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4. General Issues and The Effect of Multitasking on Attention
5. Habermas' Theory of Cummunicative Action as it Relates to BBS and IRC
6. Conclusion

General Issues and The Effect of Multitasking on Attention

One immediately noticeable impact that the Internet and IRC have had is the globalization of the art scene. Whereas bulletin boards were generally local in scope because boards further away required long distance calls, IRC allows communication among people scattered widely throughout the world. [3] The issue of accessibility is also one factor causing a general deterioration of the art scene's underground status. Access to underground BBS was generally restricted and exclusive, but IRC channels are far more public. Further deteriorating this underground status is the continual rise in the number of artists creating specifically for the web, which is itself a publicly accessible, if not mass medium.

Several issues related to changes in technology and operating systems should also be pointed out. During the earlier stages of the underground computer art scene's history, the principal operating system used by most members (or at least the OS used while connecting to bulletin boards) was the text-based, command line interpreting MS-DOS. Today most members of the community use Microsoft Windows 95 primarily, although some also use Linux. One change this brings is the ease with which multiple programs can be run and used simultaneously, or multitasking. As part of a small survey of 15 people associated with the art scene [4], on average individuals were found to use about 4 different programs while they were communicating via IRC, with responses ranging from 2 to 10 different programs being used during the course of a typical IRC session. In contrast, virtually all respondents said that while using a bulletin board, their only program being used was the terminal program used to call the BBS. This can be attributed to several factors. Most non-commercial dial-up BBS have only one line to connect to, and thus enforce daily time limits for users so that others may have a chance of connecting to the board as well. Anti-idling mechanisms are also used to disconnect callers who are inactive for several minutes. Calling a board further necessitates that a modem be connected only to that board through the phone lines. It is therefore not possible to be connected to an Internet service provider or another BBS at the same time, so web browsers, email programs, and IRC can't be used. Lastly, the interface of a BBS, especially that of one belonging to an underground board with custom graphics and attention to other details, is meant to be viewed at full screen and in text mode. This makes it more difficult or inconvenient for the user to do other tasks at the same time.

It can be inferred through this that more attention is given by the user to those messages posted on a BBS than is generally given to conversation on IRC. Furthermore, the asynchronous nature of bulletin boards, which allows time for more in-depth and organized posts and responses (Baym:144), together with an increased amount of attention, has the ability to create a more focused and thorough means of discussion of a given topic. This view seems to be shared by many within the art scene. (various IRC logs)

Habermas' Theory of Cummunicative Action as it Relates to BBS and IRC

In his Theory of Communicative Action, Jurgen Habermas describes what he calls the ideal speech situation. Essentially, this is a situation in which there exists a rational, level, playing field for conversation among social equals. Distorted communication occurs when social status or power is used by one person as a means to inhibit the conversation of another person. As Perrolle (1991:350) points out, computer mediated communication can allow a reduction of this distorted communication because there are no physical context cues as to a person's social status or power. However, "computer interfaces can embody unequal social relationships in their design, making power and authority appear as features of a world of objects." IRC serves as a definitive example of this creation of power through interface. Channel operators have the ability to actually kick people out of a conversation, or use the threat of a permanent ban in order to inhibit the communication of others. In the most extreme case, a person may take over or hijack another channel by gaining ops in a channel either through persuasion or various methods of hacking, and then ban everyone but themselves and make the channel invite only, thus inhibiting the communication of an entire community or sub-community.

According to Habermas, participants wishing non-distorted communication must first negotiate 4 of what he calls validity claims. The first, mutual comprehensibility of what is being said, is not of great issue on IRC, but still exists to some extent. With the international nature of IRC, there are sometimes those who are not great speakers of the English language, and who thus may be accosted by other conversational participants, or may feel uncomfortable about freely joining in conversation. Historically, this was not usually an issue at all with BBS, most of which dealt with a relatively local group of people. [5]

Secondly, participants must trust that each is making true statements about the same conversational domain. On IRC, it is difficult to validate any information that a another person might provide. It is even possible to impersonate someone else by replacing such data as name and Internet address, and assuming their personality. This lack of ability to question data validity exists on BBS as well, but a user does have the ability to question the sysop for information regarding a person's identity,[note-scene identity] and in a restricted access board, there is less chance of a non-trusted outsider being admitted with false information.

Third, each must trust that the other wants to have a rational conversation, and not simply use the conversation as a means to their own end. On IRC, a person who wishes to gain ops in order to take over a channel may feign genuine interest in a conversation or express interest in becoming an accepted member of a group, often signified by the bestowment of operator status. People therefore are usually wary of any newcomers who wish to gain quick admittance to their group, for fear that their channel may be taken over. With a BBS, a user's admittance is decided before any conversation with him or her actually begins. Additionally, if an accepted member does prove to use communication as a means of intimidation or to mislead others, they can be easily removed from the system by the sysop; the other users are in no tangible danger by trusting the sincerity of every new member.

Lastly, each person must trust that the other will follow shared social norms for conversation. The less restrictive nature of IRC allows for the introduction of many outsiders not familiar with the history or culture of the underground computer art scene, who can directly enter into conversations among its members. Acceptable language may be appalling to an outsider, and vocabulary may be alien. An influx of participants from outside of the scene may also serve to introduce new norms or new language, and could possibly have the effect of destabilizing once well established social norms. Underground BBS manage to keep social norms heavily entrenched by allowing entry only to those familiar with those norms, and thus generally preventing foreign social norms and vocabulary from being introduced in conversation.

Thus bulletin boards, and especially those that restrict membership, such as those that are of an underground nature, can more easily build a greater amount of implicit trust among members who wish to initiate conversation with each other. Such trust is harder to come by in IRC, where issues of power and authority tend to prevent the instantiation of ideal speech situations and facilitate distorted communication.

Conclusion

Along with the rapid growth and widespread acceptance of the Internet have come dramatic changes in method of communication and social structure within the underground computer art scene. Technology is making BBS obsolete and in the process taking away the medium upon which the art scene was founded, namely ANSI. In addition, IRC and an increasing global use of the Internet have introduced many new people to the community, but such openness combined with the recreation of power and authority through the interface of IRC has lead to deficiencies of trust that is needed to establish non-distorted communication.

There existed power and authority through communication over BBS, but such authority was created by more natural means; authority was generally a function of social status earned through reputation. Power on IRC can be gained through technical know-how or social manipulation, and by someone who need not even be a member of the community affected. The interface used by a particular method of computer mediated communication thus proves to be crucial in determining the ways in which an online community interacts. Not only do there exist different types of communities online, but specific communities can change due to a corresponding shift in communication interface.

Bibliography

BAYM, NANCY K. "The Emergence of Community in Computer-Mediated Communication." S.G. Jones, (ed.). CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995. pp. 138-163.

BRAND, ARIE. The Force of Reason: An Introduction to Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1990.

DANGERMOUSE (online alias). "#ansi culture(?)." 1997. Electronic document.

DANGERMOUSE (online alias). "What the hell is the underground artscene??" 1998. Electronic document.

HALASTER (online alias). "A Call for Resurrection." 1998. Electronic document.

Logs of IRC sessions. Various participants and interviewees dating from August, 1997 to April, 1998.

MYER, GORDON R. "The Social Organization of the Cumputer Underground." Masters thesis submitted to Northern Illinois University, 1989. Electronic document.

MYERS, DAVID. "'Anonymity is Part of the Magic': Individual Manipulation of Computer-Mediated Communication Contexts." Qualitative Sociology 19 (3), Fall 1987. pp. 251-266.

PERROLE, JUDITH A. Computers and Social Change. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1987.

PERROLE, JUDITH A. "Conversations and Trust in Computer Interfaces." C. Dunlop and R. Kling (eds.), Computerization and Controversy. San Diego: Academic Press, 1991. pp. 350-363.

REID, ELIZABETH M. "Electropolis: Communication and Community on Internet Relay Chat." electronic document adapted from an Honours thesis written at the University of Melbourne (Australia), 1991.

Additional Resources on the Web:

Acheron.org provides a wealth of information regarding the underground computer art scene, with articles, photo galleries, interviews, news, links, and more.

RW's Lostlands contains a great article about the who, what, and why of the various underground scenes, including the art scene. Also of interest are its links section and gallery.

Scenelink.org is an attempt to provide current information and news about happenings in the various different underground scenes, although it seems to focus on warez groups more than anything else.

ACiD and iCE are the two oldest and most successful art groups around today. Although ACiD no longer releases ANSI, and iCE is quickly moving in that same direction, they each boast some excellent high resolution artists. iCE could be described as being a bit more commercial, whereas ACiD probably releases more fine art oriented pieces.