User:PP minion

The Pathways Project
The Pathways Project is the undertaking of Dr. John Miles Foley, a professor at the University of Missouri, head of the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition and of the Center for eResearch. The Pathways Project discusses the relationship between the Internet and Oral Tradition, "humankind's oldest and newest thought-technologies".

The homology of OT & IT
The basic concept of The Pathways Project is the similarities between oral traditions (OT) and Internet technologies (IT). According to Dr. Foley, OT and IT work in the same way -- that is, both follow "pathways" in the mind. In OT a performer is never locked into a specific story path; they can change details or story elements as their individual taste or the performance demands. When surfing the Internet, one is not required to follow any given path; each person explores the Internet according to their interests and needs. Following links from one page to another is akin to following a story from one plot element to another. As one path is taken others are opened, but it is up to the individual which path(s) will be taken. In contrast, reading a book is a linear processes. In general, one does not skip around or move backwards and forwards through a book; one reads from beginning to end. A reader does not have the same options as an OT performer or an Internet surfer.

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History of development
(running story?) (FROM EMAIL: Great that you're willing to create a Wikipedia entry for the PP, and I will try to help in any way I can.  For a start, the idea came from being aware of how OT works -- essentially by navigating a network of potentials, via multiple/distributed authorship, as a process forever producing related but non-identical products.  First I saw that the internet functions homologously, and then asked myself why.  I recall running on the Katy trail (I remember the very spot, and that the idea came when my left foot hit the ground) -- these two media-technologies are homologous not because one imitates the other or via happenstance but because they mime the way we think.  Texts do not.  Texts spatialize, fossilize, epitomize, and individualize -- very different from OT and IT.

The PP also sprang out of working with hypertext representations of oral tradition, that is, with using the multiple realities that hypertext can support to render the multiple realities of OT. Started that part of it in 1978, long before computers could handle anything but the clumsiest implementation. The eEdition was the eventual culmination of that line of thought.) I will reword & expand this as best I can, but Dr. Foley may need to fix....

3 Agoras
The Pathways Project is a collection of web pages, called "nodes", that explore the connections between OT and IT, giving details about different aspects of both, and pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of OT and IT versus textual technology. Three nodes specifically deal with the "marketplace" for each technology -- the oAgora, the tAgora, and the eAgora. Each agora discusses the concepts involved in the given technology, as well as covering strengths, weaknesses, and differences between the three technologies. These three nodes are central to the tenants of The Pathways Project and can serve as a jumping off point for further exploration of the project.

Major concepts
As The Pathways Project is an evolving collection of nodes, the number of concepts and topics addressed can increase at any time. Presented here are some of the major concepts, the ideas that make up the core of The Pathways Project. All of the following are merely examples of the kinds of ideas or topics addressed, and can be used as a jumping off point for further exploration of The Pathways Project.

Ideology of the Text
The principle behind the Ideology of the Text is that most of society today is text based, and therefore subscribes to a belief that textual methods are the best for preserving and sharing information, that these methods are a superior form of communication. This node attempts to test and challenge this belief, demonstrating some of the short-coming of texts in relation to other media (primarily OT and IT).

For my reference: Cheatsheet Tutorial