6 february 1996

6 February, 1996

too tired to write
3am
chatting with Julia
many hours
she feels unsure,
slighted
cuz I haven't touched her
with my web page
talked to some moneyed fellow today
wanted me to help him up
onto my razor blade
classified ads on the cutting edge
not my gig, thanks

today,
many students turned in the assignment
surfing for specifics:
Sri Lanka by Mike Bernstein
Conspiracies by Andrew Stillman
Jokes by Bob Yang
The Omphalos (BellyButtons) by Jason Linder
Violin Making by Julia Benton
BioSphere 2 by Rya Peelle
L7 Search by Joan Hoffmann
Pultruded Plastic by Nick Lehmann
Surf and Turf by Dominic Sagolla
not for grades,
for love of web
something like that
that stimulates me
like old vacation photos
and envisioning electronic education
after turning down his proposition,
I explained my aspiration to teach
inspire the mass media voiceless
to seize the internet as their own
he might be able to help me with that
at what price?
premonizes perhaps
24 hours in Cyberspace
they're not flying me out to San Frisco
like the Philly Inquirer reported
but instead I'm staying for web class,
maybe we'll
say cheese.

Coincidence? This unit date, February 8, coincides with 24 Hours in Cyberspace, an effort to photodocument a day in online life across the planet.
(No doubt as to whether this is an individual or an institution - big money here folks)
MIT's Media Labs staged a similar thing earlier, A Day in the Life of Cyberspace, there's some disagreement over whose britches are bigger.
Regardless, Thursday's participants have built an impressive infrastructure to handle an expected influx of stories and photographs from dwellers in "the digital cave."
(is that like platonic or something?)

That date also corresponds nicely with the day President Clinton might sign into law the Communications Decency Act, so we can take a stand for stories and education and all the good healthy stuff that we do with the Internet.

I know these folks from San Francisco. They were going to fly me out there Thursday to participate directly, but it was either that or class.
So, instead, they are sending a photographer to our session Thursday, and they'd like us to contribute something.

We already have an agenda, without this commercial stuff, so here's the skinny -
I agreed, and stayed, because I figured it could be good exposure for the class, and for each of you. It is quite possible that y/our audience will be augmented by thousands on that day.

No pressure!
Write a response, whatever - what are your thoughts on the web, storytelling, using computers, surfing, love, etc.
We could spend some time in class Thursday drafting a contribution.
Our class time is valuable though, so if we don't feel like doing it, I will be working on a submission in the Computer Center that afternoon - please feel free to assist.
Or resist entirely. Please feel free to abstain, and voice your opposition to corporatized recollection.
Perhaps we could spend Thursday's class arguing the merits of their entire undertaking - institutionalizing the individual. Seems appropriate enough.

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