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The Editor and Associate Editor would especially like to thank Professor Michael Calvin McGee of the University of Iowa for his technical and editorial assistance throughout the construction of this, ACA's Debut Issue Volume One, Issue One |
Tyrone
L. Adams
University of
Arkansas at Monticello
and
Jim
A. Kuypers
Dartmouth
College
The World Wide Web (WWW): Trialability in the Diffusion of an Innovation.
Joseph
E. Burns
Susquehanna University
World Wide Web (WWW) programmers are beginning to create innovations that are beyond the means of many users' computers. This limits the testability, and possibly the adoption, of an innovation. An on-line sample of WWW users found that over half are having access problems. But the survey also shows the majority of users perceive enough relative advantage in the WWW that they are willing to upgrade in order to allow themselves testability of new innovations.
In each issue of ACJ, the Editor will invite opinion editorial pieces from key scholars and practitioners in communication to field a question of particular importance to the discipline. "The Dawning of Interactive Online Scholarship" marks the inaugural issue of the inaugural volume for our online journal. Accordingly, the focus of this issue's question surrounds the very nature of our publication and what it is, or is not, to become. I invited Professors Stephanie J. Coopman of San Jose State University, Michael Calvin McGee of the University of Iowa, Robert Schrag of North Carolina State University, and David Whillock of Texas Christain University to consider the following question: "The American Communication Journal: Stoop, Stump, or Stupa?" Each being a specialist in communication theory--organizational communication, cultural studies, technology, and journalism respectively--their divergent perspectives seemed a good foundation to building the "big tent" that we aim to fill.
To me, the metaphors of stoop, stump, and stupa, signify the three possible patterns that our online journal could follow. The term stoop represents the front porch stoop of yesterday; a place where families once gathered after dinners to mingle and reflect upon their lives in a (sometimes) relaxed atmosphere. The second metaphor deals with stump speech making. Here, I mean to ask our experts whether or not the journal would be best seen as a platform stump; a fixed, elevated place for issue advocacy, activism, and possibly community empowerment. The stupa metaphor, literally being a dome-shaped mound or monument used as a Buddhist shrine for storing sacred artifacts, attempts to depict ACJ as a new, possibly sacred place for publicative centrality. Each author was asked to assume one of the three options to fully explore their connotative dimensions.
Importantly, unlike articles or book reviews published in ACJ, no stylistic constraints were prescribed. Each was presented with a blank digital canvas upon which they could express themselves--textually, graphically, and even audially--without restraint. Needless to say, our four authors paint some interesting pictures. Each blended their individuality into their essays, incorporating other metaphors, other icons, mixing the three metaphors at times in an effort to explain this new animal. While somewhat unexpected by this Editor, when these responses are considered comprehensively, the reader can easily see a theme developing: the unknown is exciting and filled with unlimited opportunity. Not ignoring history, but instead appreciating what it could become, each work peers into the future for its very definition.
Stephanie J. Coopman
San Jose State University
Michael
Calvin McGee
The University
of Iowa
Robert
L. Schrag
North Carolina
State University
David
Whillock
Texas Christian
University
Sam Ebersole
University of
Southern Colorado
David
Sutton
Auburn University