That is, there are competing uses or interests involved in using the web,
and these=20
>
>My own web site is a tightly bounded structure - why? Because it is an
expression my identity. There are scores of links out of my web site, but
each in way is a point where my identity leaks away. Unless I provide a
strong unifying structure, I fail to do any justice to the unity that is
me. Saint=ADExup=E9ry writes: "Man is a knot, a web, a mesh into which
relationships are tied." Unless that knot is strong, it is one's self that
dissolves - at least to the potential web visitor.
>
>Leaking identity can have unexpected side-effects. That fact that most of
the Internet was developed at places like Berkeley and MIT results in
something I call "digital imperialism" (and I'm sure I haven't coined the
phrase.) Returning to World War II, everyone know about the destruction of
the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. Virtually no one knows about the
destruction of the French fleet at Toulon in 1943. Why? Well partially
because the French insist on keeping an important part of their own
cultural identity: their language. I hope to eventually have my web site
both in English and French; however, that doubles the size of the site - 32
files, 42 buttons, . . . . A web site in English can be understood by
90%+ of web users. What does that imply about "minor" languages like
French? Even Spanish may fall to this onslaught. After all, every
programming language ever created is a form of English.
>
>The MCA site suffers the same paradoxes that my own personal site suffers
from. It could serve largely as a switchboard, with little identity of its
own. However, that would detract from MCA as an important Journal. The
MCA web site is part of the "Capitalism" of Journals and keeps to keep up
appearances for the sake of reputation and circulation. The language
problem is staggering. Rather than confront it, both the Journal and web
site reproduce that unintended English imperialism. Basically there is no
alternative, even if LCHC had the funds to translate MCA into the major
languages used in academia, that would leave hundreds of other readers in
the dark. For all the pride in Latin America, their tongue is the mark of
earlier rounds of Imperialist domination. The task of preserving native
languages, never mind cultures, has come too late for many civilizations
systematically obliterated in generations past.
>
>Abandoning the language issue, a common compromise to web site identity is
"web-rings." These are web sites each managed as a independent centers,
but each provides links to the rest of the ring. The ring allows each site
to have its particular identity, while allowing the larger ring to itself
serve a shared community. It is probably advisable that the MCA serve as
the cornerstone of a web-ring on activity theory. Several other
contributors have also created elaborate web sites, linking these sites
together in a ring should provide the best possible compromise.
>
>Yet, it remains a frustrating and unresolved compromise - much like the
web itself. HTML was created by idealists with unique features such as
specialized tags for reading pages to the blind. HTML now has become the
political football of International corporate and governmental interests.
No evil force decided to "rip out" the features for the blind. Instead, the
needs of the blind lost out to the need of "cool." That pressure for
"cool" web sites resulted in hacks and bandaid changes to the web
environment that serve no one. It is to the point that the new HTML
standard 4.0, replicates features already present in two other web tools:
Cascading Style Sheets and JavaScript. Now there are basically 3 different
ways to accomplish the same effects, but don't worry, none are guaranteed
to work. Neither Netscape nor Microsoft have plans to make their browsers
fully compliant to the new standard.
>
>For all the rhetoric of a global village, all we have are incomplete,
inconsistent, and culturally imperialist portals through which some aspects
of the world population can communicate. Since the Internet was born in
academia, I think academics greatly overrate its universality. I got my
first email account in 1981. Yet today, there are still large areas of the
world without complete phone coverage. Even if, with the best of
intentions, we put a computer in every house, that computer would spread a
US/English imperialism. Finally, if we could overcome that hurdle, we
still don't have anything close to a "magic bullet" that would allow any
person to create a web site that complete with the experts . . . 1 month
of work, 16 primary HTML files . . . . . and counting!
>
>Peace, Edouard
>=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>Edouard Lagache, PhD
>Webmaster - Lecturer
>Information Technologies
>U.C. San Diego, Division of Extended Studies
>Voice: (619) 622-5758, FAX: (619) 622-5742
>email: elagache who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
>:...................................................................:
>: Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, :=20
>: the necessity of being the man you are and not another. You :
>: are free to be that man, but not free to be another. :
>: Saint-Exup=E9ry, _The wisdom of the Sands_, 1948 :
>. - - - . . . - - - . . . - - - . . . - - - . . . - - - .
>=20