Wednesday, January 28, 2004

1. Gender in Internetworking. In Prof. Downey's Article, He talks about the feminine/masculine labor involved in digital and analog internetworking (p. 228) He qoutes Jennifer light saying that "the job of the programmer, percieved in recent years as masculine work, originated as feminized clerical labor." What aspect of programming is masculine? If women initially performed these operations, what caused the labor to be transferred to the "masculine" side of labor? Has this separation caused any benefits/problems to internetworking? language often gives gender to items not out of gender, but out of association. Are there items in the language of internetworking that are gendered? If so, what? If not, why?

2. Progress. What efforts are being made today to overcome the problems of money ad accesibility in efforts to create an online global village? What effect will the World Summit on Information Technology have on third world technology? How is Equality being approached in the development of worldwide online acessibility? Is resistance to technology an option?

3. The Wachowski Brothers and Futurism. In chapter three of "telecommunications and the city," the electronic cottage is presented. In the Futuristic COttage, it seems as though all aspects of humanity and psychology have been left out. How would we change as physical beings? would we become "cyborgs?" If there were to be thie Electronic cottage society, how would human interaction change? If, in terms of technological determinism, technology changes society, what about society changing technology? Visions of "The Matrix" came to mind when I read Toffler's "Electronic Cottage" essay. Who knows, maybe the electronic cottage will come in handy when we give up on this planet and move to Mars?!?

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