable by sharing books and discussing books decreasing the limitations of geography and space. 

 Guttenberg and the impact of the Printing Press

 

Reading as noted by McLuhan and more recently Jenkins and Logan is a solitary pursuit , done by an individual.  Creating knowledge and shared learning is located through social practices. Relationships are comprised of social practices and interactions. Interactions build social capital for individuals and build the dense and loose networks that provide the sharing of personal and organizational resources (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008) (Holden, 2001) (Nowotny, Scott, & Gibbons, 2003). As a media the printing press disseminated information to people. As a solitary medium there are significant transactional costs geographically, time and cost to form COP to create knowledge using books and the printing press (Shirky, 2008).

The Telegraph, the Telephone, the Radio and Movies

Electricity then allowed the development of media that didn’t rely on the transportation of the media but media that was transmitted to individuals (Crowley & Heyer, 2007).  The telegraph provided one way transmission of information, the telephone synchronous two way transmission of voice, the radio one way auditory transmission, movies and TV one way transmission of visual and voice information and entertainment. This allowed the development of reading public, mass society, no longer local and regional, but now inclusive of national and global information (Crowley & Heyer, 2007). The world becomes smaller as people become more aware of the world around them. Movies and TV bring back a form of the oral, narrative story-telling and revive images as photography to help disseminate the information and tell the stories. There are many ways of getting information to people syncronously across time and space, but the transaction costs of physical participation geographically remained high. COP remain localized in larger urban and community centers. “ The lower the human density had been in rural areas, the stronger the social emphasis had been on conventionality, fellow feeling and cohesion. But in cities, the higher the density became, the greater was the impersonality and normlessness” (Fowles, 2007). The available social capital in both urban and rural communities remained low as media used was one dimensional and used primarily to convey information, not to create co-create and participate in knowledge creation. Nahapiet & Ghosal (1998) define social capital as: "the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, and derived from the network of relationships possesses by an individual or social unit. Social capital thus comprises both the network and the assets that may be mobilized through the network" (p. 243). 

Marshall McLuhan – The World is a Global Village

Back to the Future 

Technology and the pace of change and innovation in social media are changing the way

we communicate socially. As Clay Shirky states, “ When we change the way we communicate, we change society” (Shirky, 2008, p. 17).“Yet a new language is rarely welcomed by the old.The oral tradition distrusted writing, manuscript culture was contemptuous of printing, book culture hated the press” (Carpenter, 2007, p. 256).The new language of social media is certainly a language many are still uncomfortable with, but many are making great profits from.Technologies that can be accessed asynchronously without geographic or time constraints (across time and space) can be used to develop and standardize communication streams, build social capital and strengthen and develop diverse organizational relationships (Cooley, Hebling, & Fuller, 2003) (McWilliam, 2000) (Baker, 2003). Communication allows for bidirectional or multidirectional feedback that maintains an open system capable of change and adaptation.Knowledge is created when it is used interactively within an environment to create an action (Cook & Brown, 1999). Individual and group interactions create different knowledge and can be combined and internalized and codified into many different types of new knowledge. Lawrence Lessig  writes that the contemporary communication network forms an innovation commons, a place and space where creativity can thrive. Organizations, communities and teams need to be able to capture and utilize formal and informal networks to maximize the creation of social capital (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). “Social media offer new ways of collecting, sharing and finding information and knowledge using in information systems ” (Luoma & Okkonen, 2009, p. 332).

The well known participatory Web 2.0 and technology has created the opportunity for every  digital native  and immigrant to collaborate and participate in creation. Palfrey and Gasser   (2008) argue that this new interactivity is engaging youth at unprecedented levels in creating entertainment, knowledge and information. Most of us now have a virtual and physical identity that we occupy geographically and across time and space and we use both to communicate and co-create.The  Digital natives do not  differentiate between their digital identity and their private identity as discussed and reviewed in the book Born Digital. Clay Shirky follows the rise of the Internet, Web 2.0, privacy, copyright, digital technology and creativity. His book ‘Here Comes Everybody’ focuses on groups, group formation and how ‘everybody’ is influenced and impacted by digital technology. “ Conversational knowledge creation has emerged as the most popular way to create knowledge, largely in the context of online or virtual communicates. Conversational knowledge returns us to the oral culture of learning from each other in close proximity but it’s not the same oral culture.

An updated definition of a virtual COP by Yates, Wagner & Maajchrzak (2010) becomes pertinent. They define virtual communities of practice in an organization as “ a collective of voluntary knowledge contributors, distributed across traditional organizational boundaries, which enables members to share insights, experiences, and practical knowledge”. An organization may be a local community, global corporation, national government, global team of health researchers, interested group of students that can now collaborate across different traditional boundaries of geography, time and space as envisioned by McLuhan, Innis, Shirky, Lessig and Jenkins (to mention a few), to have the conversations that create new knowledge and learning . This is now happening at ‘warp speed’ creating enormous amounts of valuable and not so valuable information and knowledge development  collaboratively and globally. The social media has brought back traditional forms of learning such as orality, the narrative, imaging, text and auditory  in combinations that can provide the ability to learn and develop knowledge to all , at a instantaneous speed that creates enormous possibilites and problems in the ability to comprehend the social changes it influences. The choice and ability to use media  is altering our ability and choices in participation in society, globally and “establish loose and densely connected networks to collect and share knowledge that builds innovation and creativity that recognizes the strength of building collective knowledge”  (Watson & Harper, 2008; Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998) not possible prior to the Internet. “ Media, Innis  proposed, can never be truly neutral within the human environment. By their very application media refashion the choices, the pre-occupations, and the interactions of individuals and give shape to the form that knowledge takes in society and to the way in which it circulates" (Crowley & Heyer, 2007, p. 300).

 A New Way for Knowledge

 

 

Authors and Sites of Interest

TED Talks – Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson – creating the space and connections for innovation and creativity

Sept 2010

Nahapiet and Ghosal, 1998

Mediashift PBS Mark Glasser

Henry Jenkins Blog

Clay Shirky Blog

Lawrence Lessig Blog

Sir Ken Robinson’s  Lecture  “  Do schools kill Creativity?"

Jan 6, 2007

Wick Rowland

Works Cited

Baker, K. A. (2003). Chapter 13 Organizational Communication. Retrieved 2009 йил 17-November from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/doe/benchmark/ch13.pdf

Carpenter, E. (2007). The New Languages. In D. Crowley, & P. Heyer, Communication in History (pp. 254- 259). Boston, MA, USA: Pearson Education Ltd.

Cook, S., & Brown, J. (1999). Bridging epistemologies: the generative dance between organizational knowledge and organizational knowing. Organization Science , 10 (4), 381-400.

Cooley, R., Hebling, C., & Fuller, U. (2003). Suggestion Schemes and Communication. British Academy of Management (pp. 1 -14). Leeds Business School.

Crowley, D., & Heyer, P. (2007). Communication in History (Fifth Edition ed.). Boston: Pearson Education Inc.

Daft, R., & Armstrong, A. (2009). Organization theory & design (Vol. 1). Nelson Education Ltd.

Fowles, J. (2007). Mass Media and the Star System. In D. Crowley, & P. Heyer, Communication in History (pp. 190-191). Montreal: Pearson.

Holden, N. (2001). KNowledge Management: Rasing the Spectre of the Crosscultural Dimension. Knowledge and Process Management , 155-163.

Jenkins, H. (2006, June 19). Convergence Culture. Retrieved February 28, 2011, from ACA-Fan Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins: http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/06/welcome_to_convergence_culture.html

Lessig, L. (2001). The future of ideas. New York: Random House.

Logan, R. (2007, August 6). The 14 Messages of New media. Retrieved October 17, 2010, from Mediashift: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/08/the-14-messages-of-new-media218.html

Luoma, S., & Okkonen, J. (2009). Capturing competence-using wiki for transferring tacit knowledge. Proceedings of the European Conference on Inellectual Capital (pp. 329-336). Finland: Academic Conferences, Ltd.

McWilliam, G. (2000 йил Spring). Building stronger brands through online communities. Sloan Management Review , 43-54.

Mumford, L. (2007). The Invention of Printing. In D. Crowley, & P. Heyer, Communication in History (pp. 91- 95). Montreal: Pearson.

Nahapiet, J., & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review , 22 (2), 242-266.

Nowotny, H., Scott, P., & Gibbons, M. (2003). Introduction. In H. Nowotny, P. Scott, & M. Gibbons, Minerva (pp. 179-194). Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). Born Digital. New York: Basic Books.

Prusak, L. (2001). Where did knowledge management come from. IBM Systems Journal , 40 (4), 1002-1007.

Rowland, W. (2007). Foreward. In D. Crowley, & P. Heyer, Communication in History (Fifth Edition ed., pp. xi-xiii). Montreal: Pearson.

Shirky, C. (2008). Here Comes Everybody. New York, New York, USA: The Penguin Group.

Wagner, C. (2004). Wiki: a technology for conversational knowledge management and group collaboration. Communications of the Association for Information Systems , 13, 265-289.

Watson, K., & Harper, C. (2008 йил 5-February). Supporting Knowledge Creation - Using Wikis for Group Collaboration. Retrieved 2010 йил 22-May from Educause Center for Applied Research: http://www.caudit.edu.au/educauseaustralasia07/authors_papers/Watson-112.pdf

Weiner, N. (2007). Cybernetics in History. In R. Craig, & H. Muller, Theorizing Communication (pp. 267-273). Thousand Oaks, California, USA: Sage Publications Inc.

Wellman, B., Haase, A., Witte, J., & Hampton, K. (2001, November). Does the Internet Increase, Decrease or Supplement Social Capital? American Behavioral Scientest , 437-456.

Wenger, E. (2006, June ). Communities of Practice Introduction. Retrieved March 20, 2011, from Communities of Practice: http://www.ewenger.com/theory/

Wenger, E., & Snyder, W. (2000 January-February). Communities of practice: the organizational frontier. Harvard Business Review , 139 -145.

Yates, D., Wagner, C., & Majchrzak, A. (2010). Factors affecting shapers of organizational wikis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology , 61 (3), 543-554.

 

 

Printing Press and Internet Impact on Social Relationships

Publishing is defined as, "the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public. Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as books and newspapers. With the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include electronic resources” (Wikipedia).

Throughout the centuries publishing technologies have continued to evolve. Technology has contributed to making publishing widely accessible and has aided in the reinterpretation of all aspects of society including how and when we interact socially. Publishing technologies change the way a society behaves and communicates, because it is society which reacts to the environment. A good example of a publication technology that made society react is the creation of Johannes Gutenberg's printing press (pictured below) in the mid 15^th century. The press impacted society politically, educationally, and socially and is considered one of the major inventions during the Middle Ages. Without the invention of the press it is hard to predict where the publishing industry would be today.

The first successful press was built in 1440, and it was a hand press, in which ink was rolled over the raised surfaces of movable hand-set block letters held within a wooden form and the form was then pressed against a sheet of paper (Bellis).The first document to be printed was the Bible in 1455 and the publication of books, magazines, and newspapers followed twenty years later.

The Western book was no longer a single object, written or reproduced by request. The publication of a book became an enterprise, requiring capital for its realization and a market for its distribution. The book and other publications impacted social relationships because of the increased opportunity for social interaction. Not everyone could afford to buy books as paper was expensive, so people gathered at coffee houses where books, newspapers and magazines were available. People would read and then gather with others for intellectual discussions. It gave people access to information which increased sharing of knowledge, self-expression and communication.

During the Middle Ages a high percentage of people were illiterate as education was for the wealthy people only. The printing press gave the common people the opportunity to learn as well. This elevated the common people's status which changed social relationships. Common people now had opinions so they were able to interact with people in a different class or amongst their own social class.

The publishing of books eventually created a standardized language so now people could communicate in the same language which also increased social interaction. Anyone could publish their ideas in books, newspapers or magazines which increased equality, which led to different social classes interacting.

Gutenberg’s printing press inspired others to create presses and eventually books, magazines and newspapers were accessible and affordable to buy by common people due to supply and demand. The printing press continued to evolve and other technologies evolved over the next few centuries. Nothing was comparable to the creation of the printing press until the Internet in the mid-20th century.

The invention of the internet cannot be attributed to one person. However, certain figures contributed major breakthroughs. "If any two people “invented the Internet," it was Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf. In 1972 they invented the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which moves data on the modern internet. They went on to develop the IP Protocol" (Times Online).

The Internet has made and is continuing to make a significant impact on society similar to the printing press. Like the printing press, the internet has changed how and when we interact socially. The internet continues to grow in usage and users. According to PEW Internet the study indicates that internet users has increased from 10% to 80% in the last 15 years.

The internet has been around since 1969 so it is difficult to imagine that in 1994 the majority of the people still did not know what the internet was. Current "Today" show host, Matt Lauer, aired the below Youtube video on when 1994 Today's hosts were asking what was the internet. Matt commented, "It's easy to laugh now, but we all felt that way. It was a mystery to all of us". Today, the internet is part of everyone's day to day life activities. The internet is the main source of how we interact with others. Matt's comments are true so this is why I think it is important to remember the history of the internet and what would we do without it?

The internet has created a significant shift in the way that we develop and interact socially in the last few years. Youth are the majority of internet users and they rarely pick up a land-line or cell phone to communicate with friends and family.They "BBM", text, use social media sites, or email.

In the early days of internet some felt that the internet was having a negative impact on social relationships. Prior to text messaging, Facebook, and Twitter, Kraut et al. wrote about the Internet Paradox which states, "greater use of the internet was associated with declines in communication between family members in the house, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their levels of depression and loneliness." Other studies concluded that the internet creates a sterile and negative form of social exchange and communication which in turn could lead to the crumbling of community and society.

Bargh and McKenna note that some scholars feel the internet provides a positive venue for social interaction that allows individuals and groups to connect in ways they would not otherwise. The latest research has shown that the conclusions are opposite of what was previously concluded in Kraut's research. In his later follow-up research, Kraut et al (2002) found that study participants who used the internet were more likely to have an increase in:

1. The size of their local and distant social circles.

2. Their face-to-face interaction with friends and family

3. Community activity involvement

4. Trust in people

The Digital Future Study, backs Kraut research as the study shows more than half of the people surveyed said the internet was important or very important tool in maintaining social relationships. Some reasons for the change of research is there is an increase in the social media platforms available, internet usage has increased and people are more aware and comfortable with the use of the on-line tools. Another reason is because people are substituting previous activities for time spent on the internet. For example chatting with friends on the internet has replaced talking on the phone. Another way in which social relationships have changed is people meeting on-line instead of at public venues. Minitel,described in the below video, was developed in the early 1980's and was a critical moment as this lead to developing on-line chat rooms.

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Today there are many on-line dating sites and other sites if you are interested in meeting people with similar interests. Friendships are forming through social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The internet enables people to meet others with similar interests in a comfortable environment. Digital Future Study shows that there has been an increase in on-line friends becoming in-person friends. Internet users in 2000 reported an average of less than one person who they originally connected with online and then later met in person. Since then, the average has risen steadily, and in the current Digital Future Study has reached 2.5 people. Even though earlier studies have shown that social interaction was predicated to decrease, later studies have contradicted those findings. Today, we can observe that social interaction has increased, not decreased, just the tools have changed. The internet has provided many positive opportunities for people to develop new social relationships and to maintain friendships when there are barriers such as geographical.

According to Clay, "Publishing used to require access to a printing press, and as a result the act of publishing something was limited to a tiny fraction of the population. Now, once a user connects to the internet, he has access to a platform that is at once global and free". This statement is true but the internet and printing press have both made a significant difference in the publishing industry even though the internet reaches the world in an instant. If the printing press was not invented, there would be no mass production of books, people would continue to be illiterate and no-one would of created the internet as no-one would be able to use it. The internet is text heavy so internet users would have to know how to read and write. Once the book was able to be mass produced, society evolved socially,politically etc. If there was not this flow of development, society would not have evolved to where we are today.

Question to ponder after completing this blog: The first record of coffee being served in a public place dates back to 1475 in Turkey. Coffee shops started to slowly pop up around the world. The mass production of books started around this time. People gathered at coffee houses to in order to have access to books, so did the printing press also contribute to the success of coffee houses?

Works Cited and other interesting sites:

Bargh JA, 2002. McKenna KYA, Fitzsimons GM. 2002. "Can you see the real me? Activation and expression of the 'true self' on the Internet." Journal of Social Issues.

Bellis, M. (2009). Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press. Available: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/b1JohannesGutenberg.htm. Last accessed April 5, 2011.

Bellis, M. (2009). ‘The History of Communication’. About Inc. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_communication.htm. Last accessed April 5, 2011.

Cartoon Stock. Photo retrieved from: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/i/internet_friends.asp

DiSalvo D. Four authors respond to the social networking controversy. Neuronarrative [Internet]. March 12, 2009. Last accessed March 31, 2011.

Harvey, M. (September 25, 2008). Who were the 'Fathers of the Internet'? Times Online. Retrieved from: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4823707.ece

Kraut R, Kiesler S, Boneva B, Cummings J, Helgeson V, et al. 2002. "Internet paradox re-visited." Journal of Social Issues.

Kraut, R. Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S, Mukophadhyay,T & Scherlis, W. (1998).

Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? American Psychology.

Kreis, S. (2000). The History Guide. The Printing Press.

The Marquee Blog. (2011). What’s the Internet? Retrieved from: http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/31/today-flashback-katie-couric-whats-an-internet

The Pew Internet and America Life Project Tracking surveys (2009). Retrieved from: http://www.pewinternet.org/Static-Pages/Trend-Data/Internet-Adoption.aspx http://www.pewinternet.org/Trend-Data/Online-Activities-20002009.aspx

Skirky,C. (2008). Here Comes Everybody. Penguin Books. page 77. USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism (2010). USC Annenberg Digital Future Study. Last accessed on April 5, 2011.

Youtube (1994). What is the Internet? Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUs7iG1mNjI

Youtube (2006). Evolution of Digital Communities. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7O4uMRADB8

Wikipedia. Publishing. Last accessed on March 30, 2011.