File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2000/postcolonial.0001, message 12


Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 11:19:33 +1030 (CST)
From: Leong Yew <lyew-AT-arts.adelaide.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Call for papers: "Worlding the U.S. Wide Web" 


Dear Jillana,

I read your post and I'd like to suggest a paper entitled, "The Selling of
.Niue: Domain Names and Identity." The ideas for this paper are not very
developed as yet but incorporates themes such as US imperialism, colonial
discourse, etc. Here's a rough abstract:

Domain names on the internet are becoming not just practical addresses
allowing internet users to easily access websites. They are also entities
marking corporate, institutional, and national identities. Over the last
few years a new top level domain (TLD) name -- .nu-- has been made available
for registration. The network information center operating this TLD is
Netcorps, a US-based company. Since the .com TLD is becoming increasingly
saturated, Netcorps has been selling the .nu TLD as a cheaper and more
available alternative. Moreover .nu is a homonym for the word, "new,"
heralding a new era in internet domain names.

There is, however, a more sinister side to this story. The .nu TLD is in
effect, the name for Niue, a self-governing island in free association
with New Zealand. Since Niue is a largely agricultural place with only a
population of 2,000, Netcorps reasoned that the .nu TLD possesses "wide-open
availability of just about any name a new Internet user might want," and
it "carries little national identity outside its borders." It is unclear
what Niue got in return by giving Netcorps the rights to administer its
TLD. Some newspaper articles mention that Niue's officials did so in a
bid to increase publicity and to attract tourism, while others claim that
Netcorps will be providing the island population with free internet access.

Whatever the case may be the example of the appropriation of the .nu TLD
by an American corporation provides a fertile ground for analyses of
various sorts. First it raises the question of national identity and its
relationship to the economy of formerly-colonial societies. Second it
draws attention to the American attitudes towards the Pacific and
highlights the commodity-exchange schema present in imperialism. While
earlier imperialism plundered and repatriated primary products from the
colonies, this example features the repatriation of a technology product
for use at the IT metropolitan centre.


Many more questions may be asked and this paper can be easily adapted to
fit the requirements of your panel. Let me know if this interests you.


Leong Yew
Department of Politics
University of Adelaide
Adelaide, SA 5005
  





On Wed, 5 Jan 2000, Jillana Enteen wrote:

> Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 18:59:50 -0500
> From: Jillana Enteen <jenteen-AT-pegasus.cc.ucf.edu>
> To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> Subject: Call for papers: "Worlding the U.S. Wide Web" 
> 
> apologies for cross posting
> 
> Call for Papers
> 
> American Studies Association Panel, Detroit 2000
> 
> "Worlding the U.S. Wide Web"
> 
> In recent years, Internet communication has increased exponentially, with
> participants from many nations and locations. Yet studies about the Internet
> repeatedly assume that World Wide Web participation is accurately
> represented by considering US-based users. This results in the United States
> once again represnting the global. This panel will address and assess the
> centrality of the US in considerations of Internet communication. How can
> these assumptions be reformulated? In what ways is Internet use currently
> perceived as raced and gendered? Who is excluded from current formulations?
> How can theories of race and gender contribute to the study of the Internet
> as a new medium? How can Media Theory and Internet research be theorized as
> inclusive and within a global frame, yet still represent users beyond U.S.
> boundaries? Please send 500-word abstracts and a brief c.v. by 10 January
> 2000 to Jillana Enteen at jenteen-AT-pegasus.cc.ucf.edu.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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