Metaphors of the metasphere Paris Utrecht Mini Symposium 'Meta' Paris 19 May 2006 Marianne van den Boomen

Web 2.0 as metaphor Target domain: composite free webservices user input to enrich collected data scripts (preferably Ajax) new business model Source domain: software after 1.0, 1.1 etc not just patched but fundamentally improved integral package urge to update/upgrade branding & marketting

Metaphors of the digital Web 2.0: focus on software as such NB: metaphors provide our only access to the digital Highlights: revolutionairy break and unified package Downplays: distributed cooperations between heterogeneous technical and social actors

Web 1.0: early 90s WWW client-server http-protocol, HTML language information platform, no communication multi-media: assemblage of text, graphics, and images page as entity easy hyperlinking by URL's to other webpages static pages webmasters in charge

Web 1.1: The scripted web Scripts: small programs to manipulate data components executable source code on top of protocol enabled user interactivity introduced communication tools (webfora, webchat) introduced databases webmasters still in charge information & communication platform dynamic pages

Principles of digitality 1. Numerical representation assigning numbers to discrete elements (data objects & algorithmic entities) 2. Modularity independent sets of numbers -> reassembling modules 3. Variation computable -> principally mutable, extendable and hackable 4. Automation preprogrammed computational variations, causation chains between modules 5. Transcoding translation between machine code and human code mediated by boundary objects & interfaces (icons, menu's, languages) conventions, concepts, analogies -> metaphors ('page', 'virtual community')

Mobility as 6 th principle 6. Mobility numerical representation in binary digits -> patterns of 'ones and zero's' can be repesented, stored and transported transport regulated by TCP/IP protocol formats regulated by application protocols (mail, Usenet, IRC, http) Protocological clusering: screen representations -> conceived as spaces communication in a space -> social gathering

Metaphor of community Target domain: social aggregation localized, enduring core group of frequent users group communication and exchange shared values and morality Source domain: pre-modern village clear borders self-sufficient economy strong social cohesion No communities on Web 1.0!

Web 1.1 to Web 1.2 Web 1.1: webcommunities less dynamic: confined to specific webpage, forum, chatroom hyperlinking only one-way Web 1.2: blogs diary, logbook: page with separate entries every entry possibly a separate webforum maintained by blogowners, or by users information & communication platform blurs the division webmasters/webusers

Radicalization of scripted web Software: CMS & scripts & database server-side or client-side scripts -> webservice modularity & mobility pushed to the edge several reassembling strategies (date, archive, search words, categories, user evaluations, tags) spanning several blogs Radicalization of the hyperlink permalinks: per entry, per comment, internal & external trackbacks: crossposting, two way traffic -> spanning several blogs Blogosphere: within and between websites and databases the age of the page is over

From communities to metaspheres Communities: bordered protocological spaces space centered, subject centered Scripted web: meta-layer, parasitizes on protocol manages distributed data objects data gathering instead of people gathering user data input instead of users-as-such decentering virtual space and virtual subjecs Other metaphors instead of community: spheres, clouds: gaslike volatile sphere of assembling and reassembling distributed data metaspheres?