Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!buenal2003.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: buenal2003 Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: CS-234 Discussion Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2024 16:36:27 -0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 43 Sender: root Message-ID: References: Injection-Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2024 18:36:27 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: buenal2003.eternal-september.org; posting-host="d86dfaa38b2654774f3e3f9fff712894"; logging-data="2399582"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/hckPjH8yVkFq8Zk51+CNv+gDUUAyOFNg=" User-Agent: tin/2.6.3-20231224 ("Banff") (Linux/6.10.0-linuxkit (aarch64)) Cancel-Lock: sha1:rKb7gm8FY129uwAudtLe4uxROZY= Bytes: 3585 CS234 wrote: > This thread is intended for the students of CS-234: Technologies for democratic society > > How does Usenet fit into the vision presented by Licklider and Taylor in > "The Computer as a Communication Device"? > > Reflect on: > - Which aspects of their vision are realized through Usenet? > - What aspects have evolved differently from what they imagined? > > Feel free to respond to comments made by your classmates as well. In their paper "The Computer as a Communication Device" Licklider and Taylor focus on how computers should be used to facilitate communication and collaboration by enabling acces to vast resources and creating online communities based on shared interest rather than geograpihcal location. They want to create a platform where there is an interactive, creative communication, one that enriches everyone involved. Usenet emodies this by enabling global communication through decentralized discussion forums. Usenet aligns with their vision in the sense that it is an open community accessible to all,even people with economic restraints. There is no central authority who controls the content or the acces. Another plus is that, Licklider and Taylor acknowledged that collaboration should be able to occur at any time zones and schedules, Usenet fulfills this through its asynchronous communication. However, there are aspects of usenet that evolved differently than what was envisioned. For example usenet lacks tools such as facetiming,image sharing which constitute some of the core visions for digital communication of Licklider and Taylor.It is a text based system which is a limited type of communication that isnt as fast as face to face communication or using images. There is also the fact that usenet doesn't have the best user interface. What Taylor and Licklider predicted was a more user-friendly and intuitive platform. While usenet is relatively difficult to navigate for the average user compared to today's social media and forums which have more accessible features. Also licklider and taylors vision highlighted a sense of collective control and moderation by users. Usenet decentralized nature leads to a lack of moderation that leads to spam, trolling etc. To conclude, at the time usenet as created it as revolutionary and had some key alignments ith what licklider and taylor envisioned. But as technology moved on, it faded into the background because of some other core ideas (facetiming, instant messaging, filtering) that weren't implemented, as new technologies emerged.