Organizational Technology :: Technologies of Communication

We live in an while of communion. Communication is the problem and the opportunity addressed by a colossal deal of engineering science design and development. But because parley is an interpersonal and a social phenomenon, engine room issues must be approached with a particular grasp of human and social factors. The organization of societies like a shot requires effective global intercourse between diverse and far-flung social and cultural systems. Only by means of technical mediation are we equal to maintain the flows of commerce and knowledge required by the world-wide interdependence. Technologies of communication become the means of business, or production format, of communication. Their use in communication is not transparent. In fact, technologies introduce spic-and-span contingencies and context into communication. Analysis of communication and interaction in society today needs to account for the transformative effects of mediation. Technologies are sensible b y design, and in use, they rationalize human activity. Human communication and interaction, however, are neither rational nor designed. The difference between the technical and the human shows up in technology at what we call the "port." In our case, we will consider this not fair(a) a user interface, but a social interface. It is social because it translates communication (messages, theme) while also facilitating the subtle and tacit exchange of interpersonal acknowledgments. The latter, though they dont "say" anything, reproduce our relations. Social interface issues generally involve ambiguities of communication, intent, final result and so on. These ambiguities result from technologys mediation of practices in which individuals are normally able to address and resolve ambiguities as they come up. Its at the social interface where the distinction between communications content and participants relationships becomes an issue, because the technology thats good fo r transmitting content may not be good for reproducing relationships. The implicit purpose of communication is to motivate a listener (or recipient) to do, or understand, something egestd. Thus the use of technology extends and limits the very power of communication. It extends our ability to access and connect, but limits our ability to communicate and bind. Repercussions can be seen at all levels of society, from individual and interpersonal to macro-social. Our translate of communication technologies will borrow from pragmatics, which is branch of linguistics that emphasizes the "how" of what we say (in rise to power to the "what"). A pragmatics of mediated interaction would thus emphasize the production and exertion of mediated communication and interaction, focusing on the practices developed around connectivity technologies.