Chapter two introduces students to the processes necessary to make online communication work. The authors provide a brief overview of cybernetic technology, beginning with ninetenth century "thinking machines," while exploring Vannevar Bush's Memex as a precursor to today's World Wide Web. Throughout this discussion, emphasis is placed on the ability for computer networks to become self regulating and adaptive to change, even able to mitigate against threats to their existence. Following this survey, students discover characteristics of online communication that include packet-switching, multimedia functionality, interactivity, synchronicity, and hypertextuality. The authors conclude the chapter with an enriched discussion of hypertext as a fundamental challenge to modern conceptions of authorship.

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Invite your students to think hypertextually with a two-day writing group project. Working in small groups (four to six students), participants will construct a hypertext essay on the history of computer network technology. On the first day, students are assigned their groups and provided a list of the following people, terms, and concepts:

Analytical Engine	Charles Babbage	Eisenhower highway system	Jacquard Loom	Sputnik
ARPANET	Cybernetics	Information	Memex	Tim Berners-Lee
Browser	Difference Engine	Internet	Norbert Weiner	World Wide Web

Instruct each group to select at least seven of these concepts and add at least five more from outside of the list. Research should be evenly divided among individual group members and should be augmented by access to online resources in a computer lab. On the second day, students complete and number one-paragraph lexia of their topics and print them off. Within each paragraph, students create links by underlining key words or phrases that insightfully connect to the number of other lexia. Thus, text might read: "Tim Berners-Lee is credited with creation of the World Wide Web [9]." A reader would then follow the "link" to the paragraph on the World Wide Web (presumably on page number 9). Groups submit a portfolio of their work starting from an introduction page that outlines a set of reading paths one might follow.

This assignment can be expanded to include a website-creation component where students place their essay online, but the purpose of this project is for students to discuss opportunities they enjoy and the choices they make as hypertext authors. You may wish to inspire discussion about "ownership" in a collaborative environment and the ways in which they shape a narrative that can challenge or even ignore the chronological history of computer network technology.

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Download a PowerPoint slideshow for this chapter

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To request sample test questions, contact Matthew Smith at <msmith@wittenberg.edu>. [Instructors only. Proof of institutional affiliation will be required.]

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Cringely, R.X. (Writer). (1996). Triumph of the nerds: The rise of accidental empires [Film]. Portland, OR: Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Interviewing the likes of Douglas Adams, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak, Robert X. Cringely's three-hour mini-series offers an interesting and humorous introduction to the history of the personal computer. This film provides an opportunity for students gain some insight into the eccentric personalities and oversized egos that helped craft the digital age.

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