Mark Johnson | University of Warwick (original) (raw)
Address: Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
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The principal argument of this paper is that existing practices of scientific publishing ill-fit ... more The principal argument of this paper is that existing practices of scientific publishing ill-fit information-oriented sciences which are fundamentally concerned with complexity, constraint, uncertainty and contingency. It is argued that better exploitation of the full gamut of technological possibilities for scientific communication could support a much richer coordination of understanding between scientists. The barriers to achieving this lie with mechanisms of scarcity production in education, which are fundamentally driven by outdated publication practices. The argument builds on the social ontology of Searle, suggesting that scientific publishing declares " status functions " which simultaneously declare scarcity at many levels of education-in the process feeding economic mechanisms within education which have become pathological. In response, I argue that a richer ecology of types of communication by scholars exploiting and experimenting with new technologies can not only mitigate the pathology of publication, but can create better conditions for the advancement of learning and coordination of scientific understanding.
Papers by Mark Johnson
Bioinformational Philosophy and Postdigital Knowledge Ecologies, 2022
The concept of the post-digital and current conceptions of the bio-digital stem from an understan... more The concept of the post-digital and current conceptions of the bio-digital stem from an understanding of computer networks which itself has a history deriving from biology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter traces the historical development of modern conceptions of ‘network’ from Rashevsky, to McCulloch and Pitts, through to the creation of the Internet, and current thinking about neural networks and machine learning. In tracing this history, we question the soundness of some of the assumptions made about networked digital phenomena and their relation to biological and phenomenological processes. In contrast to the topological node-arc model of networks, we argue that networks arise from evolutionary biological processes which are fundamentally oriented around boundary preservation rather than ‘connection’. Cellular connections observed as networks can be seen as epiphenomena of these underlying processes, where for example, a cell will establish ‘connection’ as a means of maintaining its viability in an uncertain environment. Taking a boundary-preservation viewpoint allows for a homological analysis of similar processes from cells to selves. We illustrate two areas where this viewpoint might be operationalised: in communication dynamics and in institutional organisation. We argue this is a richer way of investigating bio-digital phenomena, and opens the door to new technological experiments and alternative visions of a technological society.
J. Univers. Comput. Sci., 2012
In order to provide interoperable services to a range of applications, platforms and devices a nu... more In order to provide interoperable services to a range of applications, platforms and devices a number of open source applications have been developed, many of them within the Apache Software Foundation. We analyse the way that these relate to research and development in education, which has also informed the functionality which they offer, providing a case study of the relationship between generic open source infrastructure development, and the discourse around pedagogy. The functionality foreseen for Personal Learning Environments and for the learning design approach to face-to-face learning is identified. The capabilities of Apache Wookie (incubating) W3C Widget Server are compared with this desired functionality, and the unfulfilled functionality identified with a particular focus on the need to support teachers control over their technological environment in response to emerging conditions in the classroom. The application store ('app store') is identified as a key softw...
The principal argument of this paper is that existing practices of scientific publishing ill-fit ... more The principal argument of this paper is that existing practices of scientific publishing ill-fit information-oriented sciences which are fundamentally concerned with complexity, constraint, uncertainty and contingency. It is argued that better exploitation of the full gamut of technological possibilities for scientific communication could support a much richer coordination of understanding between scientists. The barriers to achieving this lie with mechanisms of scarcity production in education, which are fundamentally driven by outdated publication practices. The argument builds on the social ontology of Searle, suggesting that scientific publishing declares " status functions " which simultaneously declare scarcity at many levels of education-in the process feeding economic mechanisms within education which have become pathological. In response, I argue that a richer ecology of types of communication by scholars exploiting and experimenting with new technologies can not only mitigate the pathology of publication, but can create better conditions for the advancement of learning and coordination of scientific understanding.
Bioinformational Philosophy and Postdigital Knowledge Ecologies, 2022
The concept of the post-digital and current conceptions of the bio-digital stem from an understan... more The concept of the post-digital and current conceptions of the bio-digital stem from an understanding of computer networks which itself has a history deriving from biology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter traces the historical development of modern conceptions of ‘network’ from Rashevsky, to McCulloch and Pitts, through to the creation of the Internet, and current thinking about neural networks and machine learning. In tracing this history, we question the soundness of some of the assumptions made about networked digital phenomena and their relation to biological and phenomenological processes. In contrast to the topological node-arc model of networks, we argue that networks arise from evolutionary biological processes which are fundamentally oriented around boundary preservation rather than ‘connection’. Cellular connections observed as networks can be seen as epiphenomena of these underlying processes, where for example, a cell will establish ‘connection’ as a means of maintaining its viability in an uncertain environment. Taking a boundary-preservation viewpoint allows for a homological analysis of similar processes from cells to selves. We illustrate two areas where this viewpoint might be operationalised: in communication dynamics and in institutional organisation. We argue this is a richer way of investigating bio-digital phenomena, and opens the door to new technological experiments and alternative visions of a technological society.
J. Univers. Comput. Sci., 2012
In order to provide interoperable services to a range of applications, platforms and devices a nu... more In order to provide interoperable services to a range of applications, platforms and devices a number of open source applications have been developed, many of them within the Apache Software Foundation. We analyse the way that these relate to research and development in education, which has also informed the functionality which they offer, providing a case study of the relationship between generic open source infrastructure development, and the discourse around pedagogy. The functionality foreseen for Personal Learning Environments and for the learning design approach to face-to-face learning is identified. The capabilities of Apache Wookie (incubating) W3C Widget Server are compared with this desired functionality, and the unfulfilled functionality identified with a particular focus on the need to support teachers control over their technological environment in response to emerging conditions in the classroom. The application store ('app store') is identified as a key softw...