Wednesday, 14 August 2002

Composing     The challenge of composing  is to knowing how to obtain resources from which a starting-point can be set, and secondly, how to move on from there to modify that starting text  into what is required. For example, a composer may adopt the layout of another document  on file , or even cut and paste large portions of text from another document; the next steps of modifying those borrowed selections to mould them into an expression that is consistent with the balance of the composition is the challenging step.      Composing is an activity  of orchestrating a large number of variables quite unlike “writing ”. Composing also involves borrowing, and knowing how and when to borrow “text ” at a much higher rank than “writing”. Writing is usually a feat of “wording”; composing  is an activity of “objectifying” or working at the rank of “object ” within a particular program  or set of programmes. Depending on the selection in place, an object can be as small as a “word” or it can be as large as a complete photograph , or an entire document .      Composing, then, has an element of politics that may not be at first apparent to the composer. How much of each text , and how many of the texts on-line within an organisation are available for “borrowing”? Some businesses prefer that “standard” letters and forms are used. For example, one organisation required from the writer that every document  raised for any client be a standard document available on the network and modified only in those places so marked ¾ outside of this no document was to be forwarded to a client. Other organisations allow borrowing from any other person’s documents, except the Managing Director’s documents. In some settings, every document is copyrighted, marked with the composer’s name and warnings of rights and uses marked in small text on every page . In spite of the capacity for substantial savings in computer  based communications being available in that business , the sensitivities of the organisation set as they were precluded people from using the most valuable resources they had in composing  further computer documents. 8:01:07 PM

Operating Operating involves using a keyboard, mouse, and other peripheral devices to provide the computer with input that forms the human part of the human-computer dialogue. When using a keyboard or other peripheral device, the human must select from the range of options defined on the computer screen using active units as a resource with which to reply to the questioning of the computer. 7:58:00 PM

Technacy Technacy primarily is about a new consciousness, an extended consciousness beyond oracy and literacy  that encompasses the problems posed by a new language  order ¾ electronic language. Consciousness of language (spoken and written) is taken here to be a description of the relations people believe to exist between language, the mind and the world. Most people go through the day without exercising their consciousness of language . To be aware of every word and its ramifications might be either sublime or petrifying. Yet consciousness of language is innately human. It shows itself most in the way we play with language ¾ puns, slang, rhyme and a host  of other verbal tricks. Similarly, consciousness of electronic language is taken to be a description of the relations people believe to exist between electronic language, the mind and the world. 6:00:13 PM