BE: Composing the Digital Self

Because class discussion ran a bit thin on John Deely Brown and Paul Duguid reading, I thought I’d post a few of the not-to-miss highlights from this very important assignment. If you have not completed the reading, let me encourage you again to do so. I count this article as among the most important reads of the semester. Here are some ideas to watch for as you read (page numbers indicate those recorded by my printer – your printer may indicate differently):

• the “double life” of documents as both the creation of meaning and the creation of a community – often a reinforcement of the meaning by which it was, to begin, created
• documents as both structuring information and structuring the social space (2) “Seeing documents as the means to make and maintain social groups, not just the means to deliver information, makes it easier to understand the utility and success of new forms of documents.”
• new forms of documents allow for new forms of community – Strauss’s notion of “social worlds” (3)
• thoughts about what “authorizes” a document (4)
• an understanding for Anderson’s notion of “the imagined community” (5/6)
• “communities of interpretation” (8)
• an understanding of “intertexuality” and the writing act as provocation for more writing – the conversation in and between communities (9) How does hypertextuality and links speak to this point?
• an understanding of what Brown and Duguid call “intercommunal” and “intracommunal” documents – differences and examples (12)
• the importance of audience and “the economy of attention” (12)
• the mobility of documents – the issues of boundaries, the work of negotiation between formed communities, and the idea of “translation” (12-14)
• connections between the flow of information and “freedom” (responsibility) (15)
• the implications of form – what changes when the medium of information shifts? what becomes of the notions of “permanence,” “ownership,” and/or “producer/consumer”? (15-17)
• an understanding of the terms “ecology” and “economy” and how documents can be seen as a mediating force between the needs/drives represented by each (18-19)

These bullet points should guide those of you still reading to a better understanding of the material. For students striving to improve their writing, the challenge is to translate these ideas to an understanding of composition as a negotiation between multiple layers of meaning: information, social representation, permanent record, and, not the least, a statement – (real)ization – of SELF in the world.

In the ACT of word(ing), image(ing), and voice(ing) you are writing yourself and your world: in(form)agination – do your part well.

technorati tags: Purdue English 106, The Social Life of Documents