Digital Technology as Space-Biased Medium

head-mounted display. It is the very intention of the so-called “ubiquitous computing” whose ultimate aim is “to make the interface metaphor invisible to the user in the same way as computer systems are invisible in home appliances, such as the VCR,⁷³⁶ the microwave oven and the washing machine.”⁷³⁷ As Mark Weiser, who came up with this idea, explains:

“ubiquitous computing has as its goal the enhancing computer use by making many computers available throughout the physical environment, but making them effectively invisible to the user.”⁷³⁸ As opposed to Virtual Reality, which aims to integrate the individual into the information display, ubiquitous computing aims to integrate the information display into the everyday physical world.⁷³⁹ However, the disappearance or invisibility of the medium could have very visible impacts, and from an Innisian perspective this is not necessarily something to welcome, given that each medium has its bias and thus the ubiquitous presence of digital technology could bring a serious challenge for balance. In line with this concern, the analysis now turns to a final subchapter, discussing the medium bias against the notions of space and time.

characteristics of digital technology reflect space- or time-biased aspects. As explained above, Innis did not treat the notions of space and time as isolated concepts but rather always in relation with each other, with the measure for their successful relationship being the notion of balance. Therefore, discussing the space- or time-bias of digital technology also implies considerations regarding the influence of its bias on the possibilities of balance.

Along with many others, Abbate suggests that “today we take it for granted that information can travel long distances instantaneously…The transcendence of geographic distance has come to seem an inherent part of computer technology.”⁷⁴⁰ Although Abbate makes no use of Innis’ theories or concepts, her statement indicates the existence of a strong space-bias built into the digital technology. Indeed, scholars following an Innisian analysis to explore the bias of digital technology, or rather that of the Internet, tend to conclude that it has a strong space-bias.⁷⁴¹ For example, Angus explains that “what we do not do well is organize things in the dimension of time. While we have a very efficient and well-integrated world system, it is extremely sensitive to periodic shocks and dislocations. The critique is that it does not have stability over time despite a remarkable stability over space.”⁷⁴² In fact, while the physical infrastructure of the Internet is quite robust, it is nevertheless true that its history has been turbulent and constantly changing, which is an indication of space- not time-bias. However, while many scholars share Angus’ view, not all of them do so. Turning to the historical insights of digital technology, in line with Menzies we may observe that

“the internet was created by a strongly space-biased institution: the U.S. Department of Defense. But it was strategically designed (in 1969) as a self-governing collection of information nodes (rather than a centrally controlled system), so that it could withstand the destruction of any particular site. This decentred design has been a key to its growth along decidedly un-space-biased dimensions.”⁷⁴³

Since these are characteristics that Innis usually attributed to time-biased media, Menzies further argues “that the internet has developed into a more time-oriented communitarian model of communication practice, while the information highway is clearly associated with the transmission model and the commercial, market-controlling bias of space in the modern era.”⁷⁴⁴ One can identify James Carey’ concepts of transmission and ritual view in this statement, with the former reflecting the physical Internet infrastructure owned by different

740 Abbate, Inventing the Internet.

741 E.g. Frost, “How Prometheus is Bound”; see also Comor, “Harold Innis”.

742 Angus, “The Materiality of Expression”.

743 Heather Menzies, “The Bias of Space Revisited: The Internet and the Information Highway through Women’s Eyes,” in Harold Innis in the New Century: Reflections and Refractions, ed. Charles R. Acland and William J.

Buxton (Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999), 324.

744 Menzies, “The Bias of Space,” 331.

commercial and political interest groups, and the latter aspect referring to selected Internet applications such as the World Wide Web that enable community formation and are thus associated by Menzies with time-bias. In fact, Menzies is not the only scholar to consider digital technology as time-biased.

While acknowledging that it serves as space-biased medium, Zhao considers it mainly as time-biased because, for example, “the time element in the internet … promises instant transmission of information at any time of the day.”⁷⁴⁵ This conclusion seems to derive from a different interpretation of the notion of time as speed, which does not coincide with Innis’

understanding of time as duration. As explained by Allen, “… when Innis spoke of a bias toward time, he really meant a bias toward duration … For Innis, media that transmit information relatively quickly - paper, for example, or the telegraph - were said to have a bias toward space rather than time.”⁷⁴⁶ Apart from an understanding of time as speed, a certain understanding of time as duration can still be identified in Zhao’s consideration of the internet, albeit his conclusion is that it is a time-biased medium because “tons of information is stored and being stored on the internet, and will remain accessible not only for later use, but also for later generations.”⁷⁴⁷ However, such an argument is not really supported by the facts.

On the contrary, the information available on the Internet lacks duration, as exemplified by the many efforts to preserve digital information in the face of rapid technological change. This was one main reason behind the drafting of the Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage, which specifically lists among the risks to the digital heritage “the rapid obsolescence of the hardware and software which brings it to life”.⁷⁴⁸ However, just like Menzies, Zhao further considers digital technology as time-binding because it allows community formation, stating that “more and more people are turning to the internet to recover a sense of belonging, to search for common interests and spiritual guidance.”⁷⁴⁹ In this respect, he invokes Innis, for whom religion, tradition and community were related to time and were the opposite of militaristic and expansionist societies obsessed with conquering space. While we can agree that the Internet allows community formation, these “virtual

745 Xiaoquan Zhao, “Revitalizing time: an Innisian perspective on the internet,” in The Toronto School of Communication Theory: Interpretations, Extensions, Applications, eds. Menahem Blondheim and Rita Watson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), 199-214.

746 Gene Allen, “Monopolies of news: Harold Innis, the telegraph and wire services,” in The Toronto School of Communication Theory: Interpretations, Extensions, Applications, eds. Menahem Blondheim and Rita Watson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), 187.

747 Zhao, “Revitalizing time,” 208.

748 UNESCO, Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage, Art .3.

749 Zhao, “Revitalizing time,” 209.

communities” are not really based on tradition or on continuity; thus, this interpretation also deviates from the meaning implied by Innis.⁷⁵⁰

The intention behind highlighting such arguments in not to deny the Internet its democratizing and participatory potential, but this is only one side of the story. Frost considers that the Internet positively correlates with sociability and civic engagement; allowing many-to-many communication and facilitating user-defined information flow.⁷⁵¹ However, she also notes that the medium is complex despite existing user-friendly technologies, and requires a high degree of technological literacy to master its features; that English is the dominant language used online; or that much content on the Internet involves popular culture and consumer information.⁷⁵² She concludes that “the internet is becoming a controlled commercial product rather than an open public infrastructure”, whose governance is currently ensured “by a combination of business interests and regulatory bureaucracy.”⁷⁵³ While she agrees that some of the Internet’s features resemble oral communication, she also thinks that it remains to be seen whether these will still exist in the future or will be pushed aside by the drive to realise monopoly potential.

The argument that digital technology incorporates both space- and time-bias, despite the former being predominant, is illustrated also by the following example regarding the difference between proprietary and free software. Proprietary software is proprietary, as its name suggests, and being driven by commercial interests it does not enable access to the source code, to information about how the software was created or how it functions, it doesn’t allow changing it, distributing it, etc. Free software does exactly the opposite, being interested in forming and maintaining a community of users not for material gains but for the moral benefits that free sharing brings. As stated by Richard Stallman, the author of the GNU Manifesto, which is a call for support for what became the free software movement, a philosophy against monopoly by proprietary software, “I consider that the Golden Rule

750 The notion of community is rather complex and it cannot be discussed in the space of this present dissertation.

For a compact overview of different understandings of the notion “community” see George Yúdice,

“Community,” in New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, ed. Tony Bennett, Lawrence Grossberg and Meaghan Morris (Malden, Oxford, Victoria: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 51-54.

751 Frost, “How Prometheus is Bound”.

752 Frost, “How Prometheus is Bound”. For studies that support Frost’s argument see also Michele Pickover,

“The DISA project. Packaging South African heritage as a continuing resource: content, access, ownership and ideology,” Official Journal of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 34, no. 2 (2007): 192-97. See also Johannes Britz and Peter Lor, “A Moral Reflection on the Digitization of Africa’s Documentary Heritage,” Official Journal of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions 30, no. 3 (2004): 216-23.

753 Frost, “How Prometheus is Bound”.

requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way.”⁷⁵⁴ As these examples imply proprietary and free software reflect different biases and the existence of both space- and time-biased elements seems to have always been part of the history of digital technology.

Abbate recounts that she was aware that the Internet has its history in the Department of Defense, yet she was using it to chat with friends and exchange information with people, which prompted her state that “this apparent contradiction goes to the heart of the Internet’s history, for the system evolved through an unusual (and sometimes uneasy) alliance between military and civilian interest.”⁷⁵⁵ However, despite the existence of time-biased elements, the entire underlying logic that makes digital technology work is space-biased, not just the technical infrastructure but also basic programs that make it work. Floridi argues that the development of programming languages has been determined by four factors, two of which are important for the present dissertation. One such factor refers to portability, with Floridi explaining that “new programming languages have considered the ease with which the resulting program can be ‘ported’, i.e. made to run on a new platform and/ or compiled with a new compiler reliably and with a minimum effort.”⁷⁵⁶ The other factor refers to maintainability, and according to Floridi means that “new programming languages have considered the ease with which the resulting program can be changed through time to make corrections or add enhancements.”⁷⁵⁷

As the name suggests, the notion of portability indicates that programming languages are now written with a space-bias to function wherever digital technology is physically situated.

Indeed, this is not only a basic condition for the technology to function but also a key requirement for achieving universal access to information. The idea of maintainability implies that a program has to be kept functional in time. At first glance, this indicates a time-biased element, yet in fact it is a space-biased one. It suggests that durability is to be ensured through constant change, which is similar to the method of digital preservation known as migration.

However, from an Innisian perspective, “constant changes in technology particularly as they affect communication, a crucial factor in determining cultural values…increase the difficulties

754 Richard Stallman, “The GNU Manifesto,” 1993, http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.en.html (accessed August 20, 2012).

755 Abbate, Inventing the Internet, 2.

756 Floridi, Philosophy and Computing, 49.

757 Floridi, Philosophy and Computing, 49.

of recognizing balance let alone achieving it.⁷⁵⁸ As stated above, one could perhaps suggest that only proprietary software, embodying commercial interests is space-biased and that free software, embodying community interests, is time-biased. This is to some extent true, and there are good reasons to praise free software for encouraging openness and sharing; however, it is not possible to ignore that it somehow also encourages constant changes to the initial products, thus working against their durability, understood in Innisian terms. Therefore, one can conclude that despite time-biased components, currently digital technology is first and foremost a space-biased technology. At first glance, this seems to lead to a dead-end: above all, digital technology is a space-biased medium and thus cannot survive transmission over time; consequently, believing that one could preserve something digital is a utopia.

Fortunately, the situation is not so straightforward, given that each medium has its own bias, and does not exist in vacuum but rather in a context, and in relation to other media, potentially having different biases. Therefore, dismissing digital technology from the field of preservation on the grounds of being space-biased would not be useful because bias cannot be eliminated. However, in light of Innis’ argument that the bias of a medium will lend a bias to the culture in which it is embedded, the space-bias of digital technology motivates an in-depth analysis of how it impacts the character and relevance of documentary practices, which are studied next accordingly.