Jill Walker

Links and power: the political economy of linking on the Web

Search engines like Google interpret links to a web page as objective, peer-endorsed and machine-readable signs of value. Links have become the currency of the Web. With this economic value they also have power, affecting accessibility and knowledge on the Web.

Piecing together and tearing apart: finding the story in afternoon

A safety device for lowering persons and loads comprises a two-piece casing, the two halves of which are symmetrical forming a cylinder therebetween, in which a piston provided with flow channels for a medium is fitted to move axially, the circumference of the piston having a sinusoidal groove in which are engaged one or several pins which are moved by a cable drum which is rotated by the cable around the outer circumference of the cylinder and in which there is a guide roll arrangement for the cable or rope, both ends of the cable hanging freely and one of them being loaded. The arrangement may further comprise three guide rolls with both ends of the cable passing over the central roll on opposite sides of it and then between it and one of the other guide rolls on either side of it, so arranged that the loaded cable presses the central guide roll against the unloaded part of the cable which is thereby pressed against one of the guide rolls producing an additional braking effect by friction. The arrangement may also comprise, outside the casing an adjustable regulator for throttling the flow of the medium in order to adjust the rate of descent to that desired.

Weblogs: learning in public

Purpose – Seeks to exemplify and discuss how students’ use of weblogs can prepare them for a networked world where writing has consequences outside grades.Design/methodology/approach – Experiences using weblogs with university students are critically discussed with reference to related theoretical and practice‐based work.Findings – While many students were wary at first, the experience of writing in public provided an important learning opportunity, and many of the most skeptical became enthusiastic and proficient webloggers during the course of the semester.Research limitations/implications – The empirical data are from a single course and therefore limited.Practical implications – Students should practice writing in public and on the network, yet ethical issues must be considered.Originality/value – An increasing number of teachers and professors are using weblogs with students. In addition to a critical discussion of the ethics and pedagogical value of weblogging, this paper gives educators specific ad...

Feral hypertext: when hypertext literature escapes control

This paper presents a historical view of hypertext looking at pre-web hypertext as a domesticated species bred in captivity, and arguing that on the web, some breeds of hypertext have gone feral. Feral hypertext is no longer tame and domesticated, but is fundamentally out of our control. In order to understand and work with feral hypertext, we need to accept this and think more as hunter-gatherers than as the farmers we have been for domesticated hypertext. The paper discusses hypertext in general with an emphasis on literary and creative hypertext practice.