Even more Gnus material: we made the paper!

[Emanuel Berg]

I've learned a university computer guy in the US,
Joshua Braun of Quinnipiac University, Connecticut,
has given a "talk" (?) on the computer culture that
is us.

The talk comes with a four-paragraph text, which is
what I've got, so I haven't heard the actual talk.
He quotes me thrice, including the title of the
talk/text: "Bypassing the web."

I only have a vague memory of saying that, but I sure
recognize those thoughts and attitudes in general.

To be 100% correct, it is actually not "bypassing the
web". It is really "getting to the desired data, which
is on the web, only not using the conventional GUI
programs but our own shell and text tools".

But the spirit of the phrase is correct and everyone
understands the meaning!

And the rest of the text? No comments! I agree.
(Except one comment. Read on!)

Anyway here is the article as a PDF, as I learned
about it:

    https://ahcsconference.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/braun.pdf

But let my "bypass" that for you and supply the text
as well :)

"Bypassing the Web": Shell Users and Alternative
Experiences of the Internet

Joshua A. Braun

Assistant Professor of Interactive Media,
Quinnipiac University

"Since I discovered Gnus, I'm not surfing the web at
all, almost," writes Emacs user, Emanuel Berg on the
help-gnu-emacs mailing list. Emacs, which has existed
in a variety of versions and contexts since the 1970s,
is a widely used software application for viewing and
manipulating code and other text. The software can be
— and often is — used from the command line without
a mouse or graphical interface. While many software
tools are tied to the latest hardware and the release
cycle of proprietary operating systems, Emacs' long
release history and modest operating requirements
allow it to run on computers of almost any age.

And while many users employ the application
instrumentally as a tool for writing and maintaining
software, a subset of that user base "lives in" Emacs,
which has been likened to a text-based operating
system. Users of Emacs can, with a bit of
configuration, take on most of the everyday tasks
normally associated with other software, from keeping
a calendar to reading news, writing papers, chatting
online, sending email, and browsing the web, which the
program renders in plain text. As Hacker News user,
pmr_ put it, "For some people Emacs acts like
a maelstrom for everything you do on a computer."

And of course, Emacs is just one of the wide variety
of "terminal-" or "shell-based" tools with which users
operate their computers and use the Internet without
the need for a graphical interface. Emanuel goes on to
say he considers himself "text-based" and has largely
"bypassed the Web." Other similar accounts can be
easily found online of users who prefer "the warm glow
of a green screen full of text over the cold
blockiness of a graphical interface."

Users like these are likely to be highly computer
literate [now hang on - "are likely to be"???] —
server administrators and programmers, for example,
are commonly heavy shell users. And yet the version of
tech savviness they display is distinct from the
consumeroriented rhetoric around owning the new iPhone
or being skilled in the latest enterprise software.
The ecosystem of tools, or "modes" that run within
Emacs is under active development, but its progress
narrative diverges from that found in the surrounding
commodity culture. This talk would consider these
users, their experience of the Internet, and the
counternarrative they provide to the planned
obsolescence and rhetoric of constant "innovation"
that accompanies the rapid release cycle of
contemporary Internet devices and services.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573