By
charles kulwa n reg no 42688
Network
society and communication technology
A
network society is a society whose social structure is made of networks powered
by microelectronics based information and communication technologies. By social
structures you know the organization arrangements of human in relations of
production, consumption, reproduction experience, and power expressed in a
meaningful communication coded by culture. Network is a set of interconnected
nodes.
A node
is the point where the curve intersects itself. A network has no centre, just
nodes. Nodes may be of varying relevance for the network. Nodes increase their
importance for the networks by absorbing more relevant information, and
processing it more effectively. The relative importance of a node does not stem
from its specific features but from its ability to contribute to the networks
goals. However, all nodes of a network are necessary for the networks
performance.
When
nodes become redundant or useless, networks tend to recon figurate themselves,
deleting some nodes, and adding new ones. Communication networks are the
patterns of contact that created by flows of message among communications
through time and space ( Monge and contactors 2003) so, network process flows.
Flows are streams of information between nodes circulating through the channels
of connection between nodes. A network is defined by the program that assigns
the network its goals and its rule of performance.
This
program is made of codes that include valuation of performance and criteria for
success or failure. to alter the outcomes of the network a new program (a set
of compatible codes) will have to be installed in the network from outside the
network. Network cooperates or compete with each other. Cooperation is based on
the ability to communicate between networks.
This
ability depends on the existence of codes of translation and inter operability
between the networks (protocol of communication), and on access to connection
points (switches). Competition depends on the ability to outperform other
networks by superior efficiency in performance or in cooperation capacity.
Competition may also take a destructive form by disrupting the switchers of
competing networks and or interfering with their communication protocols.
Networks
work on a binary logic: inclusive /exclusive within the networks, distance
between nodes tends to zero, as networks follow the logic of small worlds,
properties, they are able to connect to the entire network and
communicated networks from any node in the networks, on the
condition of sharing protocols of communication. Between nodes in the network
and outside the network, distance is infinite, since there is no access unless
the program of the network is changed. Thus, networks are self reconfigurable,
complex structures of communication that ensure the unity of the purpose and
the flexibility of its execution, by the capacity to adapt to the operating
environment.
Networks
however are not specific to 21st century
societies or for that matter, to human organization. Networks constitute the
fundamental pattern of life, of all kinds of life. As fritjof capra writs ‘’
the networks is pattern that is common to all life., wherever we see life, we
see networks ( 2002)
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