I wonder if she really meant to write “libratory” in the sentence:

“Much of the popular discourse on computer-mediated communication, and indeed of all new media when it is first introduced, is organized by dualisms: whether emerging technologies are good or bad for “society” (particularly children); whether experiences on the Internet are “real” or “virtual;” and whether the Internet is a libratory (emphasis added) space for individuality or another mode of control and surveillance by ruling powers.”

I couldn’t find an online definition, but I like the word. It looks like a combination of library and laboratory, a good way to think about the internet, I guess.

She writes pretty clearly. And addresses concepts that float around in the mind of this old fart reading a screen. Like the private/public nature of the interent. When I post, I generally try to think of it as proclaiming in public. So I seek to be appropriate, to not write and publish anything I wouldn’t want anyone to see.

I once had a reader who threatened to “expose” my obscenity to the people in my church. When I seemed a bit unruffled, he accused me of hypocricy. Hypocrite, maybe, but I think of myself as a bit of an obscene guy anyway. Anyone who gets to know me at all (like my boss and people at my church whom my reader threatened to contact) knows this about me.

On the other hand, I want to respect the privacy of others as I share my observations and reactions to their behavior. It’s helpful to have some hip kids who read and advise if they see something out of line (Hello Elizabeth).

I have other thoughts, but I have to stop and make a fruit salad for my wife to take with her to her family reuinion. I am missing the reunion myself because I have to drive to Lansing and pick up my Mom.

Before I quite, here are a couple more links:

Why Copy and Content are the Keys to online Marketing…. I’m put off by this blogger’s typical reduction of the world to sales, but so far he/she does seem to have some insight into how online stuff works.

Hackers Extradition to U.S. More Lkely by John F. Burns …. Life imitates Art I guess. I do like John F. Burns

Also last night seemed to be the evening for finishing re-reads. I finished re-reading Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. Spoiler to follow: This book warrants re-reading because there are things he puts in that I didn’t catch the first time. Like the fact that his wife’s name is Hana (Japanese for flower I guess) and he ridicules the fact that her parents didn’t come up with a more exotic name for her. Later in the book, he is calling her Daisy. Heh. Also there are some fascinating foreshadowings, like a conversation about Asteriods and one about Astrology in which Asterios foreshadows the manner of his and Daisy’s death. Very cool.

Also finished a complete re-read of Enderby. I do love Burgess. I forgot how funny and brilliant he is. Not only does do a send-up of Joyce in the transcription of Enderby’s final TV appearance (which was never aired, Enderby was too obscene and disruptive), he eerily writes about incidents that remind one of things that happened after the book was published. Like the public murder of a pop musician and the attack of muggers by a victim on the subway. This last one is of course Enderby brandishing a sword that is sheathed in a walking stick. Very funny.