Net Metaphor

[Bruce Baugh <bruceab@teleport.com>]

Given that most people have neither the time nor interest to understand how
the net really works, we need concise images that convey the truth. In
particular, we need to get across to the net.unhip masses the idea that the
net is not a "thing", not any single organization.

I've recently begun using this metaphor: the Internet is a society, composed
of all the systems that "speak" its computer protocols. In this it's like,
say, the society of all English-speakers. The English-language society
includes governments and businesses and churches and fraternal orders and
magazines and all sorts of things, but it isn't any of them. And obviously
there is nobody in charge of the English-language society as a whole - the
language itself evolves over time (and changes across space), and no
institution controls the whole show.

When I've brought that up, I've all but seen lightbulbs go on over people's
heads.

Bruce Baugh
bruceab@teleport.com
http://www.teleport.com/~bruceab