Reflections on Cultural Bias and Adaptation
نویسنده
چکیده
SvenskMud is an Internet-accessible Multi-User Domain (MUD) system. But, in contrast to 99% of all Internet-accessible MUDs, SvenskMud is not a global community. SvenskMud is instead the first vernacular (i.e. non-English speaking) MUD in the world, and the only Swedish-speaking MUD in Sweden today. This paper problematizes four questions regarding cultural attitudes and their relationship to CMC technologies. Moving from the historical and the general to the present and the specific I will in turn discuss the following questions: (1) how have American cultural attitudes (historically) shaped the development and use of CMC technologies? (2) how do cultural attitudes (today) shape the implementation and use of CMC technologies? (3) how do cultural attitudes manifest themselves in the implementation and use of MUDs? (4) how do cultural attitudes manifest themselves in the implementation and use of SvenskMud? 1. How have American Cultural Attitudes (historically) Shaped the Development and use of CMC Technologies? The Internet, or rather its precursor, ARPANET, was designed by, built for and paid by Americans. More specifically, it was designed and paid for by the American Defense Department through the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in order to connect its sponsored organizations. The first ARPANET nodes were in place 1969 and the first services were TELNET and FTP, soon followed by electronic mail. The original purpose was to give researchers access to remote computers. The possibility to send electronic mail was originally of subordinated importance, but it was clear already after a year that this was the utility that was used the most. Not perhaps in terms of data traffic generated, but in time spent. 1 SvenskMud means SwedishMud in Swedish. The name is in this way self-advertising to all who knows Swedish. 2 Information about the history of the Internet comes from Levy (1984), Quarterman (1993), Reid (1994) and Rhinegold (1994).
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