Datacloud: Toward a New Theory of Online Work by Johndan Johnson-Eilola
This book–required reading for my graduate course Writing for Electronic Communities at Rowan University–presents framworks of understanding this “datacloud” including articulation theory and symbolic-analytical work. I’m sure my classmates have posted very interesting responses to these two areas (you will find most of them listed on my blogroll in the right gutter of this page), but my response is different. Instead of responding to a text as I do in other blog posts, this one touched me differently and I internalized it more.
It seems that I cannot escape psychology. I don’t know about you, but whenever a theory presents itself or a question is raised, I automatically–and often unwillingly–fall back into psychology to get to the bottom of it. Because theory is not yet fact (please see blog post regarding Ludwig Fleck on what is and is not fact), it’s edges are hazy and the reader must understand this. This is much like the image that Johnson-Eilola draws for us by calling the intangible electronic world a “datacloud.” Cloud might very well be the best word for where our ‘data’ lurks when we are not controlling it.
But where does age come in? When do age and maturity play a hand in how people interact with their technologies?
I couldn’t help but get hung up on the author’s students who seemed to have taken advantage of IMing during class periods. Johnson-Eilola seems continually confused about this, but I don’t think the emphasis should be looked at as individual-to-technology. Instead, I think what would be important to note would be who in the class took advantage, during what contexts, and then theorize as to how this happened.
IMing can be addictive, that’s for sure. And while the author eventually accepts it as a positive–and of course this book is not deeply psychological nor is that its intent–there’s more to it that is not touched on. However, I do commend Mr. Johndan Johnson-Eilola for keeping on track with his thoughts throughout this book, previously his dissertation.
I seriously recommend this to anyone interested techno theory. It just makes too much sense and is too well written to be ignored.
A Post-Grad's Journey Towards Domestication 