Net Use

how do we use the net and what is it about?

Services:

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

- Bjork, modern things

from a (technical?) aspect the 'net is (for me) the (same old)

four services it offers:
1. chat (irc)
2. mail (e-mail (mailing lists))
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?

chat: people you are (work, part, live) with .. friends
mail: organising things, inqueries, ..
forums: common interests, interest groups
sites: services by people and organizations

chat most interactive, sites least,

chat togetherness, intimate .. "useless" (feelings)
mail practical for workj but also most intimate and .. tears
forums ..
sites remote and cold services (mass media, shopping etc)

Tools:

recent Wired-hype:

Fairman Dyson:

"science is driven by innovation, creation of new tools"

Tropicalissimo:

(Pela Internet)

"the developement of music corresponds

to the popularizing new technologies.

electronic keyboards and synthesizers

have had great impact on music

- interchancing through planetary networks

will only improve that process."

Office: (what is used on a session .. telnet (ssh) -> unix : screen)
    0: irc2 + possibly windows
    1: pine or similar
    2: tin or similar
    3+ & possible rest of the desktop: connections to other bases and sites

Backoffice: (what is always running on background, parts of the system)
    0: irc helpers
    1: procmail for autofiltering & foldering
    ...

the applications (programs, software)
we use are quite primitive.

sometimes i wonder if that's stupid,
if it makes us old fashioned, inefficient etc.

then again, they are the tools we know
and that work well, are reliable fast,
straightforward and flexible,
for example location indepentent

(...)

yesterday I wrote that 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 immidiately
that totally other things fascinate more?

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."

Support:

experiences

said aloud in a party friday night:

"Internet is the Best Support
to get Real World Experiences."
(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.

Situations:

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.

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

the net presense 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)

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

- roles:
art - work - study - LIFE
projects, responsibilities, ...

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.

multi-presense?

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

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

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

in helsinki the situation was still clearly divided.
there was:

netppl.fi for Oulu (friends) and net.biz
lib.hel.fi for the civil service and related activities (INTA, ...)
an.org for own new projects and private things.

now in amsterdam i'm still in a process:
there's only on 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)

what for?

just by letting my net presense lay in those systems
i can, every day, follow what is going on. of course
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 even inside
the town 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
intensivity 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, though, that many of my international
friends spend quite a lot of time writing and
reading letters, books, magazines etc. from their
homes without useing the Internet, too. i'd guess
it distracts from the local culture just the same
way.

Re-Use:

recycle
and refine

continuous 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?)

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 ?

(...)