This Switch-article by Geri Wittig is interesting.
“two macro-trends…characterize the Information Age: The globalization of economy, technology, and communication; and the parallel affirmation of identity as the source of meaning” – Manuel Castells (2)
Situated and Distributed Knowledge Production in Network Space by Geri Wittig:
“Self-organizing networked social systems because of their network location are positioned to utilize both situated and distributed knowledge production models. The situated contextual provides a visceral experience and knowledge that can only be gained through physicality and the distributed expansive allows for the extension of shared networked knowledge or memory that enhances both local and global production. Self-organizing networked social systems are organizationally closed, but interactively open, they interact with outside networks through their structure. A networked social system whose structure is changed through recurrent perturbations from an outside network is structurally coupled with that network. A self-organizing networked social system can be composed of both individuals in close proximity, individuals from widely dispersed locations, or a combination of the two. Individuals within a networked social system who are in close proximity, provide the network with that cluster’s situated knowledge production that is a product of their physical proximity and embodied cognition. Clusters of proximate individuals structurally coupled with both additional clusters of proximate individuals and singular individuals from a variety of locations form a distributed knowledge base that emerges through network interaction. Both situated and distributed knowledge production exists within the same self-organizing networked social system, enabling emergent resonance. If the operational coherance constructed through operative action enhanced by situated knowledge production and consensual domains constructed through languaging in both situated and distributed knowledge bases, are maintained in the self-organizing networked social system, the identity of the network will be sustained.”
