“Avatars on the World Wide Web: Marketing the ”Descent”” presented by Vesna
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Politics, Art & Society
Presentation Title:
- Avatars on the World Wide Web: Marketing the ”Descent”
Presenter(s):
Abstract:
1995 was the year the Internet was opened to commercial use. The NSF officially stepped down and began planning Internet-2, aimed at creating a network whose primary goal would be to facilitate research and education missions of universities in the US. It is envisioned that this network will be 100 to 1000 times faster than the existing Internet. Applications like tele-immersion and digital libraries will change the way people use computers to learn, communicate and collaborate. Although the universities are taking the lead in the initial development and research of this network, this is a collaborative effort between federal government agencies, private corporations and non-profit organizations. This means that it will probably be first accessible and tested in research institutions, then made publicly available. Corporations such as IBM that have already invested in this venture are most probably having long term plans for the commercial potential of such a super fast network.
Opening the Internet to the public had meant opening Pandora’s box, and there was no way anyone could even attempt to put a lid on the activities that were increasingly taking place. Conceptualized as having only machines ”talking to each other”, developers would have never guessed that this network of machines would transform itself into a network of humans using the machines. Exponential growth in the number of Internet users, the number of hosts connected to the World Wide Web, and the number of companies establishing a Web presence has created a gold rush mentality among firms and investors. This euphoria is largely fueled by electronic commerce, and many companies are putting significant resources towards figuring out the most effective ways of buying and selling everything from groceries to clothing to movies over the Internet.
