A Faceted Classification Scheme for Computer-Mediated Discourse By S. Herring

I understand the need for classifying data for the new realm of computer mediated communications, the mystery of burgeoning technologies that have made it complex to classify the new internet savant language or avant garde.  It is imperative that we understand the human interactions that occur on the internet in terms of intrinsic motivations and extrinsic outcomes.

To me there are parallels to the change and mystery in our communication spectrum to a similar form of communication that are visual. Thus the creation and subsequent modification of art also had to go into declassification and recertification. Throughout the centuries art forms of communication were very succinct in message, skill and technique. By the mid nineteenth century art had lost it’s focus from being about medium of functionality and aesthetic, and took a radical turn.  Why? Intellectualism, humanism, entropy, psychology, efficacy, technology, pluralism, and many other self aware factors suddenly thrust themselves into the artist mind.  Art became a convoluted anxiety syndrome by the twentieth century, where optimism once demonstrated by artists such as DaVinci and Michaelangelo were mere echos of the past, artists now such as Picasso, Braque, Munch, Goya exuded extreme pessimism about the human condition and communicated their art in many forms.

I think we are we at the post modern or postmodernism moment in the communication apex. “Modern” forms of communication still exist in functionality such as landlines, radios, and analog televisions. These systems invented by Bell, Tesla, Edison, and Hertz were modified but not really replaced. But now with computers the internet has provided a whole new identity to communications thanks to the work of recent pioneers such as Turing, Babbage, Lovelace, Jobs, Wozniak, Allen, and Gates. Now billions of people worldwide who wish to express elements of self and expression notoriety are no different than what numerous artists sought a century ago.  They demonstrate joviality, doubt, hate, sadness, and belonging by means of many technological forms. Now many people who communicate have never shaken hands or would not recognize each other in person. The creation of internet groups or communities that share common interests or limit access to others have no physical earthly boundaries. Even the word friend will become redefined and in the way it is phrased.  

So how do we measure or classify this communication? Herring outlines the complexities of trying to identify terminology that may help in measuring outcomes in this sociometry. She utilizes some old theories as well as newer research on this topic. I think it will take many years to categorize our synchronous and asynchronous communication spectrum that exists in our world. Herring is a first step in building the foundation for researching this new dichotomy.