An Online Revolution

Darin Barney in his piece “Network Economy” writes about the network society and just how it reinforces a reciprocal relationship between people and technology. Barney refers to Ronald Deibert, an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, who writes about the dynamics of network technology in the global economy. Deibert says that though the principles of technological determinism are certainly observed, the technology requires a much more complex network of cooperation and ideological similarity in order to function and serve. I love this correlation because it doesn’t take too much from the humanistic or technological side of the spectrum, rather it incorporates both sides fairly equally.

The way I read Barney’s argument is that the technology to support say, FedEx is greatly needed in order to move as much freight as they do in a single day. However, that technology is dictated by a rigid power structure that is developed and maintained by management through business strategies that have developed over time within our national institutions. So the technology that has evolved has only done so after an ideological perspective has taken shape. This is an entirely different argument than say people who argue that the revolutions in North Africa could not have evolved without the help of Twitter and Facebook. Barney argues that the relationship between technology and humans is more reciprocal, while people arguing for Facebook and Twitter would say that it was the technology that developed the ideals of the nation. I really support Barney and Deibert’s perspective more than the other.

Posted by: Mike Anderson