Internet Ecology

So I have finally made it to the last “write your reflections in your blog” task in this net11 course and its quite a doosey.

• how might the metaphor of an ‘ecology’ impact on the way you think about, understand or use the Internet?

Well i hadn’t really thought about it, but ecology suggests environment and behaviour within the environment. This whole course has impacted on my way of thinking, understanding and using the internet. Thats what learning is, (gaining a better understanding, impacted by a broader knowledge of a topic).

It hasn’t really influenced my beliefs in the freedom the internet provides, its given me greater awareness of the privacy issues associated with social networks, a better understanding of the invisibility of difference and the fact we use machines to talk to people, and need to treat them as people and not machines, I learned how some of the technical functioning of the internet works and thus, understand better how to use search engines, directories and databases, as well as different forms of connection, how links work to connect things and communication methods, so can better use the appropriate tools when communicating over the internet. I also learned about some newer technologies, like wikis and mash-ups, and the semantic web.

• how are the concepts ‘information’ and ‘communication’ understood within the framework of an ‘information ecology’?

I don’t really understand this much, I did try to get some answers on twitter today, but found myself confused about the whole thing. Peter suggested another metaphor “remember the map is not the territory” but Amy made it a little clearer for me (thanks again Amy) suggesting that communication was a method and that information was a resource.  I am still a bit confused by it all though as ecology needs behaviour as well as an environment by definition. and I see the information and the infastructure as the environment and the communication as the behaviour (yep totally lost).

• why don’t we talk of a ‘communication ecology’?

As mentioned above I have no idea with this question, to me it would make more sence just to call it an “internet ecology” and desrcibe it as i have in answering the previous question where the ecology is dependant on both aspects of communication and information (as well as infastructure as Peter pointed out in the Tweets discussion).

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