Semiotics in Cyberspace

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Semiotics in Cyberspace

We are seeing one of the most historically significant changes in the way we share information. Electronic communication devices have been with us since the beginning of the 20th century. Radio provided ways to share sounds with distant people simultaneously. The telephone added the ability to inter-communicate with others. Cinematography captured images and created the illusion of motion. Television added the ability to send sounds and moving images to masses of distant people simultaneously.

Computers started out being number crunching machines. However, as time passed these machines were interconnected and they started to provide yet another medium to deliver information. First it was only text, then some low resolution graphics and images with limited amount of colors were added. In only a few decades of computer technology development we are already seeing systems that can deliver all possible combinations of electronic media. Presently, computers can deliver text (and other machine codes), sounds, graphics, still images and video (another name for television images). You can have all of those varieties of media stored in magnetic and optical devices for archiving or to be used as alternative delivery systems. Also, it is possible to deliver all kinds of computer data and electronic media through your telephone or "local area network".

Radio and television were initially dependent on the use of magnetic radio waves to deliver messages. These two particular media dramatically extended their reach when cable and satellite technologies emerged. Cable and satellite technologies have been in fact responsible for the development of the concept of global information networks.

Computers have also played a role in the development of information networks using cable and satellite technologies. The Internet is one of those global information networks. Through this network, computers are currently sending all kinds of electronic media formats to other computers around the world. These computers are interconnected to a network that does not have a beginning or an end. Connections can happen in any direction at any time. Trying to build a map of computer locations and possible interconnections among them will only produce something that looks more like a web. Hence the name of one of the most impressive information sharing environments of our days: The World Wide Web.

The World Wide Web (WWW) provides the ability to combine all kinds of electronic media into one interactive presentation that can be delivered anywhere around the world instantaneously. WWW documents are hypermedia documents.

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