pulls the work together but
will not be updated here, check
http://an.org/inet98/ instead.

(title)

This paper concludes the work done at http://an.org/inet98/ to provide a clearer look at what the coming presentation is about. It includes some historical background information about the author and explaines the perspective of his Internet studies. Furthermore the typical services and tools used and their conceptual meanings for him are described with support from some examples.

Table of Contents

• (introduction)
• (net.life.)Background
• (net.life.)Perspective
• (net.life) Use
• (net.life) Cases
• (net.life) References

---

Background

Finland

After spending some time and later living abroad I got to notice that what I once thought was normal living and environment appears to be quite exotic for many people. Besides nature, also social structures and the standards and use of technology in Finland are quite different compared to what I have experienced in for example in Central Europe. I believe that our special, arctic, living conditions play a role in the development of telecommunication in northern Finland.

It seems that the people that are sometimes mentioned being the most silent in the world start to babble when they get their mobile phones and the (in)famous IRC (Internet Relay Chat) was also born and is extremely widely used in my home town. Also other technology, like ATM bank machines and nowadays on-line banking services, seem to be easily adapted by people there. On top of all this the technology image has been also artificially emphasized by many campaigns to attract international attention to our projects. It is quite easy to understand as high technology is nowadays perhaps the only thing we can really use to participate in global markets in order to maintain our society in the Oulu-area where I come from.

Internet / Computer background

Computer kids:

Today the Internet is not about computers, at least not for me, but to get introduced to it in the beginning of 90's you had to be quite involved. We definitely were. The story is quite typical: first contact with computers was the Commodore family. First some games with my older cousin at the age of six and after a couple of years we, me and my brother that is, got our own. Besides games we did some simple programming at the age of ten, eleven or so.

Electronic messaging on the BBS age

Then when I was twelve, turning to thirteen, this one new boy moved to the neighborhood and came to our class. He was already familiar with, not only computers, but modems and the world of 'boxes' (BBS's, bulleting board systems) we had only heard about. After first reading 'messages' (that's how we called the Fidonet flow, comparable to Usenet News today) for hours and hours at their house above his shoulder I finally got to buy my own modem and dive into the world he'd introduced me to.

The daily routine changed: I stopped watching TV late night shows but started going to bed early(!) to get up about 6am. to poll new messages, have breakfast and read the newspaper meanwhile, then checking the messages that had come (polling, or downloading them took usually about 20 minutes with my 2400bps modem) and perhaps writing some before going to school. You probably wonder why I didn't stay up late then, like computer people usually do? The simple answer is that those BBS's hardly ever had more than one line which was usually free only at that time. I guess it was also nice to in a way combine the newly printed newspaper and the discussions we had often about the same topics -- but I don't think I really realized it that way back then being only about fourteen years old.

Many BBS's at the time were independent 'islands' and actually did they job pretty well that way. I guess we sometimes feel the need some kind of closed societies and SysOp's care-taking like the talk of Virtual Communities quite often suggests. Anyhow the networks started to get more interesting. The ones we school kids got to use back then were technically FidoNet based. One was the Fido itself, the we had the national Finnish SF. (Suomi-Fido) groups and a lot of locals (CL. for Circus Laplandia etc.). Later on we changed to UUCP and joined nullnet which used Internet type addresses and provided Usenet feed for those who could afford it. Most of us couldn't but we had the local pulp.nullnet groups instead (pulp as in pohjolan uljaat pojat, brave boys of the north :)

Local groups

I guess the local groups were often most interesting since those were people that we soon started to do things with. There was always a lot of meetings and parties so that the virtual community became real. Many of those groups of friends exist even today.

Internet

At the time I had already had my first contact with the global Internet. I was fourteen and at the university for one week from school to see what working there was like. Naturally I had chosen the computer center where I got to know some basics of that kind of networking. Of course I had heard what it was like but still having immediate access all over the world felt amazing. We were used to dialup systems that changed new information perhaps once or twice a day with the node above and international traffic was not only slow (took days) but also highly unreliable. My job back then was to use FTP to get up-to-date information about Internet connectivity, I still remember printing out the maps and showing them to some people there. After that week my account was valid for one month but for FTP only.
 

IRC

I have to admit that it was not before IRC got big in Oulu that I was really interested about the Internet. The access was a trouble and the (academic) newsgroups, yet they sure were interesting, felt quite remote for a fourteen year old. But when we, thanks to some friendly people at the university, started getting limited access to their systems. Actually the server we got to use was the very first IRC server there ever was, tolsun.oulu.fi, through a limited menu system called OuluBox with time restrictions.
 

Parties and drinking

Most of the people I knew from the local Fido- and UUCP systems already so basicly the only difference was that we now got to be on-line simultaneously hence more interactive. IRC is also a lot more concurrent by nature, quite common use was to log in around six or seven on a Friday night to discuss with the group where to party that night, meet there in few hours and gather again on-line after the night before going to sleep. Amazing amounts of alcohol was involved.
 

UNIX provided a solid base

Later on, I guess I was sixteen, we got unlimited UNIX shell access and went crazy about it. We learned how to use "screen" that allows using several programs on a single terminal and is actually still the way my net being is built. Screen enabled us to use e-mail, news and the early www more comfortably since /quitting IRC was quite often out of the question. Some sessions during Christmas holidays (freezing cold and constantly dark outside, nothing to do, cheap phone calls and lots of mandarins!) lasted days.
 

At first global

At the time we were perhaps more global than ever since. The IRC  was not so crowded by Finns yet (even though we were a kind of minor majority :) and the lag to #Texas (my friend's favorite), #aussies or South Africa (where I got my best friend at the time) was a mere two seconds.
 

Then local

Until 1993 we were only computer geeks and yes, boys. I remember only one exception, one girl who started ircing at the age of 13/14(?) and kept on for some years. We were also totally dependent on university and other schools that luckily gave some people access even though they were not obliged to. But then everything changed. The OuluNet (www.oulu.net), the school network in Oulu, got started. It was initiated and run by Jukka Orajarvi who was and still is working for the (www.otol.fi).
 

Crackers to responsible administrators

Actually some guys of my age had cracked some passwords on his (the school's, that is) machines to gain access but got caught. The best thing Jukka could come up with was to give them access but also responsibility for maintaining some systems. He and some enthusiasts from some of the high schools also decided to try connecting schools with first slow (19.2kbps) modems with SLIP and putting up small Unix servers to the schools to provide Internet services for the kids. And, most surprisingly, the maintainers were us -- some 16/17 year old nerds.
 

Internet for non-tech kids, including girls!

So by 1993/94 Oulu became, I believe, one of the first places in Europe to give children from 12/13 to 18/19 (upper preliminary and high school) and occasionally even younger unlimited Internet access -- also from home! Soon a lot of non-computer people we're involved and in many schools especially girls we're enthusiastic about e-mail and chat as often is the case.

Finally teachers get along

At first the teachers didn't know much about it. The initiative came from outside and the system: the whole technical solutions, maintenance, teaching and support, ethical questions etc. were our trouble. Actually the first job for many of us was the courses lead by Jukka in summer '94 when we, by the time professionals, were teaching our own teachers the basics of the Internet on our holiday. The same summer we had a workshop that produced, for example, the first web pages of the City of Oulu with connections to a database with all ...

The OuluNet project was an important experiment and is considered successful. Actually Jukka Orajarvi got awarded of it last year, i.e. three years later.

By the end of the year 1994 the structure was pretty much there and since then the Internet has established to be a part of school activities. We, the group of first pupil maintainers was, were going to graduate soon but in most of the schools new enthusiasts were already there learning their job.

Into Business

There was also growing demand for services outside of the school world so we, a group of ten from the schools, decided to found a company, Net People Oy, by the end of 1994. That's how we continued being (working) together for the following years. Net People's history is quite colourful like I'd guess most of the Internet startups to be. The people and the profile has changed dramatically a couple of times and the company today is quite different than where it got started from. For me the freedom and the ultimate challenges it offered was crucial.

From place to place, task to task

maintenance, business, services, projects, contacts, tougher knowledge, travelling - teaching, .. yet the community (homepages, irc etc)
 
95/96-> Helsinki .. international interests, business slowdown,
 ministry of telecommunication, house of knowledge, ...
97 -> abroad
98 -> 5 years full

(A view from a homepage, fall'97: )

Filling the void

Doing the World Surf

Internet exploded and suddenly the world was a like a void that needed us desperately. So we got involved in all kinds of projects, met many people and started travelling around teaching, consulting and helping companies and other organizations to build new systems. Mostly we were around Finland, that was our world.

While staying in Helsinki I felt pretty much the same: I could do anything I wanted to, go wherever I felt like and meet and talk with whoever. That came up to mean people from important companies, politicians, artists, writers ...

Then I wanted to go to Malaysia to Inet'97 to check what ISOC and the world out there looked like. Some planning and e-mailing and that was it (well, ok, it was quite hard and troubleful but still). Arranging the stay in Amsterdam was, say, trivial. Some mailing, checking things on the web and then the flight.

What have we learned?

There was a tremendous free space for us to explore for the last five years. In the end life started to feel like world surf. Is that what we've learned? Change context in a flash? Understand aspects? Know what's needed and where? Learn fast and forget even faster?

..?
 

Home on the net?

home, screen
home

Of course nothing of this would be possible without something stable behind.

We need something to attach to and the Internet seems to be perfect - it's always there. I'd guess that's the reason it seems like a good thing to live around and where to build a home. It makes me feel secure. No matter where I am I can always log on and my friends, family, work - basicly everything is there.
 

Is our time out?

Last five years have been crazy. Yet many say that the true boom is still ahead. Will the next five years need us?

Did I come to central Europe to win time? They are behind in the development so
it's even easier to be an evangelist here.

I've already been bored since the net has become so established. Money, world politics .. that's not us. Is our time already over before it really started?

-

Sometimes I dream of being a musician who can go anywhere, just any place, and
just take his guitar, play a nice song for the people there and make a nice
atmosphere for everyone to enjoy. Did this dream become true on those travels? Is it brokend now.
 

Status-less

 

---

Perspective

pioneers are never the typical end users

70's programmers are programmers
90's communicators are communicators

what do people do?

Who are we?

From programmers to communicators?

Pioneers are not usually the typical end users. The Internet pioneers did the founding work on the '70s, soon almost thirty years ago. I don't know much about them even though I once had the joy to share the same dance floor with the famous Vint Cerf and have been hanging around ISOC a while. I wonder, how do they use the net? Have they ever studied it? Do they think of it?

Those creators were/are engineers and programmers. I quitted programming five years ago, mostly because of the Internet. Suddenly there were people behind the screen and the computer itself vanished, I hardly ever think of them anymore. The net was there ready for us with all these wonderful services and programs evolving.

I think of communication, or interaction in a broader sense, a lot and that's what the net most of all is about. That is also what I do for work - communication and communication systems for other people to use. Perhaps I could be called a communicator, like people sometimes are (the edge digerati).
(...)
 

On or for the net?

Sometimes I see a difference between people who use the net and net people who are on the net. The net is same for all of us and we use pretty much the same tools but it seems, however, that we have some differences in our perspectives. Is it again that we are another generation of net pioneers and live not only on it but also for it? Would that separate us from what the typical future user will be like?
(...)
 

What is home, where's the surf and excitement?

As we were grown up with the net it's ways of doing often feel more familiar than those of the outer world. For most people, I mean just normal people, this is still quite the opposite as they are often even afraid of computers and can't often really understand what's going on the net behind them.

The adventurous are encouraged to buy a computer with a modem in search for excitement. Ads and campaigns in the old media (TV, radio, paper etc) keep hyping, talk about web surf emphasizing all the dangers. The Information Revolution comes up in table discussions and the New Economy buzzes economists. Gee.

The people (I know) on/from/for the net couldn't care less. Many of them work around it and do concern it important and follow what's going on but are fascinated about quite different things. The net was always there and doesn't really seem to change. Even the small improvements we've had during the last couple of years were known well before and the only surprise seems to be how slowly everything happens. But as the tools are pretty ok already it doesn't really matter that much 'cause we can happily use them.

"For us the net is not about surfing but a cozy place where we like to be.
Home. It is not at all exiting or fun but totally normal, just necessary.
The world outside is wild and exotic, perhaps scary, but full of
adventures!"

Is it the dealing with the real/old world: paper, snailmail, travelling, body .. is where we find the adventures? For some of us it definitely is but not always in a positive sense. My most terrifying experiences come from paper bureaucracy and many people simply hate telephones, not to mention TV.  Joy is in dance. Importance in people, togetherness. Excitement in fishing?
 

Examples

("everybody" stands for "typical user")

Creating and putting the work on-line:

Everybody usually puts their stuff on-line after writing, presenting or by other means finishing it. Our work seems to have a different approach: it's born on-line, in discussions, grown with comments and formed on the net. The peak of it's presence might be some publication (speak, article in a newspaper) but even though those moments and delivering  are important they are only short moments, dots in a lifeline. ... after which the creation itself continues to exist on the net (virtually) forever, accessible from anywhere.
--
information overload.. [the peaceful media column -stuff]
are we immune?
(...)
 

"Source critique" (lahdekritiikki in Finnish), lack of context

A classical example about people from the old world is the way they emphasize the importance of (something that is called "lahdekritiikki") critical way of reading everything they find on the web.

They say: "you never know who's written it, some school kid or a respected researcher", "there is nothing to signify the context".

I would believe that people who are used to it know very well the different contexts and sources of information even on unfamiliar sites. URLs and other addressing tells often quite a lot, usually also the design style of a page (which can, of course, be faked) but most importantly it is easy to get the same information from different independent sources and to learn which ones you can trust and when. These are really the basic skills that evolve. Furthermore they are assumed naturally - of course you must be aware of who you're listening to!

On the net the possibility of disinformation and numerous contradictions are so obvious that it is accepted as a part of communication. People used to the polished safe old media who want to benefit from it need to get used to it.

And, most importantly, I'd say that people grown on the net realize that the whole world is like that and don't necessarily take the stories on TV and magazines so seriously either. It is always only one point of view after all. This is common knowledge but in some discussions some friends have been pointing out how natural it is for net people and I quite agree.
 

What are the (data - information - knowledge?) networks

The 'net is not (only) about knowledge, even information.

Background

In Finland there has been a lot of discussion and critics concerning the development of Information Society by driving the Internet and computers etc.

The Finnish word for information is "tieto" so the information society is called "tietoyhteiskunta". "Tieto" means (loosely) also knowledge and even, on the other opposite, raw data. A data file is called "tiedosto" (~ a piece of "tieto") and the Internet and other computer based networks are called "tietoverkko" (data/information(/knowledge) network).

It is often claimed that computer networks are only data networks that don't necessarily support information and more importantly knowledge networks at all -- even though the word "tietoverkko" would suggest so. The critics say that a  lot of knowledge is still better presented in books and journals when Internet appears to be filled with disinformation and other meaningless data.

Opinion:

I'd say that the critics are right in their perceptions but think that it's more a benefit than a drawback. These network's capabilities of carrying all kinds of data is just what makes them so flexible!

There's a more to life than information or knowledge. What appears irrelevant to those big minded thinkers might be essential for someone else's life. (there's one new book titled "moral, beyond knowledge" that might say something?)

These I quite new thoughts for me. I've always been the one wondering why and how some people can spend their lives just taking care of bits' welfare. I've felt it more important to look at what's there, in the meanings, and what new services we could develop. I guess that is also important but ... (dunno)

So "data" and "bits" cover a lot more than "information". Perhaps they are even capable of carrying atmospheres and feelings at least in some way, (...)

But not even bits - being digital - is the key. I don't even want to be digital, analog is often great! It is not the issue at all. What then?

Networks!, I hear already. Ok, the distributed parallel amoebae like nature of these new structures is important. That is the technology and said to be the politics too. I've been wondering about social structures, so called networked (distributed?) social relations and got to even hear about this study about Network Families.

Some discussion about new netty social structures: (in Finnish only, sorry)
http://an.org/tunnustelua/0049.html
http://an.org/tunnustelua/0056.html
http://an.org/tunnustelua/0059.html

But, sigh, even networks aren't everything. Wonder if I used to think so?

There's lots of them everywhere, though, economy and everything. One of my favorites is language, the new visual thesaurus by PlumbDesign  <URL:http://www.plumbdesign.com/thesaurus/ > demonstrates it in quite a nice way, as does also WebSom in Helsinki http://websom.hut.fi/

Still they are just .. networks. Some people don't care of them too much but concentrate on .. just some specific nodes on them? My node I mean for example a person or some other entity (family) on a social network or perhaps some special culture or style from some other aspect (music or whatever). ...

I can say I'm one of Net People, a person perhaps. I think I know what it stands for and am proud of it. It is not about computers, bits, data, information, knowledge or even networks although I guess I'll have to admit that they're related. Perhaps .. perhaps the essence is in attitude .. I'm quite satisfied with what it stands for as being (often) the a of an. Attitude meaning the way to relate to things, way of thinking and especially doing.

Tapscott's book seems to have a grip on this. I hate the name, though, and some of the approach. http://www.growingupdigital.com/

Support

Said aloud in a party Friday night:
"Internet is the Best Support
to get Real World Experiences."
(Which are what we're running after)
 
What makes me insists such things?
Is it true?

I guess I had arguments: "It's the best place to know what's going on and where and how to get there and who's doing what who to meet and what to say and do."

But if it means ending up spending half of your time on-line wouldn't it be just
better to (Mike Oldfield, Ommadawn, song three) go to people and live with them and whatever?

And get drown in paper and fascinated by
telephones? No thanks.
 

---

Use

Services

all the modern things have always existed
they've just been waiting in a mountain
for the right moment

From a technical service aspect the 'net is for me the same old four services it offers:
1. Chat (irc)
2. Mail (personal and groups)
3. Forums (mailing lists, news, web forums)
4. Sites  ('pages', www services including ftp etc. file archives)

Being on the net means using them, usually all four, simultaneously.
What are they, then?

1. Chat: people you are (work, part, live) with, a.k.a. friends
2. Mail: organizing things, inquiries, letters
3. Forums: common interests, interest groups among strangers
4. Sites: services by people and organizations

I consider chat being most interactive and sites the least. Chat is about togetherness, often seemingly useless things. Mail is most practical for work and also for private things and is often very intimate too.

Forums, like UseNet news, public mailing list discussions and web-based forums are usually interest groups for me like usually.

Sites represent often the remotest and coldest parts of the net like company services, mass media, shopping malls etc. Sometimes we spend amazingly little time among them and often the most important are friend's sites.

Homepages are central but not covered well here at the moment.
 

Tools

All those boys with
fascinating fingers,
touching their tools

The applications (programs, software) we use are quite primitive. Sometimes I wonder if that's stupid, if it makes us old fashioned and inefficient. Then again, they are the tools we know and that work well, are reliable, fast, straightforward and flexible, for example in their location independency which we have always valued high.

A typical session is to open connections to suitable bases and reattach to screens on them:

Session: ssh current.base.server ; screen -r
    0: irc, possibly windowed
    1: pine or similar for e-mail and lists
    2: tin or similar for news type forums
    3: lynx, netscape, msie, ...: connections to other bases and sites

Besides applications used during sessions the systems, every net base, run processes that take care of users wellbeing while he or she is away. Most of I use are standard mail filtering facilities and IRC helpers but lot better agency should be coming.

System: (what is always running on background)
    0: irc helpers
    1: procmail for autofiltering & foldering
    ...

 (...)

In the background story I tell how I quitted programming because of the Internet. As like the tools were perfect already. Of course they aren't but is it that there are so many people making them anyway and we get to use them immediately that totally other things fascinate more?

Should the following make me think different?

Recent Wired-hype:
Fairman Dyson:"science is driven by innovation, creation of new tools"

Tropicalissimo:
(Pela Internet)
"the development of music corresponds to the popularizing new technologies. electronic keyboards and synthesizersALIGN=right>have had great impact on music- interchanging through planetary networkswill only improve that process."

about tools and art on nettime:
http://www.factory.org/nettime/archive/1372.html

from a reply:
"Webstalker by I/O/D won Mr.net.art title some days ago. and I'm  sure such experiments with brosers will be actual this year. They are very interesting and very technologically creative."
 

Embodiment

The time I've been working on this presentation here in this computer class at the university I've been writing and thinking about quite a lot how happy I am with the IRC and other services we use with these ancient programs.

I've felt comfortable with being textual.

That is, luckily, not always true.

I value true physical embodiment with my full body priceless.
I enjoy nothing like dance.

One of my old ambitions is combining, bridging these two worlds in a way that allows to play in between. That's actually what I always do but worlds of the net and dance are quite a special case. Did you already take a look at one early experiment I always like
to mention:  http://www.netppl.fi/~antont/pics/montaasi94.jpg ?
(...)
 

Methods

Situations

isn't it obvious that 
you can't be in 
one place at one time

A base is a server (typically one for domain/role) where I have a screen, usually an active one and homepage and e-mail activities.

The net presence is not independent from real world situation. Perhaps it can / could be, but to get the best support I've started to separate different roles and even
physical locations (cities).

- roles:
art - work - study - LIFE

- projects, responsibilities, ...

back in Oulu I was mostly just there,
(+ naturally participating in global)

study, work, private etc. all integrated
first @tolsun, @otol and finally @netppl.fi <DIV ALIGN=right>

in Helsinki the situation was still clearly divided.

example: situations when living in Helsinki:
work - home - visit

Currently:
cs.vu.nl
an.org
netppl.fi
lib.hel.fi
(...)

How to organize net being so that it supports existing locations and roles (situations) best?

I've done it mainly by separating different situations on different bases so that when logging in I can choose which roles to have and how much.

Now in Amsterdam I'm still in a process:
There's only one irc for Finland now that covers both netppl and an -activities and the whole country.

cs.vu.nl has replaced lib.hel.fi as daily activities but the whole thing has not really taken form yet.. (as has not the rest of the life either .. which is probably the reason 'cause they're woven together)
 

Multi-presence?

Why and how?

while you're away
my heart comes undone,
slowly unravels..

Just by letting my net presence lay in those systems I can, every day, follow what is going on. I'd get official documents and other information otherwise too, but it seems that following everyday babble and participating in shared problem solving gives a lot more.

so when you come back
we'll have to make new love

When I return to Finland, go to Helsinki or Oulu, I know already what has happened almost every day while I was away and we can share our (rare) moments together without a terrible need to talk about some basic things - we do it almost every day anyway.

The company, Net People, is an extreme example as quite many of them work over the net and walk on IRC even inside the town (or office!) so I can see all that from everywhere else too.

Drawbacks?

Of course every moment I spend on the net with my old friends back in Finland is away from my intensity of being here in Holland. Sure I'd need to use the net anyway just to get general information and to keep contact with other people too, but hanging with friends tends to take quite a lot of time especially if I make the mistake trying to continue work when tired.

It seems, however, that many of my international friends spend quite a lot of time writing and  reading letters, books, magazines etc. from their homes without using the Internet, too. I'd guess it distracts from the local culture just the same way.
 

Homebuilding

I drop my anchor
and this is where
I'm staying, this 
is my Home

I spend a lot of time constructing home sites for various reasons. Homepage freaks are often categorized to be some kind of self promoters but I think that some ways of use are developing that will be simply handy.

(...)
 

Re-Use

recycle
and refine

By consciously storing all (relevant) data flows in out from net bases in use a valuable database can be build. At least now that I'm used to it I find it useful to have all material I've ever produced or received at hand and with the IRC also many discussions that I might sometimes need to recall.

Well organized

ontinuous re-use of all kinds of material
forwards, logs, ...

how does net support?
what does it change?

case-Rotterdam! (?)

would need better database facilities!
...
 

Collaboration by sharing:

do not think
communicate!

(I was never
that smart but
have developed,
grown up to this
courage to ask,
tell, share ..
communicate
.. which makes
me efficient?)
 

---

Cases

Case: Important first times around the net

 

First time drinking ouzo:

humala.html (stands for "drunkenness") .. authentic!
written in a party at the time we were learning html for fun :)
 

First girlfriend:

in a party, around 5am, people leaving,
went on-line,  <snowg> was there, told they
had strawberry cake, so i bicycled there
through the town and in a week/two started
dating.
 

First love:

she was sort of familiar from #Oulu on irc, we were
looking for people to join to go to travel to a party
in Tampere (500km away) and she had put her
telephone number on the net for us to finger and we
called and traveled together the next day and fell
completely in a disastrous love and got together.
we've been separated ages now but keep struggling
in this weird bigger-than-life brother/sister friendship
mostly on-line .. why? she kills me.
 

First contact with the ISOC and trip to the East, Malaysia Inet'97:

got interested when gtld-mou was published,
had taken a look before but forgotten,
tried to find out but really couldn't,
noticed inet'97, almost gave it up, finally
managed to get there, wrote about it,
kept contact, was driving chapterizierung
but also criticizing, saw isoc.nl born,
now isoc.fi is coming (and this)

...
 

First stay abroad:

announced interest fall '95, got e-mail
spring '97, replied "yes", some more mailing,
checking courses from the web etc.
and here I am.
 

First parachuting experience:

The decair, meaning the airspace freaks from Digital Equipment Corporation in Finland, sent mail
'cause they needed more people to their parachuting group to get some discount. I hadn't had any contact with them before but as the mail came during some (boring) day at work it was easy to reply "sure, why not" and so that happened.
 
 

Case: Return from Rotterdam Weekend

I was robbed violently in Rotterdam at the time of the International Film Festival, end of January1998. I wasn't hurt and lost only some money and it didn't really bother my stay over the weekend but made me think afterwards.

The returning back home to Amsterdam and the following week there became an interesting case showing some aspects about net oriented vs. ordinary life.

On the net I could share the accident, a description of what had happened, with friends and other people who were interested with a little trouble, basically writing it once, after which we could talk about the thoughts and feelings it really made us feel.

With the people I lived in Amsterdam it was quite the opposite. I had to explain the story, repeat the same tape for everyone, but had then very few real discussions about it. Several times there just wasn't really time for it after the story itself.  Not to mention the police, who of course cared nothing about how I felt, just kept bothering me with the same questions (and travelling!) again and again.

[] = not on the net
 

Sunday:

 [talk in the bar and at the Hospitium with friends]

Monday:

[some talk in the morning]
e-mail:
original for potential funder
(rotterdam.mail-original.txt)
plenty of forwards with customized introductions
(rotterdam.mail-netppl+.txt,
 parallel, chat:
 forwards:
more chat, log sent to brother, discussion
[talk in a party, again]
 

Tuesday:

 e-mail: reply's
 
 chat: new things
 
[Life goes on.]
a close friend comes, story once more
(rotterdam.irc-*.txt)
 
police
 

Wednesday & Thursday:

did other things, police visited
 

Friday:

morning: [phone call from Rotterdam],
day: wrote the column (in Finnish)
 

Saturday:

(...)
 

Case: Björk lost

     ... the marvelous web ...

        and they will assist us 
'cause we're asking for help

-Björk, All Neon Like

The Icelandic singer/musician and pop star Björk is really important for me. I was most delighted to notice that she was coming to perform in Amsterdam just when I'd moved (t)here. I had left all my albums back in Finland to try living without them I thought I'd like to go to the concert first even though I knew I loved the new album anyway.

Of course the gig was sold out before I got the ticket. I was terrified. So I went around and listened to the record at Virgin's .. it was the first time so I was really moved emotionally. After listening I went to a cafe to write about it for all the beppers on the list where we share these feelings.

I was already satisfied with the fact that I'd miss the concert. I'd have the music, anyway.

Then, suddenly, out of the blue, there is this guy from Belgium with a perfect solution: a ticket to the concert in Brussels the day before the one in Amsterdam - the first gig on the new tour! What am I to do? Of course I went and enjoyed it really and am really thankful for all the people who made it possible. I'll never forget the evening.

This is what I think the net really is about.

Still I was left with a bit mixed feelings: what was this leading to?
Like they say: be careful in what you wish 'cause that's what you'll get.

time: fall '97
place: a'dam
involved: bep (i.e. blue eyed pop, bjork etc. fan mailing list)
 
(the mail  called "A round with Bjork" was part of "tunnustelua", an-project fall '97
and sent to bep)
background: the mail sent to bep
solution: reply from Belgium (the same day) and a ticket to the concert in Brussels
new mail: .. afterglow (after both gigs)
thoughts:
are we an/t or hum.an?
guess I was happy. lucky. but felt like I'd lost my .. individuality?
---
from the gig in A'dam came the (famous) homo t-shirt
which is also mentioned in "tunnustelua"
(off note, the name "tunnustelua" is translated in the last one of them:
"tunnustelua" .. 'tunne' is feeling, 'tunnustella' is more like to
touch something carefully to know what it is about, I guess there
would be a word in the dictionary. Furthermore, 'tunnustelua' is the
activity, to try to touch and feel what something is about. Perhaps
like coughing a bit before starting to talk or sing or the first
steps you take on ice before really walking on it to cross the river
(would be the Finnish example, I guess)
)

---

References

The presentation is mostly based on own experiences of life and how I feel about it. Of course a lot of it comes from on all the books, articles, discussions etc. I have had about the net during the years but this is (unfortunately) not an academic text and provides no accuracy in the use of literacy not to mention methods and methodologies.

Here, however, are some pieces of media I've been following while writing:

Literature

(haven't read neither one, though :)

Esther Dyson and her book Release 2.0:

Hotwired threads:
http://threads.hotwired.com/cgi-bin/interact/view_stitch?msg.56187
 
 Net, she suggests, is more than just a set of
      telecommunication lines and switches. It is a
      communication tool, a set of communities, and a
      "potential home for us all." Dyson is clearly a
      champion of Web culture.  After all, her business
      and livelihood depend on it.

http://threads.hotwired.com/cgi-bin/interact/view_stitch?msg.56226
C'mon, folks, get real!

http://threads.hotwired.com/cgi-bin/interact/view_stitch?msg.56195

"1. The net, for inexpliccable reasons, delivers a level of diversity unparraleled in the "real" world. How  can anyone pretend to make generalizations about the digital world in general? Its ridiculous, its irresponsible to feed the non-wired this crap."
 

Growing Up Digital : The Rise of the Net Generation by Don Tapscott

 
(dis)covered in HotWired / Katz  http://www.hotwired.com/synapse/katz/98/05/index1a.html
who suggests Don to be the president of the Internet.
I also wrote him an e-mail that will probably be here soon
(if he gives the permission to publish the discussion)

amazon reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/quicksearch-query/7786-2708781-440423
 
 

POP sounds & emotions

I used to hate pop music and culture but had to change my opinion as they seem to be so good in interpreting our current feelings. Even Oasis answers the difficult question about telepresense etc. simply: "Be Here, Now"

Some pieces that are my inspiration:

bjork)
hunter

        home
        travel
        goods
        (scandinavia)
 
... state of emergency ...

(DP: around the world)

sometimes
 
        the most personal things
are     the most common   things
 

                                        (but when?!?)

net: all neon like?

        ... marvelous web ...

        and they will assist us
        'cause we're asking for help
                                        (should we,
                                         do we need
                                         their help?)
dreams:
he believes in a beauty
he's a venus as a boy.
 
oldfield's a treasure!

S:      ehka minun kanssa on
        mahdotonta tehda mitaan.
 
        voit kuitenkin kommentoida,
        joskus ainakin ehka.
 
        niin kuin bell teki homogenicin.
 
---