Openness: June 2003 Archives
From Blogging goes mainstream on the concept of 'hive brain':
"The way bloggers link and influence each other's thinking could lead to a collective thought process, "a kind of hive brain," said Chris Cleveland, who runs Dieselpoint..."
The analysis of the 'hive brain' concepts sounds like a perfect candidate for the actor-network theory and methodology.
A conceptual (and practical) topology would be a collection of blogs (according to some criteria) linked to each other via the http (and XML) links/referrers and trackbacks. Then, the affect/influence of a particular blog on the rest of the collection of blogs could be analyzed by tracing its residual and ongoing affect, as well as the affect onto itself as a result of being part of the topology.
Needless to say, the open content and the degree of openness of the communication links between the various blogs is of outmost importance. Without the openness the concept of blogs and blogging would not be in the realm as we know it today: blogs and blogging have a meaning in the collection of other blogs and not as isolated entities.
Related:
Defining the ingredients of actor-network and open-content open-communication
The Open Access page at the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) presents a critical viewpoint about the need and the necessity of open access in the midst of the corporate attempt to control all major access channels.
Besides the need for open access, there is a need for open content and open communication if there is to be a viable and substantial public discourse on digital democracy.
'Open Stacks' is an interesting blog concerned with the promotion of information access and literacy for all.
why actor-network?
"In Social constructionism vs. technological determinism it has been suggested that the actor-network theory and its methodological framework may provide the language and the mode of explanation to elaborate in a common framework the interplay between human and non-human entities.
Most importantly, the major contribution of the actor-network theory seems to be the fact that it treats the human and non-human elements (or actors as the various element in a given topology are named in the actor-network language) alike as being able to influence each other."
translation
"So, how do the actors in a particular topology influence each other? This is done through their links. The actor-network theory suggests that a process of translation takes place, a process that explains how and why some actors take the attributes and properties of the actors they are connected too. Thus, certain properties of one actor are transferred to other actors through their mutual links. The question arises then as to what/which properties and attributes of an actor can be transferred onto another and initiate a process of translation onto the actor it is connected too? Further, what is the role of the properties and attributes of the links in the process of translation/transfer? Which properties and attributes of the links are important to this process?"
openness
"...the modifiable content depending on the intrinsic and external properties can be described and manifests itself in various degrees of openness. Similarly, the communication links vary in degree of their communicative properties via which the properties and the attributes of the actors are transferred and translated into other actors via inscription."
properties and attributes: links, actors, topologies
"The translation process enables an actor/entity (simple or complex) to inscribe its properties and attributes onto other actors in the pertinent topologies. This suggests that there is a movement of some sort from one actor to another. Certainly, in any given topology not all actors are able to inscribe their properties and attributes equality into other actors. Some properties and attributes are more prevalent in any given topology. What determines the strength of the attributes and the properties?"
Social constructionism vs. technological determinism
"For example, if one is to research the usability of collaboration tools in an organizational settings, the social constructionism for most part takes the view that the information and communication technologies are just tools to be used by the employees to perform their assigned tasks and that these tools do not effect the employees or the relevant social structures. On the other side, technical determinist consider the affect that these tools will have on the employees and the surrounding organizational structures resulting from their use."
As I've tried to explain in some of the previous entries, the notion of open content is an important element in the utilization of the actor-network theory and methodology to explain and elaborate how various actors in a given topology inscribe their congruent properties and attributes onto other actors. Indeed, the 'open content' as a property of an actor is itself inscribable onto other actors.
Without the possibility of open content it becomes impossible to talk about the inscription and translation process. For example, if the content of an actor (the content manifests itself as different 'thing' to different actors) exhibits characteristics of openness, it means it is modifiable as a result of outside factors (i.e. other actors) that act upon it via the many links to which it is connected. A totally closed content would be defined as a content that is not modifiable by the other actors even though they are linked to it.
A totally open content becomes as troublesome to explain and elaborate as the totally closed content. A totally open content could mean modifiability by all actors without much control and process and that might not be a desirable scenario in most instances.
Instead, most open content is subject to degrees of openness resulting from the surrounding actors linked to the actor via the links that are also subject to degrees of openness in their ability to communicate the translation and inscription properties and attributes.
