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M. Mitteregger:
"Possibilities of Communication";
Talk: MIT - Public Space 2.0 / Senseable City Symposium, Massachusetts/ Boston/ USA (invited); 2012-02-21 - 2012-02-24.

Public spaces have been characterized as places of mutual visibility. In other words places that are first of all about communication. This applies at least for the Western ideal, descending form ancient Greece, largely dominating the academic discourse. Much has been written about the stones of Athens, about the structure they provided and on the political effects they have had; the Pnyx or the Agora and the various forms of communication they furnished. Another constraint recognized is the accessibility is at issue. Returning to ancient Athens, public space was exclusively for man, as woman (with the exception of the Hetaerae) were bound to house and hearth and not allowed to freely move and participate in public life and discussion. The public sphere is where shared believes are created and exchanged. Gathering and sorting of information (evaluating it) has always been an elitist occupation. Talking about seventeen century England, the construction of knowledge, the construction of truth has been a task arcane "to women, servants, `the poor and the mean in general´, merchants, Catholics, Continental gentry, Italians, and politicians." Recognizing the Internet as part of public sphere that connects people at any given moment, structure and accessibility are at issue again. I argue against the idea that the Internet should be conceptualized as a network of a kind, where "every entrance is the correct one, because every point is connected to every other trough ... other points." Navigating the web, people experience a customized information spaces. The structure of the web and the accessibility of a virtual layer overlapping the city is determined e.g. by actions passed. As a result, the visibility of virtual information, physical locations and social groups depend on the structure a personal profile. In globally networked communication gathering and sorting of information is becoming an increasingly individual task. Possibilities of communication, I will argue, are at issue, as the network is not as flat and seamlessly available as often supposed.

public space is where shared beliefs are created and exchanged; recognizing the internet as part of public space, here people experience customized information spaces; visibility of virtual information, physical locations and social groups depend on the

http://www.strategies-research.ufg.ac.at/public_space/?page_id=918