Page 149 - Culture Technology Communication

132 Herbert Hrachovec

some administrative support to install and configure the necessary
software which makes for a comparatively stable, restrained com-
municative environment.
My topic will be quite specific, namely an overview of German-
language mailing lists in philosophy. The purpose of the discussion
is, however, a more general one: to explore the tension inherent in
implementing a tool for global communication in a very particular
geographical and professional context. As a preliminary, let me
briefly name the lists respectively and add some general remarks on
e-mail in a global context.
2
Give-l, which ran from December 1994 to September 1996 ,
was the first attempt to establish an electronic discussion forum
for German-speaking philosophers on the Internet and it exhibited
a slightly half-baked enthusiasm I will comment upon shortly.
Eventually give-l could not contain the contradictions between its
naive universalism and its de facto clientele. A more discriminat-
ing approach seemed to be called for. My second focus will be the
story of real, an e-mail forum intended to support lecture courses I
gave at the Department of Philosophy at Vienna University start-
ing in fall 1996. 3
Methodological reflection had by this time set in and I shall re-
port the consequences of a more sober approach to the technological
challenge. Give-l was a success while it lasted, real was sometimes
lively, but very often sluggish and in constant need of prompting.
These difficulties encountered with real will lead to a discussion of
the inevitable disenchantment with de-contextualized, but neces-
sarily local implementations of global communication software. A
more pragmatic approach suggests itself. My third example will be
philweb, a Hamburg-based list that has been very active recently. 4
The vast majority of its members are students of philosophy at vari-
ous German universities. Philweb is a second-generation mailing
list, sometimes containing echos of foundational moments, but more
often busily exploring the newly discovered opportunities.
This talk will be a small-scale Bildungsroman starting with the
blissful coincidence of the general and the particular and eventually
leading to a more detached assessment of the prospects of an initial
synthesis of technology and culture. But before I begin to relate my
story, some reminders concerning the overall framework of Internet
communication might be helpful.
Mailing lists tend to be shaped by core groups of dedicated par-
ticipants, developing their interests and opinions in front of a pre-
dominantly receptive audience of subscribers. A new kind of