Ethan Zuckerman builds on Downes’ emphasis that connectivity, participation, and social capital are not distributed evenly across the network. He points to the Kremvax Hoax from 1984 as an early indicator that the seeming intimacy of the internet can easily convince us that we are in fact more globally connected than we really are.

Usenet gave users a very real experience of a larger, more connected world. It made it possible to imagine a world one step more connected, where a online space would permit encounters between cold war rivals. It made it possible to imagine a form of cosmopolitanism not yet present in the physical world.

But, in reality, imagination was all that the users were left with. They weren’t actually in direct conversation with their Soviet peers (though that did happen two years earlier via satellite connection). Zuckerman fears that this same tendency – to imagine global interaction rather than practice it – still holds true today, surrounded as we are by countless communication tools that in theory can put us in touch with cellphone-toting Tibetan monks, but in practice never do.

I fear that, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll discover that the flow of ideas through the Cloud isn’t as frictionless and global as we might hope. The steep, sheer barriers of language render much of what’s posted online incomprehensible to us, the Chinese blog posts and the Spanish-language videos. On a polyglot internet, there’s more to read everyday, but less each of us, individually can understand.

Presentation

Blog Posts

Twitter

1. Hisham_G #arscloud @ethanz: nous construisons la “Cloud”, elle n’est pas là pour faire des propheties Live athttp://ustre.am/5J8N6 days ago from Ustream
2. baoding .@ethanz ’s presentation was very thought provoking – great! #arscloud6 days ago from TwitterFox
3. leyrer RT @Karli: “the cloud is not a prediction, it’s a prophecy” @ethanz at the end of his great tslk #arscloud #fb6 days ago from twibble
4. yingeli #arscloud wir wollen mehr derselben @ethanz6 days ago from twidroid
5. Downes Do we have to want the whole cloud to come into being for the cloud to come into being? Or just our part of it?#arscloud6 days ago from web
6. Funzafunza Ethan zuckermann is an inspirering speaker#arscloud great talk!6 days ago from TweetDeck
7. NickyBaeck Toller Vortrag RT @Karli “the cloud is not a prediction, it’s a prophecy” @ethanz at the end of his great tslk #arscloud6 days ago from twidroid
8. Tabanca “The cloud is not a prediction, it is a prophecy (for us to make it happen)” Stephen Downes #arscloud6 days ago from web
9. suifaijohnmak Hey #arscloud cloud is not a prediction, it’s prophecy (ars_electronica live > http://ustre.am/5J8N)6 days ago from Ustream
10. Karli “the cloud is not a prediction, it’s a prophecy” @ethanzat the end of his great tslk #arscloud6 days ago from TweetDeck
11. Hisham_G #arscloud Ethan Zucherman: nous tendons tous (internautes) à etre “parochial” (communautaires) Live athttp://ustre.am/5J8N6 days ago from Ustream
12. icybrand “the cloud is not a prediction – it’s a profecy”#ars09 #arscloud6 days ago from TweetDeck
13. Ties_ #arscloud great nuanced talk of zuckerman. No techno-determinism, social reality is more complex.6 days ago from mobile web
14. yingeli #arscloud @ethanz wir sind eingebildete kosmopoliten6 days ago from twidroid
15. yingeli RT @zuola 奥地利电子艺术节的直播效果真好,幻灯片真酷. 直播在这里 http://ustre.am/5J8N 要用SSH代理才看起来流畅,似乎被屏蔽了 #arscloud6 days ago from twidroid
16. zuola 奥地利电子艺术节的直播效果真好,幻灯片真酷. 直播在这里http://ustre.am/5J8N 要用SSH代理才看起来流畅,似乎被屏蔽了#arscloud6 days ago from JiWai
17. yingeli #arscloud kabeldicke entscheidet uber sichtbarkeit ganz welten @ethanz6 days ago from twidroid
18. gandalfar @arscloud: do try twitterfall.com to visualize#arscloud mentions6 days ago from web
19. Karli i love the term “imaginary globalization”http://twitpic.com/gjt1i @ethanz #arscloud6 days ago from TweetDeck
20. yingeli Imaginäre globalisierung #arscloud6 days ago from twidroid
21. isaac rt @oso: @ethanz presenting infrastructure and flow maps at #arscloud. Fascinating visualizations and implications.6 days ago from twhirl
22. juekop @EthanZ talking about oldschool #mapping and new ways to bring information on maps. #arscloudhttp://bit.ly/W17iz6 days ago from TweetDeck
23. yingeli #arscloud @ethanz mapping vom infrastruktur vs mapping von flows6 days ago from twidroid
24. oso @ethanz presenting infrastructure and flow maps at#arscloud. Fascinating visualizations and implications.6 days ago from Tweetie
25. Karli “in the ocean taxis don’t operate very well” great presentation by @ethanz #arscloud6 days ago from TweetDeck
26. pieceoplastic #arscloud habe zuerst arschloud gelesen, wassn das?6 days ago from web
27. gandalfar There are all sorts of dangers if you are excluded from the cloud today. It’s not about the infrastructure but about the flow. #arscloud6 days ago from web
28. AndreasPizsa Der @Onlinerat is following you, #arscloud !#behave6 days ago from Tweetie
29. MAMK Sitting next to Juliana at #arscloud @afromusing we are having a #lift09 reunion in Linz also with @cfarivar6 days ago from Tweetie
30. skoops schreibt jetzt remote auf die #arscloud wall6 days ago from web
31. centralasian Ethan Zuckerman on the different version of the mapping of the Marshall Islands, semantic vs activity based#arscloud http://ff.im/-7H3eG6 days ago from FriendFeed
32. cfarivar Oh man. I love maps. @ethanz rockin’ the mic talking about Marshall Islands and old school, low tech, indigenous maps. #arscloud

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