Notes:
Horn discusses the concept of prana, a Hindu term meaning "the breath of life." She notes, "You can't take one moment out of life and say life is this or life is that... Cyberspace exists in connections. Between people... what happens [in cyberspace] happens over years. This is what is important. It is the very fact that it does continue over time that makes it valuable." (pp. 45 & 46)
Those whose personal philosoply is to live for the moment may take issue with Ms. Horn's assertion. Indeed, many techies prefer to focus on the dynamics of the instantaneous transmission of electrons rather than persistent meaning of the patterns of human thought that are thereby recorded and conveyed. However, regardless of the resolution of the philosophical debate or the focus of the moment, the fact remains that CMC creates records that persist for some time. CMC makes implicit knowledge explicit. Discussion of knowledge management and its more explicit cousin -- records management -- is beyond the scope of this presentation. However, those interested in further discussion of those topics are invited to visit my personal home page, at http://users.erols.com/ambur
The distinction might be summed up as the difference between what you are thinking and doing at any particular instant versus what you would like your epitaph to say. As in life, we are writing our personal histories every day. However, by its very nature, CMC records our activities with very high fidelity and in richly intimate detail. In particular, it documents our connections to other people over time in cyberspace.
