DawgNotes

So then in another class I was reading Habermas (yes, I have finally read some Habermas), who argued that through the public sphere, the "passive" public became the "critical" public. This notion of public sphere is tied to conversations we're having about global civil society, and what will count as the public sphere in a global sense. Back to Weinberger, who wrote:

what counts as ‘the public sphere’ has changed. It now includes the Web. We’re just not sure how (14).

Then I'm thinking, as Madeline did, about Weinberger's 100 lb. backpack, and how light you can be if you let go of individualism, realism, relativism, and solipsism, which seems to me to be part of the necessary condition to be able to "think outside the box" or become the kind of self-healing organization or community or even person described by Watts in the Toyota story. That sort of knowledge can't be taught, but it has to be learned, not by procedures and rule books, but by being open to ideas and alternatives and newness. As Watt wrote:

The trick is to focus not on the stimulus itself but on the structure of the network that the stimulus hits (249).

The nature of the network on the internet is one of paths and links and ends--of connectedness within a few steps (or degrees). This connectedness facilitates socially constructed knowledge, which is itself a form of public knowledge, which by definition isn't private, and if you follow Madeline's logic isn't actually "owned" by anyone, but is accessible to everyone. And because it's public, because it is constructed from many foci, the potential for a cascading effect increases. So back to Weinberger, who said:

the Web also returns knowledge to its roots in heated arguments in the passageways of Athens. Knowledge isn’t a body of truths stamped with a seal of justification. Knowledge on the Web is a social activity. It is what happens when people say things that matter to them, others reply, and a conversation ensues (140).

This conversation is what can produce the cascading effect.

This class is, I think, about imagining academe is a new and innovative way, about sharing knowledge and ideas and facilitating through the social network of the internet knowlege that couldn't come about with each of us working alone or even in our relatively limited physical spaces. We work with traditional elements, like publishing, citing, and credit, but look for new ways to make it work. We find some brand new elements, and look for ways to bring them into our traditions. How far can we reach? How much of the hollow sphere can we collapse and how many new ways can we see our doings?

I guess that's it for now. I'm not sure I've really gone anywhere with all this, but I'd like to, so if anyone can help me make sense of it, your comments will be appreciated.