Re: <nettime> Has Facebook superseded Nettime?

[marc garrett <marc.garrett@furtherfield.org>]

Hi Florian, Ana & all,

I think that you have brought up something which is definitely
important, yet at the same time I feel it highlights a difference of
behaviours in respect of what people choose to do with their time when
using the Internet. Regarding our own list 'netbehaviour.org', part
of the Furtherfield neighbourhood of decentralized, nodes on-line
and off-line; a while back we thought that we'd try an experiment in
asking the list users' community, to move over to Ning. It is like
Facebook, but there is more control. About 50 odd joined, but this
left about 480 users still more interested in staying on the list.
Because the list's behaviour evolves around open and free discussions
in collectivley agreed terms, people felt that Ning was more useful
as a project-related promotional tool of artists projects, rather
than having both of these choices and more which was happening on the
Netbehaviour list at that time.

 >For about two years, I've noted that a sizable part of the media
 >artistic, -activist and -scholarly community that makes up Nettime
 >has moved to Facebook, in the sense of being more active and
 >networked there than here.

I am not sure if there is a virtual exodus taking place from here
to Facebook, but I do understand your concerns. I have noticed
various shifts and diverse movements and expansions, where peers and
associates and friends have joined Facebook. Having said this, I
have not noticed people leaving the list (netbehaviour) so to join
Facebook instead, in fact it has steadily grown daily. I am not sure
whether this is necessarily about 'either or the other', I feel that
a closer observation shows that Internet users, whether they belong
to this list or not are more expanding their uses of the Internet by
subscribing to different platforms for various purposes and needs.
Different platforms offer different functions and contexts to fulfill
whatever reasons these may be. For instance, many who are involved in
media art practice use Facebook as a promotional tool mainly to bring
in new audiences to their projects, ideas, events and publications.

Even though, I have not been a regular contributor to the Nettime list
through the many years whilst, I have been involved in media arts and
various connected practices. I have been reading texts and discussions
supplied for all to read on here for a long time now and value its
dedicated and disciplined approach of actively being engaged with the
raw and critical contexts of an incredibly progressive and dynamic
culture, of which we are all part of. It has informed me, questioned
my assumptions and annpyed me, but it is special and unique and of
course needs to change but for the right reasons. It's the community
that uses this list that really matters more than whether it fits
into external frameworks. Each list has its own agendas reflecting
their own function, purpose and identity accordingly. I would advocate
more of a crossover by many who use this list, not necessarily onto
mainsteam platforms such as Facebook, this is going to happen anyway,
but it would be useful for our shared culture, especially now, that
we see each other more and become less isolated before we vanish
into hermetically sealed elite groups, in competeition each other
just because we behave differently when really we are part of larger
context.

wishing all well.

marc

www.furtherfield.org




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