Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 15:33:43 +0100 (BST)
From: andrew cooke <A.Cooke-AT-roe.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Response to Styles post Andrew's "Faulkian" quote


On Fri, 30 Aug 1996, Edward ROSSITER wrote:
> On the contrary, email is very different to speaking on the street.  For
> starters, there are questions of access.  

	see para 3...

> Second, the corporeal absence.
> Hegemony (in the Gramscian sense of consent, negotiation), then, is
> played out with distinctly different variables. 

	i'm afraid i don't know who(?) gramsci(?!) was/is, but i think
	you mean i can't hit you if i don't agree with what you write?

> One of the positive
> thiings I see the net providing, is the very possibility of debate on
> matters in society whereby the spectre of the "majority" becomes, however
> momentarily, a singularity of sorts.

	i didn't follow this either.  you mean that the "majority"
	vanishes?  (because we can't see each other?).  surely if i'd
	said that you'd point out that the `questions of access', the
	title of the group, the language, the style in which we write,
	the replies we've just read, all convey a very distinct culture,
	with you firmly seated in the majority and tina hiding somewhere 
	near the exit?

	which leads me on to a question which someone here might be
	able to answer - is there anywhere with information about what 
	kind of people are using the net, what they talk about, what they 
	assume, etc etc?

	last week i had a go at pulling random pages from the web and
	counting the words (most popular verb - to be; second most 
	popular - to have).  surely this kind of thing has been done 
	before?  any pointers?

	cheers,
	andrew


	p.s. i suppose you did understand my previous post, but if not -
	all i meant by `on the street' was a lack of formality and
	planning.

	p.p.s. ok, i've just found out that antonio g. was a sociologist
	(the wonders of the www, eh?)


           work phone/fax: 0131 668 8356, office: 0131 668 8357
    institute for astronomy, royal observatory, blackford hill, edinburgh
                     http://www.roe.ac.uk/ajcwww



     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---