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* A version of this paper, entitled "Computer-Mediated Communication and the American Collectivity: The Dimensions of Community Within Cyberspace," was presented at the annual convention of the International Communication Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 1995
"There is no there there." -- Gertrude Stein
Community is an important aspect of life for most people. Cooley (1983) says that all normal humans have a natural affinity for community. He suggests that the primary factor inhibiting the formation of communities, no matter what their scale, is that they are difficult to organize. Extending the moral ideals inherent in nearly all individuals to the notion of community requires a system or institutional framework. The development and maintenance of such institutions sap the energy of the members of the would-be community and confuse the moral ideals inherent in the notion of community with the project of the institution itself. Thus enervated, the people lose their focus on the moral order they were trying to achieve.
The structural process that is associated with community is communication. Without communication there can be no action to organize social relations. The intimate nature of this relationship is best illustrated in the words community and communications. Both words stem from same Latin root word, communis, which means common. Communis is a paired formation of the Latin etymons for either apparently there is some disagreement together (cum) and obligation (munis) or together and one (unus). By the time it appeared in English, common had a meaning that was in contradistinction to togetherness. For example, common lands or the commons or even commoners was contrasted with the lords and nobility or their holdings. Eventually, common came to mean "ordinary" or "vulgar." Somewhat in contrast with common, community has only favorable connotations and lacks an antithetical counterpart. (Williams, 1983) What makes this etymology interesting and pertinent is that discourses surrounding communication and community often revolve around the issues of bringing people closer together or exacerbating social divisions, and the root word common contains elements of both.
The notion of community has been long recognized as having a central place in our social fabric. But it was T"nnies (1988/1887) who, by distinguishing between community and society (Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft), placed this enduring aspect of social relationships in the context of modernity and the concomitant degeneration of traditional social structures.
Aspects of the tensions surrounding community are appearing globally. Barber (1992) has written of the twin forces of "jihad" and "McWorld" at work in the modern world. By this he means that tribalism is manifesting itself in various areas around the world (not just in Muslim countries) while at the same time Western influences have made inroads in even the most remote societies. Although hardly remote, we noticed in Sydney, Australia, for example, that young people were wearing Los Angeles Raiders T-shirts. We felt certain they were not American football aficionados but were merely caught up in the worldwide marketing of things American. Illustrations from more remote corners of the world also are common (Smith, 1980). Less prosaically, Kumar (1988) says that Western industrialization became the model for modernization elsewhere, even though Japan is the only non-Western country to have become fully industrialized. Examples of jihad are in the news on an almost daily basis. The fighting in Bosnia and the Russian republic of Chechnya are but some of the most recent of numerous possible examples. Closer to home, the Indians in Chiapas, Mexico, are waging their own fight for self-determination. In each of these cases, the national "community" was not sufficient to maintain the allegiance of the protesting groups.
As modernity gives way to post-modernity and as new communication technologies are developed, it is worth examining the ways of relating that they entail and the potentialities for new or renewed relationships. The online world of computer- mediated communication (CMC) is one of those new ways for humans to relate to one another, and it is growing rapidly. On-line services grew more than 40 percent from 1993 to 1994 and now have more than 6.3 million subscribers, according to Information and Interactive Services Report (On-line services, 1995). This project is an effort to explicate some of the implications of CMC for the development and maintenance of communities within the context of larger society.
Richard Sennett (1977) argues that the res publica is in decay. Because of our credo of rugged individualism, America is more vulnerable than other cultures to regard social intercourse in terms of personal feelings rather than in rational or objective terms. Thus, our community, our shared sense of collective self, fails to embrace the public and instead becomes enmeshed in the cult of personality this is the manner in which social phenomena are translated into meaningful interpretations. For example, politics becomes a show of personality and individual credibility rather than a discourse about public issues. Social engagement has, therefore, become centered on personality and individualism as people seek to "feel" rather than to "think." Sennett remarks about this evolution, "the impulses governing the public were those of will and artifice; the impulses governing the private were those of restraint and the effacement of artifice. The public was human creation; the private was the human condition" (1977, p. 98).
Sennett's point is that our notion of community has evolved from one of Gemeinschaft, in which public relationships are tied to social status and a context of cultural homogeneity (essentially public community) toward one of Gesellschaft, in which relationships are individualistic, impersonal, contractual, often employing clear conceptions of rationality and efficiency (essentially private community). He argues that, as personality and community became more inextricably linked during the 19th century, people began regarding public action as an expression of individual psyche (e.g., a person's mode of dress is an expression of his or her essence). With the rise of industrialization and the concept of mass society, people became atomized and the social order was characterized by anomie; thus, Sennett claims, public culture declined as individuals exhibited nostalgic desire for a romanticized notion of community as "like- minded individuals" rather than the detached notion of community as a bounded, local territory. Sennett writes:
Myths of an absence of community, like those of the soulless or vicious crowd, serve the function of goading men to seek out community in terms of a created common self. The more the myth of empty impersonality . . . becomes the common sense of a society, the more will that populace feel morally justified in destroying the essence of urbanity, which is that men can act together, without the compulsion to be the same. (p. 255)
Sennett's words illustrate the problematic character of the notion of community. The concept of community commonly refers to a set of social relationships that operate within specified boundaries or locales, but community has an ideological component as well, in that it refers to a sense of common character, identity or interests. These notions of community illustrate that the term encompasses both material and symbolic dimensions; for example, the European Community was created to foster the economic interests of its constituent nations, while the New Age community of Santa Fe, New Mexico, exists around a core of symbolic, quasi-religious interests. Despite these somewhat prosaic conceptions of community, many scholars have debated the constitution of community and its importance within our public culture.
Returning to T"nnies, his distinction between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft examined community within the confines of pre- industrial vs. industrial society. Gemeinschaft is characterized by an organic sense of community, fellowship, family, and custom, as well as a bounding together by understanding, consensus, and language. Gesellschaft, conversely, is characterized by a form of hyper-individualism in which relations among people become mechanical, transitory, and contractually oriented. T"nnies argued that the processes of urbanization and industrialization would result in the destruction of Gemeinschaft and consequently the destruction of traditional community, security, and intimacy (T"nnies, 1988/1887). Examining the notion of community in postindustrial society, Van Vliet and Burgers (1987) argue that communities contain the following elements: social interaction, a shared value system, and a shared symbol system. These elements constitute the four distinct realms of community: the social, economic, political, and cultural. For example, in their schema, the social realm of community encompasses social interaction, solidarity, and both individual and institutional relations. The economic realm of community involves the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The political realm involves the collective formation of goals and the implementation of policy toward their realization. The cultural realm of community examines the shared value and symbol systems and even corresponds to the built environment. This conceptualization of community illustrates the oblique nature of boundaries within postindustrial society shifting national territorial boundaries and economic boundaries (resulting from multinational corporations and the European Community, for example) and the retribalization of certain religious and cultural interests have serious implications for the conceptualization of community.
Building on Durkheim's concept of the social division of labor, Cooke (1990) claims that community is a residual consequence of modernity that Enlightenment notions of egalitarian, heterogeneous communities were unrealistic because, for example, different social classes rarely associated with one another. He argues that community is functionally and geographically bounded based on the social division of labor. He states:
Something akin to community seems to be re-emerging in the workplace. As market relations, and in some contexts the definition of citizenship as freedom to consume based on economic choice, penetrate even deeper into our perceptions of what it is to be a normal, modern individual, communal relations seem to be pervading business. (p. 169) Thus, Cooke sees postindustrial, commodity culture as a type of "community" in that it encourages the territorialization of different consumer and producer markets in a manner tantamount to the territorialization of occupational communities (e.g., the mining communities of the Old West).
While these conceptualizations of community hardly comprise the totality of thinking on the subject, they do represent some of the scholarly theorizing about community as it has progressed from industrial to postindustrial society. Nonetheless, the corpus of work on community suggests that the concept is dynamic in nature that, as society evolves the notion of community evolves concomitantly. Our focus on one aspect of social evolution, the development of new communication technologies, will provide the context for examining the changing aspects of community in light of computer-mediated communication technology.
Scholars such as McLuhan (1964) have noted that the development of electronic communication technologies has essentially abrogated space and time so that we effectively live in a boundless "global village." Boorstin (1978) argues that communication technology creates ties bind nations into a new type of community, which he terms the "Republic of Technology." This community is one of shared utopian experience; he states, "with crushing inevitability, the advance of technology brings nations together and narrows the differences between the experiences of their people," (p. 6). Moreover, Meyrowitz (1985) asserts that community has been affected by electronic media's undermining of the relationship between location and access to information. He states:
Many categories of people women, ghetto dwellers, prisoners, children were once "naturally" restricted from much social information by being isolated in particular places. The identity and cohesion of many groupings and associations were fostered by the fact that members were "isolated together" in the same or similar locations. . . . Now, however, electronic messages . . . democratize and homogenize places by allowing people to experience and interact with others in spite of physical isolation. As a result, physical location now creates only one type of information-system, only one type of shared but special group experience. (pp. 143-144)
Converse to Meyrowitz's argument, Luke (1993) demonstrates that the expansion of communication technology has resulted in the creation of a "new class" of the information-elite that constitutes a tribal community that is committed to knowledge- based technological development which inevitably disenfranchises the information poor. Luke argues:
Composed of clients and consumers, communities today are not much more than an aggregation of atomized individuals organized into discrete geographic-legal units. Community becomes so thin because workplace and residence, production and consumption, identity and interests, administration and allocation are so divided in the New Class project of an advanced industrial society predicated primarily on geographic and social mobility. This division of interests, loss of common historical consciousness, weakening of shared beliefs, and lessening of ecological responsibility is what necessitates alternative approaches to understanding community. (pp. 209-210)
Thus, new communication technologies can both draw people together into cohesive communities of interest and further atomize them as they retreat deeper into tribalism. If the notions of community changed from pre-industrial to industrial society (as T"nnies argues), Cooke, Meyrowitz, and Luke affirm that the notion of community has changed with the dawn of the postindustrial era as well.
The most recent communication technology development within the postindustrial era is CMC. Comprised of different systems such as electronic mail, bulletin board systems, and real-time chat services, CMC is both an interpersonal, one-to-one medium of communication and a one-to-many or even many-to-many form of mass communication. With an estimated 25 million CMC users worldwide (Calem, 1992) computer-mediated communications have the potential to affect the nature of social life in terms of both interpersonal relationships and the character of community. "Virtual" community encompasses the economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions of community postulated by Van Vliet and Burgers (1987): social interaction and solidarity are evident within bulletin board conferences and real-time chat modes as friendships and romances blossom; economic and political activity expands within cyberspace as international business transactions are made and political advice is exchanged from, for example, the United States to Russia; and culturally, people are exposed to the value and symbol systems of other nations when, for example, Americans and Brazilians exchange comment about cultural rituals. Ideologically, community within cyberspace appears to emphasize a shared belief in the principles of free speech, individualism, equality, and open access the same symbolic interests that define the character of American democracy. Experientially, community within cyberspace emphasizes a community of interests, usually bounded by the topic under discussion, that can lead to a communal spirit and apparent social bonding. These communities can be purely instrumental in nature that is, they may never extend beyond talking to one another; or, they may promote action that is, virtual communities may manifest themselves in real political action, such as educational reform or political caucuses.
An examination of some conceptualizations of virtual community will enhance our understanding of the nature of the public sphere within cyberspace.
Rheingold (1993) defines virtual communities as "social aggregations that emerge from the [Internet] when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace" (p. 5). Noting the absence of a spatial dimension in his definition, Rheingold uses a biological analogy to describe community within cyberspace, likening virtual community to the model of a petri dish. He says:
[T]hink of . . . the Net as the agar medium, and virtual communities, in all their diversity, as the colonies of microorganisms that grow in petri dishes. Each of the small colonies of microorganisms the communities on the Net is a social experiment that nobody planned but that is happening nevertheless. (p. 6) Rheingold postulates that community in cyberspace has burgeoned in part due to a public lament over the disappearance of informal public spaces in our real existence and in part due to the pioneering spirit of "Netsurfers" who are attracted to virtual community by means of interacting with other people on a completely novel level.
According to Rheingold and others, the notion of virtual community is not to be dismissed as a technological, cyberpunk fantasy in which people increasingly live in what Mills (1959) terms "second-hand worlds"; chained to their computer terminals, experiencing life through dehumanizing technology rather than through human contact and intimacy. Indeed, Rheingold waxes eloquent about the passionate character of his on-line relationships within cyberspace and particularly within the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), a San Francisco-based conference site. His relationships in the WELL community have spilled over into his personal life he has attended weddings, births, and funerals of his fellow WELL community members. Commenting on the strength of the bond within virtual communities, he notes:
People in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk. People in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind. You can't kiss anybody and nobody can punch you in the nose, but a lot can happen within those boundaries. To the millions who have been drawn into it, the richness and vitality of computer- linked cultures is attractive, even addictive. (p. 3)
One of these rich and vital computer-linked cultures is the Internet Relay Chat (IRC), a multi-user synchronous "chat" line that was designed for social rather than business use. The IRC is comprised of various channels that indicate the subject matter being discussed within (such as the homosexual sex channel) in order to manage the traffic flow resulting when hundreds of people use the IRC simultaneously. Users type words on their screens which instantaneously reach other users; but without the benefit of nonverbal cues that express subtlety of meaning, IRC users must use a series of symbols in order to communicate efficiently with one another and develop a unique sense of community based on the unconventional boundaries of the medium. For example, IRC users compensate for the lack of nonverbal cues by typing what are essentially stage directions to one another that serve to indicate a range of emotions: typing *heeheehee* might indicate playful laughter, *falls down laughing* indicates hilarity, and other words such as *squeeze* or *smooch* indicate a user's actions toward another user. These phrases or words are recognized symbolic conventions within the IRC community, and, as Reid (1991) indicates in her work on community on the IRC, "the textual cues utilised on IRC provide the symbols of interpretation and discourse that the users of IRC have devised to meet specific problems posed by situations they face in common. Without these textual cues to substitute for non-verbal language, the users of IRC would fail to constitute a community" (p. 18). Successful CMC, particularly within the IRC environment, depends on the use of these symbolic conventions. Despite the playful nature of these conventions, the expressions of emotion that they convey are, according to Reid, "not in any way thought to be shallow or ephemeral" (p. 13).
The CMC community also contains sanctions against those who violate its norms by ignoring Internet etiquette, sometimes called "netiquette," essentially the ethics code of cyberspace. The two primary ethical principles governing the use of CMC are 1) individualism is honored and fostered, and 2) the network is good and must be protected (Krol, 1992, p. 35). Abuses such as hateful or antisocial postings on bulletin boards and using other people's names or identities on IRC are discouraged and can be punished by means of ostracization from the community or through system operator-enforced severing of an individual's link to the IRC (known as the "kill" function). Thus, the construction of the boundaries of community within cyberspace is not a completely arbitrary matter, and CMC may not be as egalitarian as its advocates suggest.
Some virtual community boundaries have a definite purpose to them, aside from social camaraderie. The Public Electronic Network (PEN), a self-described "new urban polis" is a computer system that encourages participatory democracy within the community of Santa Monica, California. Through PEN, citizens can retrieve local government information (such as city council meeting schedules) and converse with public officials (Schuler, 1994). In addition, Community Memory of Berkeley, California, is a series of terminals in public places throughout Berkeley designed to foster community, especially among those without ready access to information technology. Community Memory's agenda states that, "strong, free, non-hierarchical channels of communication whether by computer and modem, pen and ink, telephone, or face-to-face are the front line of reclaiming and revitalizing our communities" (Schuler, 1994, p. 38). Although virtual communities of this nature are generally bound within some geographic area, bulletin boards and conferences that advocate specific national political reform (such as EcoNet or the Aryan Nations Liberty Net) can foster a strong sense of community among members united in a common zeal for an issue of mutual concern.
One conference group has been created to address these issues. Communet, a conference group devoted to a discussion of on-line community and community-building through computer networks, recently offered a series of exchanges debating the nature of virtual community as a form of "real" community or as a simulacrum of community. Ed Schwartz argues that computer bulletin boards serve to "add the final mechanism needed to insure that we never talk to people beyond our immediate friends and family on a personal level about anything. The global community, linked by terminals, replaces community where we are" (Schwartz, 1994). He goes on, however, to note that local bulletin boards can reverse this trend by encouraging local CMC to burgeon into face-to-face meetings. He claims that this type of interaction is irreplaceable, but that computers can reinforce either individualism or community, depending on "our vision of the society that shapes their use." He asks whether computer communications fragment society, reintegrate it, or provide a form of ersatz contact tantamount to Tocqueville's (1990/1840) image of the unique form of despotism facing American citizens:
Each of them, living apart, is a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he is close to them, but he sees them not; he touches them, but he feels them not; he exists but in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country. (p. 318)
A posting by Caroline Ferguson (1994), however, challenges Schwartz's fatalistic vision of the nature of community in cyberspace by arguing that community can be based on intellectual and emotional proximity rather than mere physical proximity. She states, "We are social creatures and we long for contact; I don't think it matters that contact is via phone, Net, or face-to-face if it promotes and reinforces understanding, action, and human connections."
Rheingold (1992) supports Ferguson's statement when he argues that virtual communities, if they do answer people's needs, could experience astronomical growth over the next decade. He states:
When a group of people remain in communication with one another for extended periods of time, the question of whether it is a community arises. Virtual communities might be real communities, they might be pseudocommunities, or they might be something entirely new in the realm of social contracts, but I believe they are in part a response to the hunger for community that has followed the disintegration of traditional communities around the world. (p. 4)
Rheingold claims that his "sense of place" within his WELL virtual community is strong, partly because it serves as what Oldenburg (1991) refers to as the last of the three essential places in people's lives: the place they live, the place they work, and the place they gather for conviviality. These third places, Oldenburg argues, are where community is built and sustained. The WELL is this place for Rheingold: he likens his WELL community to a neighborhood salon or coffee shop where he visits friends for conversation, whether idle chat or spirited debate about philosophical or political issues; for gathering information on subjects ranging from child care to medicine; or for supporting members of the community during trying circumstances. This ability to network, gain knowledge, or find communion within cyberspace is, according to Rheingold (1994), the social glue that binds formerly isolated individuals into a community.
Similarly, Catalfo (1993) argues that the same rituals and rites of passage that mark physical communities can be found on- line as well. Death, illness, sex, therapy and other intensely personal issues are addressed in on-line communities in addition to the more public discussions of political policy or environmental activism. One Massachusetts WELL subscriber turned to his virtual community (the WELL's parenting conference) when he experienced anxiety over his 2-year-old daughter's illness. He described the atmosphere on the WELL during his crisis:
I found it full of twenty-four-hour compassionate ears and souls. They not only listened, they talked back. They helped. I found myself keeping a kind of online journal in the company of these people I'd never laid eyes on. It seemed kind of miraculous, really, this communion late at night in front of the screen. (Catalfo, 1993, p. 167)
Catalfo notes that WELL members also conducted a type of virtual ritual when one of its most active and controversial members committed suicide. WELL participants held an impromptu on-line memorial service during which members eulogized him with an exchange of hundreds of messages documenting their virtual experiences with him. Catalfo argues that this type of spirit illustrates that community can indeed exist in cyberspace where people
[gather] on a central, common ground to share the prosaic and the profound, the small facts and large events that become landmarks in a community's life. And in the end, it is this spirit the type of fundamental human regard that so often appears to be in short supply in the "real" world that may prove to be the most exhilarating and empowering aspect of this evolving technology. (p. 175)
Not all are so positive about the notion of virtual community, however. Obviously, the millions that have been drawn into virtual communities have access to the technology that enables them to experience this type of community. Access to CMC both economic access in terms of the ability to afford a computer and an Internet subscription as well as intellectual access in terms of the ability to read and comprehend the lexicon of CMC is critical to the notion that virtual community is a pre-selected community in which, despite the Internet's egalitarian rhetoric, a true sense of equality will not be tested until the technology becomes widespread. Thus, we must recognize that contemporary virtual communities are essentially a class phenomenon the New Class of information elite that Luke (1993) describes.
McClellan (1994) claims that the character of virtual communities can be as provincial as small town communities. He notes that the WELL has been criticized as too "New Agey" and "little more than a middle-class residents association in cyberspace" (p. 10). McClellan criticizes cyberspace communities as pseudocommunities that have only the appearance of true social bonding. He states:
[R]ather than providing a replacement for the crumbling public realm, virtual communities are actually contributing to its decline. They're another thing keeping people indoors and off the streets. Just as TV produces couch potatoes, so on-line culture creates mouse potatoes, people who hide from real life and spend their whole life goofing off in cyberspace. (p 10)
Nevertheless, virtual community as a concept is still amorphous due to a lack of shared mental models about what exactly constitutes community in cyberspace. Until the vagaries of communication within this new technological development are more firmly understood, the conceptualization of on-line community may remain somewhat vague. The extension of community into cyberspace is a natural outgrowth of the shift from an emphasis on the public to the private in the United States. The notion of community is a "public" concept in that it entails a collectivity of sorts. But virtual community has a private quality about it; it may be who we are as private individuals that constitutes our membership in certain communities, e.g., virtual communities based on political ties or communities of interest based on world view, hobbies, or professional status. Thus, a private character is ascribed to the idea of community as our individuality increasingly defines our choice of community membership, despite the nature of community as a social bond.
Keeping in mind the corpus of work regarding virtual community and the examples noted herein, we assert our own definition of on-line community: social relationships forged in cyberspace through repeated contact within a specified boundary or place (e.g., a conference or chat line) that is symbolically delineated by topic of interest.
Using this definition, we shall now examine how the notion of virtual community informs public sentiment regarding the nearly extinct American public sphere. V. (Re)Inventing the Collectivity
What role can computer-mediated communication (and on-line community in particular) play in redefining a sense of wholeness within American public life? Do communities within cyberspace have the capability of serving as a series of new public spheres in contemporary Western nations? As noted earlier, the desirability of a collectivity hinges on the assumption that there can be a universality within public discourse because there is a universality of public interests. According to Habermas's (1989/1962) definition of the public sphere as a forum for rational debate within a sphere of competing ideas, public discourse is aimed at achieving consensus. These arguments make sweeping, perhaps unfounded assumptions; can we indeed assume that consensus is realistic within a multiplicity of public interests?
Garnham (1992) claims that "it is impossible to conceive of a viable democratic polity without at the same time conceiving of at least some common normative dimension" (p. 369), but that cultural relativism is incommensurate with the achievement of consensus that is the crux of a democratic polity. He argues that, if universal outcomes are not desired, a multiplicity of publics may exist; however, if consensus is sought, a single public sphere (even if it is comprised of subsidiary public spheres pursuing their own interests) must be in place. In light of Garnham's vision of public life, Habermas (1992) has recently responded to criticisms of his articulation of the public sphere by reconceptualizing it; he argues:
[T]he presumption that society as a whole can be conceived as an association writ large, directing itself via the media of law and political power, has become entirely implausible in view of the high level of complexity of functionally differentiated societies. (p. 443)He goes on to propose the formation of a "political public sphere" in which communicative acts denote a "discursive formation of opinion and will on the part of a public composed of the citizens of a state. This is why it is suitable as the fundamental concept of a theory of democracy whose intent is normative" (p. 446). He refers to this definition as a "discourse-centered concept of democracy" in which political conflicts remain at the behest of rational regulation in the mutual interest of all constituencies. Thus, Habermas is attempting to reconcile the problem of civil society by theorizing this discourse-centered approach to democracy as less organized, less teleological. He states:
[T]he expectation deriving from a discourse-centered theoretical approach, that rational results will obtain, is based on the interplay between a constitutionally instituted formation of the political will and the spontaneous flow of communication unsubverted by power, within a public sphere that is not geared toward decision making but toward discovery and problem resolution and that in this sense is nonorganized [emphasis in original]. If there still is to be a realistic application of the idea of the sovereignty of the people to highly complex societies, it must be uncoupled from the concrete understanding of its embodiment in physically present, participating, and jointly deciding members of a collectivity. (p. 451)
Here Habermas seems to be making a case for the type of communication that is practiced within cyberspace it is discourse centered and many-to-many. Yet, Fraser's (1990) notion that a multiplicity of publics is necessary within civil society seems to better fit with the reality of the pluralization of roles and lifestyles evident in contemporary Western culture.
To offer a definition of community that incorporates CMC is only part of the equation. The form of communication, as already indicated by the examples of the emoticons, and the technology used by the community may reveal a great deal about the nature of that community. We will now explore what we believe are some of the implications for a community and public discourse formed through the technology of CMC.
As Winner (1980) has suggested, technologies have political and ideological significance. These attributes suggest themselves in two ways. First, the form a technology takes can influence power relationships; that is, how authority is distributed among those affected by the technology. Second, a technology, once adopted, may inevitably lead to certain institutionalized patterns of authority. Winner believes that the technology ought to be considered at least on a par with the context of its use. We would suggest that computers already are prevalent and likely to grow more so. Therefore, with CMC, the context is even more important. If CMC is to be used primarily as electronic mail, as currently is the situation, the power relations that Winner is concerned about have little effect on the vast majority of users insofar as other means of communications remain open. If, however, a significant part of a population begins to form social relationships on computer networks, then the rest of the population, even if it is the majority, will be less able to participate fully in all aspects of the society, much less to monitor, even benignly, the activities of computer users. Thus, contextualizing the use of CMC is an important aspect of studying it. As communities develop on the net, it will become increasingly important to observe how power and authority are distributed and what effect that distribution has on discourse within the public sphere.
Another aspect of the development of virtual communities is the population that makes up those communities. It is generally recognized that there are at least three barriers to widespread computer use. First, it must be affordable. Second, it must be intellectually accessible. And third, time must be available to use it. The implications of these three dimensions for the development of community are so obvious that they should hardly need to be stated. But just so there is no mistake, the poor and the least educated are at a severe disadvantage. Further, even though computers are becoming less expensive and more powerful, there always will be members of the society for whom they will remain dreams. In addition, as computers get more powerful, the baseline will rise; that is, the barrier to entry will increase to keep the more capable equipment out of reach for the least well off. The most endowed segments of society will maintain their dominant position.
Virtually the same argument can be made in terms of intellectual access, at least until more powerful software toolsare developed. A parallel might be made with the development of radio. In the early, experimental days, only those with technical expertise could build radios or antennas. Eventually that group gave rise to less skilled but still highly motivated people who took pleasure in tuning in weak or distant stations regardless of the program. Finally, the general public took an interest in radio programs without much concern for the technology in the box. We can see that computer hardware and software technology is somewhere between the first and second of these stages of development.
The last concern has to do with time. People are limited in the amount of time they can devote each day to any activity, including mediated communication. The maximum, of course, is 24 hours, but that obviously cannot be sustained for more than a day or two at a time. In addition to the necessities of life such as sleeping, eating, and working, much of each day already is devoted to social interaction via newspapers, radio, television, and the telephone. With the introduction of CMC, these traditional forms of mediated communication will lose some portion of the public's attention. More than anything else, time is a zero-sum game. Thus, the people who will make up the virtual communities will be the better educated, the financially endowed and those with time to commit to communication tasks. That presents a rather limited version of opportunities for building community in any real sense. It also placed limits on the potential for virtual communities to represent anything new within the multiplicity of publics that comprise the American collectivity.
But more than the relatively advantaged socio-economic group that is likely to populate the virtual communities, it is widely understood that virtual communities will be communities of interest rather than of geographical proximity or of historical or ethnic origin. As such, they will be further insulated from having to deal with vagaries of the workaday world. So although communities may be formed that reinforce social relationships among like-minded individuals, those groups will have a decreasing need or opportunity to interact with other members of the larger society. Instead of creating increasing cohesion, virtual communities are likely to have the opposite effect on the larger collectivity. We should not mistake a desire for communities of interest with a hope for a more just and egalitarian society. Just as multiculturalism can and does have a positive influence on self and group identity but when taken to an extreme can disrupt the larger society, so virtual communities can foster anomie. Instead of mass society leading to atomized individuals, however, it may be that it leads to "atomized" communities. And, again, as with multiculturalism, different views can be assimilated into the larger society. But becausevirtual communities are likely to be private communities of interest, they will not readily or serendipitously be exposed to differing views that will help them and the larger society grow and adapt to a changing world.
Another characteristic of CMC that is sometimes overlooked is the possibility, even likelihood, that as CMC grows in popularity, there will be less need for face-to-face interaction. It is one of the supreme ironies of the utopian view of CMC that it is likely to reduce that felt sense of community that it so nostalgically seems to uphold as virtuous. In its place will be a community of interest in which members will be able to drift in and out. One of the key aspects of community is having to deal with and resolve conflicts. It is either the height of arrogance or defeat when one chooses or is forced to leave his or her community over an unresolved conflict. Typically, leaving a community is emotionally traumatic. Leaving a virtual community might be as easy as changing the channel on a television set. So, to return to Winner's (1980) argument, another political consequence of widespread adoption of CMC technology will be to create communities that are less stable than traditional geographic, historic or ethnic communities. Again, virtual community seems to merely reinforce the already fragmented landscape of the public sphere.
A further irony of CMC is that the nostalgic view of community its proponents hold out as "virtually" possible is ever less likely to be achieved as society itself becomes more complex. Indeed, the technology associated with CMC is contributing to the growing complexity at the very least by adding another communications medium. The least complex and most informative means of communications is to meet face to face. Direct, personal conversation has multiple levels of communication. In addition to the words that are spoken, vocal inflections, body language and even the setting carry meaning. The lack of these in CMC is made abundantly clear by the need users feel to invent emoticons to help fill the language gap. Further, although mediated and unmediated communication both allow participants to organize, for example to resist power, without institutions mediating the conversation, there is less likelihood of ambiguities or misunderstandings developing. But face-to-face communication is becoming less and less common. Of course, the trade-off is that one can communicate instantaneously with a larger number of people through mediated communication technologies. That is called efficiency, and that is the politics the ideology that CMC reflects.
Still another component of CMC that is both troubling and constructive is the permanent nature of the conversation. It seldom will be argued that it is beneficial to not have a record of positions taken in a dialogue. Yet, that is what we are proposing. Such a verbatim record often is lacking with television, radio, or telephone interactions or even the more directly edited newspaper interview. Without such a record, a person can subtly change his or her position to reach a compromise with an antagonist. (Of course, transcripts of radio and television programs are becoming increasingly common, and this may be contributing to current political turmoils.) In short, lack of a clear record allows deniability, which can be useful in reaching consensus. With CMC, however, the precise words of the author can be preserved, locking a person into a perhaps untenable position without allowing a face-saving retreat. Thus, ideas can become concretized before they are fully developed through the give and take of freewheeling dialogue.
Finally, it might argued that the forces that are developing the means to establish virtual communities have their own agendas. First, there is the issue of control. Certainly advocates of CMC see control as dispersed. But that fails to recognize who or what is actually in control. The scientists and technologists who develop computer hardware and software are designing to their own specifications what is most convenient technologically or what will yield the greatest return on investment, both of which are arguments for efficiency rather than democracy not to the needs of the general user. For example, more comprehensible computer interfaces than DOS (for IBM standard personal computers) or UNIX were imaginable. The historical development of DOS, UNIX, and other specific examples are outside the scope of this paper, but they nonetheless serve to illustrate why, for a variety of reasons (the justifications for which a technologically compliant public had no arguments), an arcane disk operating system was implemented that effectively excluded many people from understanding microcomputers. By controlling the technology, the developers maintained control over not only their products but social development in general. Similarly, on the Apple side, by maintaining the computer architecture as proprietary, the company was able to control development, distribution and, ultimately, the parameters for how the computers are used.
Second, computer makers and the communications industry encourage the use of their products and services. One way to do so is to suggest that they will alleviate social problems, as is the case with CMC. Third, the issue of control emerges in the CMC network itself. For example, the network service America On- Line recently terminated several subscribers' accounts when other subscribers complained that child pornography was being transferred through the network. The head of the company then notified all users that their accounts would be terminated and authorities would be notified if illegal activities were detected. As laudable as this stance on child pornography may be, it raises serious questions about free speech, due process and, by extension, control. These accounts were closed without a judicial determination that the material in question was, in fact, illegal child porn. Will subscriber complaints about less offensive material lead to similarly arbitrary and capricious action? As court cases have shown, states may allow access to private property which America On-Line and others are for purposes of free speech. (Pruneyard, 1980).
If CMC is to have the impact on society that its advocates suggest (and, indeed, if it is to constitute a public sphere of sorts), the quasi-public nature of the network demands that these issues be addressed. Within just these examples, one can see at work not only the ideology of the free market but, somewhat paradoxically, the more insidious ideology of centralized control. Indeed, such control is so ingrained in society's psyche that few people are even able to discern it. These examples are not meant as a broadside against capitalism, the free market or a society's right to self-determination, but they are intended to show the general lack of debate about issues of who controls the technology and for whose benefit it is being developed. To date, these issues have not received sufficient attention with regard to CMC.
We all need a sense of place, whether it be bounded territorially or in the "placeless" realm of cyberspace. However, the bounded nature of virtual community as we have defined it by topic of interest can indeed be a transnational, transcultural phenomenon that is essentially antithetical to the notion of the American collectivity as a public sphere. Perhaps the reconceptualization of community derived from our increasing participation within the realm of CMC will guide us to a clearer picture of public vs. private life within the United States.
Although CMC offers some advantages over face-to-face communication, e.g., no preconceptions of another person based on appearance, ease of coming together, and equal access to the conversation among those participating, we find the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Indeed, each of the "advantages" could be construed as a disadvantage: appearances do matter; conversation should not be based on solely efficiency; and some ideas are more useful than others. Even such proponents of virtual community as Rheingold (1993), Schwartz (1994), and McClellan (1994) maintain that face-to-face meetings can be valuable in the formation of a true sense of community.
For the reasons stated in the preceding section, the likely result of the development of virtual communities through CMC will be that a hegemonic culture will maintain its dominance. Certainly, it cannot be assumed that the current political and technical elites would willingly cede their position of dominance or knowingly sow the seeds of their own destruction.
Indeed, it seems most likely that the virtual public sphere brought about by CMC will serve a cathartic role, allowing the public to feel involved rather than to advance actual participation. Communities seem more likely to be formed or reinforced when action is needed, as when a country goes to war, rather than through discourse alone. Citizenship via cyberspace has not proven to be the panacea for the problems of democratic representation within American society; although communities of interest have been formed and strengthened (as noted previously) and have demonstrated a sense of solidarity, they have nevertheless contributed to the fragmented cultural and political landscape of the United States that is replete with identity politics and the unfulfilled promise of a renewed vita activa.
This research poses a larger question that has been addressed by other scholars (see Elshtain, 1995 and Lasch, 1995) which emphasizes the connection between the condition of fragmentation that exists within the American collectivity and democracy in theoretical terms. CMC does not, at this point, hold the promise of enhancing democracy because it promotes communities of interest that are just as narrowly defined ascurrent public factions defined by identity (whether it be racial, sexual, or religious). Public discourse ends when identities become the last, unyielding basis for argumentation that strives ideally to achieve consensus based on a common good.
If nothing else, the expressions of hope and desire for new modes of communication such as CMC speak volumes about the failures of present and past technologies to help create a just and equitable society. Perhaps these failures should prompt us to re-examine why we continue to place so much hope in technology after so many disappointments. Ultimately, we believe, the hope placed in CMC is misplaced because change will occur not by altering the technology but by reforming the political and social environment from which that technology flows.
Finally, we suggest that the term virtual community is more indicative of an assemblage of people being "virtually" a community than being a real community in the nostalgic sense that advocates of CMC would seem to be endorsing. Our comments should not be construed as protests against the corruption of a term; we recognize that community has a dynamic meaning. Our concern is that the public is more likely to forget what it means to form a true community. If, on the other hand, virtual communities can lead to action, that may be the basis for the formation of real and lasting communities of interest. But until then, any change in the communications structure, such as the widespread use of CMC, is likely to be unsettling. Therefore, we must agree with Cooley (1983), who wrote in 1909:
"[A] rapid improvement in the means of communication, as we see in our own time, supplies the basis for a larger and freer society, and yet it may, by disordering settled relations, and by fixing attention too much upon mechanical phases of progress, bring in conditions of confusion and injustice that are the opposite of free." (p. 55)
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The media and the public sphere. In C. Calhoun (Ed.), Habermas and the Public Sphere (pp. 359-376). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Mumford, L. (1964). The Pentagon of Power. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
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On-line services continue to boom. (1995, January 14). Rocky Mountain News, p. 59A.
Oldenburg, R. (1991). The Great Good Place. New York: Paragon House.
Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robbins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980). Reid, E. M. (1991).
Electropolis: Communication and Community on Internet Relay Chat. Melbourne, Australia: Honours Thesis, University of Melbourne.
Rheingold, H. (1992, June). A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community. Electronic manuscript.
Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. New York: Addison-Wesley.
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Schwartz, E. (1994, April 8). Posting on Communet.
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Is Stanley the BEST villain on American Horror Story EVER?
Welcome to the American Horror Story Freak Show After Show Season 4 Episode 9 "Tupperware Party Massacre"! Do you think Stanley is the most unscrupulous character ever on American Horror Story???
Join Ashley Mova, Jennessa Rose, Xavier Brinkman, and Lauren Francesca every week, live and on demand, for review and conversation about each new episode of American Horror Story. This week James Hartman, Keyla Alves Teixeira, and Mark Cirillo are guest hosting. Questions or comments for the after show? Tweet us! #AHSAS Tweet in questions or comments to the hosts all week using the hashtag #AHSAS
Don't forget to follow theStream.tv on Twitter @theStreamtv and the after show hosts!
Guest hosts –
theStream.tv Fan Show Network presents the American Horror Story Freak Show After Show. Tune in each week, live or on demand, for review and conversation about American Horror Story. American Horror Story: Freak Show is the fourth season of the FX horror anthology television series American Horror Story. Previous seasons of American Horror Story: American Horror Story: Murder House, American Horror Story: Asylum, and American Horror Story: Coven have all featured the same actors including the Emmy Award Winner Jessica Lange, who has won Emmy's for her outstanding performance each season on AHS. This season is set in 1952 Jupiter, Florida, telling the story of one of the last remaining freak shows in America, and their struggle for survival. The series was created and produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, but before AHS, Ryan Murphy made headlines through the hit FOX high school musical dramedy, Glee, and FX's Nip/Tuck. Co-Creator and fellow producer, Brad Falchuk has worked with Murphy for years including on Glee & Nip/Tuck. American Horror Story is described as an anthology series, each season is conceived as a self-contained miniseries, following a desperate set of characters and settings, and a storyline with its own "beginning, middle, and end." Returning cast members from previous seasons are: Jessica Lange (Tootsie) as Elsa Mars, Evan Peters (X-Men: Days of Future Past) as Jimmy Darling, Denis O'Hare (Milk) as Stanley, Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) as Gloria Mott, Sarah Paulson as Bette / Dot Tattler (Mud), Naomi Grossman (#Rip) as Pepper, Kathy Bates (Misery) as Ethel Darling, Emma Roberts (Scream 4) as Maggie Esmeralda, Angela Bassett (Malcolm X) as Desiree Dupree, and Michael Chiklis (The Shield) as Dell Toledo. If you're a fan of the Emmy award winning series American Horror Story then tune in each week for the live after show. #AHSAS
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subset: commoncrawl


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CNWE Constitution
The name of the organization shall be "Catholic Network for Women's Equality (CNWE)".
Justice and equality for all persons manifested in word and action in the Catholic Church and throughout the world.
As a Canadian organization, we connect, support and represent people who seek justice for all the baptized within the Catholic church, for women throughout the world and for all of creation.
- inclusivity
- creativity
- celebration
- compassion
- solidarity
- collaboration
- dialogue
1. Membership
a) Membership is open to all women and men concerned about women in today's Catholic church and world and supportive of the aims and philosophy of CNWE.
b) Once admitted, a member shall have all the rights and privileges of any other member provided the annual fee has been paid.
2. Membership Fees
a) Each member shall pay an annual membership fee to retain membership in CNWE.
b) An organization may join CNWE as a single member and will be entitled to a single vote.
c) Notification of a proposed change of fees shall be mailed by the National Work Group to the membership at least 30 days prior to the Annual General Meeting.
d) Before any changes in the fee structure become effective, members must approve the amount of the fees at the Annual General Meeting, by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast.
e) Membership fees may be waived or adjusted in special circumstances.
f) Persons who become new members of CNWE between January 1st and the date of the Annual General Meeting of the same year will be considered paid in full until the renewal period of the year following.
g) CNWE's membership year will be from April 1 to March 31. CNWE members will be eligible for voting at the Annual General Meeting provided their current membership is paid.
a) Thirty percent of individual membership fees shall be forwarded to recognized local groups on a per capita basis as determined by the Membership Coordinator.
3. Rights of Members
a) Every member has a right to receive an Annual Report of the National Work Group and periodic communication.
b) Every member has the right to receive written notice of the Annual General Meeting.
c) All members have the right to discuss and vote at the Annual General Meeting.
d) Following any revisions of the Constitution at the Annual General Meeting, a copy of the revised constitution will be posted on the website and made available to members on request.
1. Membership
a) Any member in good standing may serve on the National Work Group.
b) The National Work Group shall consist of six members representing, where possible, the various regions of Canada.
c) Three NWG members shall constitute a quorum.
2. Election of the National Work Group
a) Election of the National Work Group shall take place at the Annual General Meeting. Members are elected for a two-year term. They may be re-elected for a second but not a third consecutive term.
b) When a member is elected to complete the term of another, at the end of that term of office the person may be elected for a second term.
c) Nominations to the National Work Group are to be submitted by local groups or individuals prior to or at the time of elections.
3. Responsibilities of the National Work Group
a) The National Work Group shall choose from among themselves a coordinator, treasurer and secretary.
b) The coordinator is responsible for the co-ordination of the activities of the National Work Group.
c) The treasurer shall be the custodian of CNWE's funds. The treasurer shall prepare a budget for approval by the National Work Group, pay expenses incurred by the National Work Group in accordance with the budget, forward monies to local groups according to the By-laws, keep full and accurate records and present a financial statement to the membership at the Annual General Meeting.
d) The secretary shall keep written records of minutes of all meetings of the National Work Group and the Annual General Meetings and prepare an annual report of the work of the National Work Group to be published.
e) The responsibilities of the National Work Group shall be to:
- Manage and administer the funds of CNWE.
- Fill vacancies on the National Work Group for the remainder of a term of office and organize the nomination process for new members as needed.
- Provide members with the National Work Group members' mailing addresses and email addresses.
- Assure that responsibilities accepted by local groups for publication of the CNWE newsletter (The Seed Keepers), membership and conference organization are fulfilled.
- Communicate with CNWE membership with at least two newsletters/emails during the year to apprise members of NWG activity.
- Promote membership in the organization nationally.
- Call for resolutions or amendments to the constitution at least sixty days prior to the Annual General Meeting.
- Establish the agenda for the Annual General Meeting.
- Prepare an Annual Report for the Annual General Meeting and for distribution to the general membership and other appropriate individuals and groups.
- Mail or email the minutes of the Annual General Meeting and the membership renewal notices to all members.
- Initiate and approve grant applications.
- Make public statements on behalf of CNWE.
- Network with other organizations and support their initiatives when possible and relevant to CNWE's work.
- Communicate with the Canadian Conference of Bishops and with other organizations as issues arise.
- Lobby on behalf of CNWE.
- Appoint an NWG member to be coordinator of regional/local contacts.
- Appoint a CNWE member who will continue the work of adding archival material to the CNWE collection at Library and Archives of Canada.
f) The National Work Group may delegate tasks related to the above responsibilities to local groups, committees or individuals as required.
1. Four or more members may organize themselves into local or regional CNWE
groups. The local or regional group determines its own geographical bounds.
2. Local/regional CNWE groups shall communicate their intent to function as a group to the National Work Group for recognition and funding.
3. Each local/regional CNWE group shall name a National Work Group contact person. The duties of this contact person shall be to:
- Relay communications from the National Work Group to local group members.
- Communicate on behalf of the local/regional CNWE group to the National Work Group.
- Act as a contact person for new members.
4. Local/Regional groups may:
- Provide a local forum for women and men to exchange views and support each other in the ongoing renewal of the Catholic church and in working for social justice for all women.
- Sponsor workshops, lectures and small group discussions for study and
reflection on our Christian history and traditions from a feminist perspective and request funding for such initiatives.
- Assume responsibility at the National Conference for one of the following tasks: conference planning, membership, newsletter, and for other tasks as identified at the National Conference.
- Dialogue with local bishops and clergy.
- Make public statements on behalf of the local/regional CNWE group as the occasion demands.
5. A local/regional group shall hold one annual gathering and there present a financial report to its members. It will also submit a brief report of the year's activities to the National Work Group 30 days prior to the Annual General Meeting.
- The national conference shall be held annually.
- The format of the national conference (i.e. videoconference or in person at one location) shall be decided upon at a previous conference.
- The planning of the National Conference shall be the responsibility of the local/regional group in whose region the conference is to be held in liaison with the National Work Group. Or in the event of a videoconference, it will be coordinated by the National Work Group, with local groups cooperating to set up central videoconference sites.
- The Conference shall include a significant educational and spiritual component related to the aims of the organization.
- In the absence of a national conference, the Annual General Meeting will be held no later than six months after the fiscal year end.
- A quorum of the Annual General Meeting shall be 8 (eight) percent of the paid members including a quorum of the National Work Group.
- The coordinator of the National Work Group shall chair the Annual General Meeting.
- Amendments to the by-laws shall be carried by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast.
- Membership shall be the responsibility of a local group who will constitute the Membership Committee or of an individual Membership Coordinator who will take on this role. This responsibility will be determined or affirmed at the Annual General Meeting.
- Responsibilities for membership shall continue until a new group or individual assumes the task at a future Annual General Meeting.
- Responsibilities shall include:
- Keeping mailbox key and emptying mailbox regularly.
- Receiving fees and donations from new and renewing members, depositing membership funds, and advising the NWG Treasurer of amounts deposited.
- Maintaining an up-to-date membership database and regional/local contact list and circulating the relevant part of the list to local groups and regional contacts as needed.
- Emailing names with addresses to the NWG Secretary and new subscriptions to The Seed Keepers publishing team.
- Communicating changes and corrections as needed.
- Inviting local contacts and members from various regions to act as contact persons for new members and communicating with such contact persons.
- Membership Coordinator will send letter of welcome to new members (updated if necessary by NWG).
- Sending out renewal notices and reminders annually.
- Acknowledging large donations.
- Creating membership directory and emailing same to members, while respecting privacy requests.
- Compiling lists for 30% reimbursement of fees received and emailing the lists to the NWG Treasurer.
- Preparing Membership Report for AGM.
- The newsletter shall be the responsibility of a local/regional CNWE group as decided at the Annual General Meeting.
- Responsibility for the newsletter shall continue until a new group assumes the task at the following Annual General Meeting or the same group is affirmed for the upcoming year.
- The newsletter shall be published three times a year.
- The cost of publishing and distribution of the newsletter shall be maintained within the budget set by the National Work Group.
- The CNWE fiscal year shall be from April 1 to March 31.
- There shall be an internal financial audit periodically by two members appointed by the Annual General Meeting.
- Two signatures shall be required for all CNWE cheques and documents.
- The National Work Group shall appoint the Treasurer and the Treasurer will appoint a local second signing officer.
- The Constitution and By-laws may be amended by a resolution presented at the Annual General Meeting and confirmed by at least two-thirds of the votes cast.
- Notice of proposed amendments must be mailed or emailedby the National Work Group to the membership at least thirty days prior to the Annual General Meeting.
Revised – May 31, 2015, CNWE Annual General Meeting – Seneca College,Toronto, ON


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Lately it has occurred to me how much Julian Assange has in common with Donald Trump: Both have a talent for attracting media attention. Both have really unusual hair. And both are addicted to the spotlight, so much so that if they go too long without some form of media attention they have to manufacture "news" to attract it.
This week, The Donald served up his "election bombshell" -- offering to give $5 million to charity in exchange for seeing President Obama's birth certificate and college transcripts. Because, as we all know, that kind of information is vitally important to the future of our country. (The Donald refused to share his, though, when asked by Adam Gabbatt, a reporter for the U.K.'s Guardian.)
[ Want to cash in on your IT experiences? InfoWorld is looking for stories of an amazing or amusing IT adventure, lesson learned, or tales from the trenches. Send your story to email@example.com. If we publish it, we'll keep you anonymous and send you a $50 American Express gift cheque. ]
Similarly, Assange sat down for a video interview with CNN this week in which he talked a bit about the latest Guantanamo documents released by WikiLeaks, as well as what life has been like for him cooped up in a windowless room in London's Ecuadorian embassy for the past four months:
"It's a little like living in a space station, because there's no natural light and you've got to make all your own stuff. You can't go out to shops and so on," Assange told CNN in an interview Thursday.
Maybe Assange does have it confused with Tralfamadore after all.
Earlier this week, well-known hacker Adrian Lamo posted an email he'd received from Assange in June 2010, shortly after it became known that Lamo was the person who'd tipped off the U.S government about Bradley Manning and his role in leaking 251,000 State Department cables. (That email was first published on Wired's Threat Level blog shortly after Lamo received it.)
Assange apparently thought he could manipulate Lamo into acting on Manning's behalf. The letter, though, kind of says everything you need to know about the WikiLeaks founder.
Manning's defence team, which I have commissioned, urgently requires all emails and chat logs you alleged to have come from Mr. Manning. Please send them to me, if necessary through our online submission system. They will be used strictly for Mr. Manning's defence, but must be complete.
In addition, it would be helpful if you described Mr. Manning as a "whistleblower" who had already lost his access over an unrelated issue, held no data, and was of no meaningful threat to anyone. In particular Mr. Manning was not an "alleged spy", and it is wrong for you to describe him as such, or to suggest that there were no other approaches to resolving the situation.
It would also be helpful to all concerned if you stopped trying to justify your behavior by whipping up sentiment against Mr. Manning in other ways. Your most effective personal strategy is to say you were scared due to your previous experiences, unthoughtful due to recent drug problems, and made a decision which you now bitterly regret and would under no circumstances repeat. Going around like a poor man's Tsutomu, constantly drawing attention to yourself through the destruction of a young romantic outlaw figure, will leave you permanently reviled by history-and me.
Just a few points.
- According to Lamo, Assange never commissioned any defence team for Manning, who was then being held in Kuwait. My take: The Albino Aussie thought he could socially engineer Lamo into giving up emails that Assange would later use to discredit him.
- Apparently Assange thought he could bully Lamo into acting like some kind of Bradley Manning spokesmodel. Did I just say "Albino Aussie"? I meant Audacious Aussie. Actually, I meant something else, but InfoWorld won't allow me to use that kind of language.
- By "poor man's Tsutomu," Assange was presumably referring to Tsutomu Shimomura, the American computer security wonk who along with New York Times reporter John Markoff tracked down hacker Kevin Mitnick.
When Assange talks about "constantly drawing attention to yourself through the destruction of a young romantic outlaw figure," you gotta wonder if he isn't projecting just a little bit of his own self image there.


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Marketo says it has created tools that put it far ahead of rival marketing automation software vendors by making it much easier to run targeted campaigns, and more effective ones to boot.
The new capabilities go into general availability Friday in two versions, a basic version at no additional charge to existing customers and a paid edition for power users, Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez said in an interview prior to Tuesday's announcement.
Until now, marketing automation software allowed users to build a degree of sophistication into their ad campaigns by setting up a series of rules, Fernandez said. For example, a gaming company could decide to send out an emailed loyalty offer to all male customers in their early to mid-twenties who have bought at least three games in the past year, according to Fernandez.
The problem has been difficulty in taking the targeting down to a more individual level. This requires increasingly complex rule sets and just doesn't scale up well as marketers try to reach more people individually, Fernandez said.
Marketo's new customer engagement technology, some 18 months in the making, seeks to automate the prioritization and delivery of marketing content, by applying proprietary algorithms to a massive database of its clients' customer data.
In turn, marketing staffers using Marketo focus on building out "content streams" for a given campaign, which may consist of a variety of emails, Twitter messages, Web pages and other types of communications, Fernandez said.
Meanwhile, through cookies, clickable buttons in emails and other means, Marketo's technology keeps track of which pieces of content a particular user may have already viewed, and stops the campaign from sending a duplicate message.
The paid version of the customer engagement toolset allows for more sophisticated scenarios, such as by introducing elements of real-time targeting. For example, rather than send an email to all of those gamers at the same time, the system could instead send a loyalty offer to a particular customer moments after they reach a specific number of purchases, Fernandez said.
Marketo isn't promising customers it has created magic, however. "We don't make the claim that this product is delivering exactly the right message at any time or that nobody ever seems the same message twice," Fernandez said. But internal testing against Marketo's previous-generation software showed that targeting precision had gone up by a factor of three, he added.
"It's way better," he said. Over time, Marketo's "way better" advantage will get "squeezed out and it will be a battle of inches," he added. "Right now, it's a battle of football fields."
A changing landscape
Meanwhile, Marketo is about to face a fresh wave of competition from a company that it's been a close partner with for some time, Salesforce.com. Marketo relies heavily on Salesforce.com's CRM (customer relationship management) software customer base, which uses the two products in conjunction.
But this week, Salesforce.com announced it would purchase Marketo competitor ExactTarget for $2.5 billion, a move that surprised some observers since it was long rumored Marketo itself would get snapped up by Salesforce.com.
Fernandez declined to relate the details of any talks his company had with Salesforce.com. Marketo, which recently underwent a successful IPO, may be better off on its own, according to Fernandez. "We've been very clear with the market that we think the world is moving toward best-of-breed independent leaders," he said.
He expressed no concern that Salesforce.com would make it more difficult for companies like Marketo to do business, saying the vendor has made it "really clear" it will keep its systems open to third parties.
That said, "we have never been that good of friends," Fernandez said. "The number of leads that have come to us from Salesforce.com in our history is minimal."


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Ship Finance International Limited (NYSE: SFL) (the "Company") announces that its annual report on Form 20-F for the financial year ended December 31, 2016 (the "Annual Report") has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission"). The Annual Report may be accessed through the Company's website, www.shipfinance.bm, or directly in the link below. The Annual Report is also available on the website of the Commission at www.sec.gov.
Shareholders may also receive a hard copy of the Annual Report, which includes the Company's complete 2016 audited financial statements, free of charge, by submitting the contact form and request the report at www.shipfinance.bm.
April 13, 2017
The Board of Directors
Ship Finance International Limited
Hamilton, Bermuda
Questions can be directed to Ship Finance Management AS:
Investor and Analyst Contacts:
Harald Gurvin, Chief Financial Officer, Ship Finance Management AS
+47 23 11 40 09
André Reppen, Senior Vice President, Ship Finance Management AS
+47 23 11 40 55
Media Contact:
Ole B. Hjertaker, Chief Executive Officer, Ship Finance Management AS
+47 23 11 40 11
About Ship Finance
Ship Finance International Limited (NYSE: SFL) has an unprecedented track record in the maritime industry, being consistently profitable and paying dividends every quarter since 2004. The Company's fleet of more than 70 vessels is split between tankers, bulkers, container vessels and offshore assets, and Ship Finance's long term distribution capacity is supported by a portfolio of long term charters and significant growth in the asset base over time. More information can be found on the Company's website: www.shipfinance.bm
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward looking statements. These statements are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including Ship Finance management's examination of historical operating trends. Although Ship Finance believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond its control, Ship Finance cannot give assurance that it will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or intentions. Important factors that, in the Company's view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in this presentation include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions including fluctuations in charter hire rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the tanker market as a result of changes in OPEC's petroleum production levels and worldwide oil consumption and storage, changes in the Company's operating expenses including bunker prices, dry-docking and insurance costs, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.


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|Home ▸ Catalog ▸ |Roman Coins| ▸ |Constantinian Era| ▸ |Constantine II||View Options: | | |
Constantine II, 22 May 337 - March or April 340 A.D.
Constantine II was the son of Constantine I, the eldest with his second wife, Fausta. He was born in Arles (which was renamed Constantia in his honor in 328, explaining the CON mintmarks for Arles) and was made Caesar before he was a year old in 316 A.D. Upon his father's death, Constantine II inherited the Western part of the empire. After quarreling with his brother Constans, he invaded his territory, only to be killed in an ambush near Aquileia. His coins often include "IVN" in the legend, an abbreviation for junior.


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political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Liberal or not?
13 comments:
- Ben said...
Maybe he's one of these real Liberals like Laws or Oaten rather than the soppy social democrats a-la Hughes, Opik and Kennedy [spits]...
...thing is I have time for these classic economic and social liberals, at least their consistent, that said Lamb's voting record wouldn't suggest this and much of the Liberal party seems to have had a pretty luddite reaction to some of the original ideas aired by the Oaten/Laws wing within the party of late, despite not agreeing with them I wouldn't deny these proposals have been original and inventive. I may be wrong but much of what's been proposed in the "orange book" seems to be gaining a lot of currency on the left of the Tory Party... well we will see.
- October 24, 2004 9:30 pm
- Iain Dale said...
And to think, I nearly published the Orange Book! You're right. David Laws would be quite at home in the Conservative Party, although I'm not sure I'd want Oaten. He rivals Paddy Ashdown in the holier than thou stakes.
- October 24, 2004 10:59 pm
to Germany, surely?
- October 24, 2004 11:41 pm
- Ben said...
Fair point about Oaten, that said I do have time for him unlike most of the Liberal Democratic party, to be fair "Tough Liberalism" was quite a good little sound bite. But all the same most of the Liberal Democrats are just social democrats of one shade or another with no bedrock of belief or values.
Case in point's tuition fees, we all know the Liberal oppose them but they have no alternative policy at least the Conservatives do and to be fair the Conservative policy on higher education has some merit to it.
A scenario that seems to be emerging is that at the election after next a Brown lead Labour party would be able to consolidate and solidly its hold over the traditional Labour base (white working class voters, ethnic minorities and guardian man and woman etc…) while the change in tone from Labour would give the Conservatives an opening… the end result would be the Liberals caught in a vice and probably left with the Oaten-Laws wing and the Hughes-Opik wing caught in bitter feud over where the party should go…
- October 25, 2004 11:06 am
Tory PPC reads LibDem news? Perhaps he's thinking of defecting to us? Perish the thought.
- October 25, 2004 3:54 pm
- Iain Dale said...
I think not! It's called 'know thine enemy' or more politely, 'opposition research'.
- October 25, 2004 4:04 pm
However, don't the FDP belong to the ELDR group in the European Parliament who tend to vote very similarly on most issues...I know it ruins a nice put-down but...
- October 25, 2004 6:06 pm
- Westbury-on-Trym Lib Dems said...
Perhaps Cllr Wright was also involved in opposition research!
More seriously, I think the key point here is that (as you say) the FDP run on a broadly Thatcherite ECONOMIC agenda, which is very different to saying a Thatcherite agenda. Indeed, former Liberal leader Jo Grimond said in the 1980s that "much of what Mrs Thatcher and Keith Joseph say and do is in the mainstream of traditional liberal thought" (or words to that effect). Indeed, the Liberals in the early days regularly trooped through the lobbies for labour market reform, right to buy etc.
The Orange Book is very interesting. To summarise (more or less fairly) David Laws' contribution, he argues that Lib Dems dislike Thatcher because her economic liberalism was not accompanied (in his view and that of probably all his colleagues) by social liberalism (concern for the life chances of the less well off), political liberalism (decentralisation, democratic control - witness quango-culture etc) or individual liberalism (witness section 28, home affairs in the later years etc). He then says some Liberals have concluded, wrongly, that the free market necessarily brings with it what is seen by them as the worst excesses of Thatcherism. He essentially says let's reassert the economic liberalism side - in essence, "don't throw the baby out with the bath-water". He makes other points (e.g. concern for civil liberties is great but be careful not to forget that for a lot of people, their civil liberties are threatened more by yobs than by draconian Home Secretaries, bad though they are) but the economic liberalism point is the main thrust.
You are clearly convinced that Laws would be happy in the Tories but he obviously isn't. An articulate, high flying banker like him would have waltzed into a decent Tory seat and probably front bench, but he decided against it. I suspect he would cite policies your policies on devolution, immigration, shotting trespassers, war in Iraq, and jeopardising relations with Europe as well as your past record on investment in public services as among the factors in that decision.
- October 25, 2004 6:25 pm
- Iain Dale said...
I still think the FDP are far more Conservative than Liberal. But there you go.
On the Orange Book I think your analysis of its thrust is broadly correct although I would dispute some of your assertions about Thatcherism, as you might expect. I'd still happily welcome Mr Laws into the Party at any point he chooses!
- October 25, 2004 6:56 pm
- Cllr. Adam Parsons said...
What is said, thought and then done by a party such as the FDP in Germany are very different things. The most important of which being what they do which would collate to their membership of the ELDR. Therefore making it very acceptable for a councillour and party member of a British party that holds liberal views to be able to campaign on their behalf them.
- October 25, 2004 9:04 pm
I am sure that you would welcome David Laws into your party- indeed more MPs is probably most parties' desire...however, seeing the Tories cuurent travails, you would be so lucky! : )
- October 26, 2004 12:15 pm
Hmmm, never could understand why the FDP sat in the same group at the LibDems, especially as we have established that the FDP are right-of-centre, a position which Kennedy doesn't seem to be heading towards. As a Tory living in Germany (who presumably can vote in next year's regional election), should I vote CDU (who I've always considered to be our German equivalent) or FDP? What were your leanings during your time in Germany, Iain?
- October 27, 2004 5:41 pm
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- February 05, 2009 1:24 am


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The Griffin's Secret
by Cate Masters
In this contemporary re-telling of Grimm's classic fairy tale The Griffin, two people must risk everything to free themselves from the invisible prisons that keep them from love…
Jackson Grant had it all—the girl he loved, his Harley, and his guitar. Until a tragic accident stole it all away. Now, more than scars and a tattoo remain. Jackson has a secret. Cursed by his dead girlfriend's mother, he can never fall in love again or his beloved will die. With his heart on lockdown, he keeps to himself—until a roadie gig with Malcontent, the world's most popular band, entwines his fate with sweet, wounded Layla's…
Music is what Layla lives for. She has no choice. She's bound by magic to serve Malcontent, cursed to propel them to stardom with her musical powers. Then Jackson appears and gives her hope that he's the hero who will save her. A reluctant hero, yet one she can't resist. But freedom will come at price—and who will pay…?
The faint scent of an exotic flower on an ocean breeze hit him the second the girl walked in. Every part of his body stood at attention, taking in the way she moved. The curve of her slender hips. Those long legs…they'd wrap around the back seat of his Harley perfectly. Wrap around him perfectly, too.
A flip of her onyx-silk hair sent it behind her shoulder as she sat opposite. "Who are you?"
Good question. He'd been seeking the same answer for too long. "Jackson Grant."
Her eyes darkened, deep brown to charcoal diamonds. "Why are you here?"
"For the roadie job." Was she the first gatekeeper? A gate she kept locked, he'd bet. Or maybe she was another test. Kev had warned him there'd be tricky questions and to answer straight. Something told him she asked out of curiosity.
"You think you're up for such a demanding job?"
Again, the impression hit him she was making these questions up as she went along, ad-libbing off his replies.
He'd play. "I'm strong. Dependable. I follow orders, keep my head down, and stay out of trouble." And he liked his privacy.
Her features smoothed, hard as porcelain. "Do you." Not a question.
He'd answer anyway. "Yes."
Did disappointment curl her lip? Or boredom? Why did he care? If he could, he'd blast out of there before his own curiosity got the better of him. Already, she'd gotten under his skin. Crazy how the tat no longer singed him, but now twisted like a trapped animal.
With a plastic smile, she batted her eyes, and the false flirtation didn't suit her. "So. You're a yes-man."
The way she said it, he'd be no different than any other roadie serving the great rock star, Malcolm Fetterman. Fine by Jackson. The less he stood out, the better. Except for her. He hated to think of her glossing over his presence, but that would be better, too.
He drummed his fingers on the table. "I need the job." Where the hell was Malcolm anyway? The longer he stayed with her, the more he wanted to. Definitely couldn't afford that kind of trouble. He glanced at the open door, hoping he wouldn't have to go through the same interrogation again.
She tapped the table. "You'd have to travel constantly."
"Perfect." No different than his usual way of life. Except this time, his paycheck would remain steady.
"You wouldn't miss your family?" She dipped her head. "Your girlfriend?"
He curled his lip this time. No one's business but his. He shifted in his seat. "They're better off."
Her brows knit, and then her expression became unreadable as the Sphinx. "The hours are long, and the equipment's heavy. Everything has to be exactly as Mal orders."
Did he imagine it, or had she winced at her own words?
He shrugged. "It's his show." Someday, Jackson would have his own roadies. And would treat them much better than Malcolm Fetterman did, if the stories proved true.
Her steely focus cut into him. "Mal doesn't hire musicians except for those in the band. And there aren't any openings in Malcontent."
He didn't allow himself to blink. "No problem."
"But you play, don't you?" Her gaze dropped to his callused fingertips drumming the tabletop.
He drew his hand down. "No." A necessary lie. She might suspect, but couldn't possibly know the truth. Almost like leaving one of his limbs behind, he'd locked his Fender in storage in New Jersey with his paltry possessions for six months. By then, he'd know whether this gig worked out.
The Griffin's Secret
Reimagined fairy tale/fantasy romance novella
Publish Date: 5/12/2015
About 33,000 words
About the Author
Cate Masters has made beautiful central Pennsylvania her home, but she'll always be a Jersey girl at heart. When not spending time with her dear hubby, she can be found in her lair, concocting a magical brew of contemporary, historical, and fantasy/paranormal stories with her cat Chairman Maiow and dog Lily as company. Look for her at http://catemasters.blogspot.com and in strange nooks and far-flung corners of the web.
Contact Details
Website: http://catemasters.blogspot.com
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cate-Masters/89969413736?ref=ts
Twitter: @CateMasters


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Indeed. When even the usually avidly pro-labor MSNBC host Ed Schultz suddenly discovers that it's in his interest to throw his union pals under the bus on the Keystone XL pipeline, you know something's up. Via The Hill:
Labor leaders have long backed the pipeline, arguing it would create thousands of construction jobs and boost the economy. But many of them have been muted in their criticism of President Obama, for fear of opening a rift with the White House over the controversial project.
That seemed to change on Tuesday, as the presidents of building trade unions linked the delay of Keystone to broader anger at the administration within the labor movement.
"Our anger doesn't just stop with Keystone XL," Terry O'Sullivan, president of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) told The Hill. "We are extremely angry about the Affordable Care Act and the fact that there is 12.8 percent unemployment in construction."
"Are [lawmakers] really for jobs and the middle class?" O'Sullivan said. "This whole thing reeks of politics."
Big Labor has generally been on board with the pipeline's construction from the get-go, but as a small yet merry band of extremely well-monied and out-of-touch eco-radicals have gotten increasingly vocal about disrupting Keystone XL, unions are evidently starting to feel the need to throw some of their own not inconsiderable donor weight around.
"I urge the president of the United States to get on with it and approve that permit" to build the pipeline, said Sean McGarvey, president of North America's Building Trades Unions, an alliance of 14 unions representing workers in the U.S. and Canada. He spoke at a news conference at a Washington hotel during the building trades' legislative conference. "I think the White House needs to worry about November," he said when asked what he and other building trades union officials would do if the White House doesn't act soon.
One can only hope. Even after jerking Canada around for years and repeating incessant reports offering the same pro-pipeline conclusions, the Obama administration can't even seem to manage to summon the political will to throw several vulnerable pro-Keystone XL Senate Democrats that bone — although, the Obama administration could be saving a thumbs-up decision for the opportune moment, since they've now waited this long already anyway. There has been at least one report that the Obama administration is thinking about lighting this candle within the next month or two, and that could be a timely boon to Dems like Landrieu and Begich.