The Evolution of Cybergenres

Michael ShepherdFaculty of Computer Science

Dalhousie UniversityHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3J5

shepherd@cs.dal.ca

Carolyn WattersJodrey School of Computer Science

Acadia UniversityWolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada B0P 1X0

cwatters@dragon.acadiau.ca

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Abstract

The combination of the computer and the Internet hresulted in the emergence of cybergenre, a new classgenre. Cybergenre can be characterized by the trip<content, form, functionality>, where functionality refersto the capabilities afforded by this new medium. When existing genre initially migrates to this new medium, it usually as a faithful reproduction of the existing genre both content and form with little new functionality. It mathen evolve into a variant cybergenre as it incorporatfunctionality afforded by the computer and InterneCybergenres also include novel genres, either not bason previously existing genres or substantially differefrom existing genres on the basis of increasefunctionality. These novel genres may have eithpersistent or virtual instantiations. This paper proposestaxonomy of these cybergenres and examines the evoluof the news cybergenre and the mathematics dictioncybergenre within the context of this taxonomy.

1. Introduction

A genre is a, “classifying statement,” [11] anis characterized by having similar content andform where content refers to themes and topand form refers to, “... observable physical anlinguistic features ...,” [18]. It allows us torecognize items that are similar even in the midof great diversity. For instance, the detectivnovel is a particular genre and we are able recognize novels as members of that genre, e

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though the novels themselves may be vedifferent. Once recognized as being of the sagenre, we can then more easily compare individual novels. Similarly, the newspaper isgenre which is different from magazines anprovides us with a framework in which tocompare various newspapers.

As Yates and Orlikowski [18] have shown itheir study of the evolution of the business lettof the late 19th century into the electronic mail today, genres evolve over time in response institutional changes and social pressures. some cases, the changes to an existing genreso extensive that they lead to the emergence new genre. One of the triggers for the emergenof variants of existing genres or of new genresthe introduction of a new communicationmedium [19].

The combination of the computer and thInternet has been such a powerful trigger thahas resulted in the emergence of a new classgenre, which we call cybergenre, existing in thnew medium. Figure 1 illustrates a (fuzztaxonomy of the classes of subgenres of the clof cybergenres, where the leaf nodes of the tare examples of these and the dotted linrepresent evolutionary paths between subgenThe taxonomy is fuzzy as the distinctions amothe classes are not clearly defined.

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newspaper electronic news personalized news homep math dictionary mm math dictionary MathResource hotlist

Figure 1. The Evolution of Cybergenres.

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Cybergenres may be extant (i.e., based onexisting genres) or they may be novel (i.e., notlike any existing genre in any other mediumThe new functionality afforded by the nemedium drives the evolution (as shown by tdotted lines in Figure 1) of replicated genres, ithose based on genres existing in other methrough variations on those genres until nogenres emerge that are significantly differefrom the original genres. In addition, the nemedium supports the spontaneous creationnew genres that have never existed in otmedia.

Instantiations of novel cybergenres, boemergent and spontaneous, may be eitpersistent or virtual. Virtual instantiations reon processes to generate content and/or formneeded and so may be different for differeusers or even different for the same userdifferent times. Persistent instantiations rely stored data and/or forms so that, at any givpoint in time, simultaneous users could expthe same content and/or form.

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The remainder of this paper examines onepath of evolution of emergent cybergenres bytracing the evolutionary progression of twocybergenre: electronic news and the electronicdictionary. Both of these are emergent novelcybergenre that developed by a similarprogression of steps from the replicated genrethrough variant genre to an emergent novelgenre. The key evolutionary aspect appears to bthe functionality afforded by the new medium.

2. Cybergenre

We define cybergenre as two main classes osubgenres, extant and novel. The class of extantsubgenres consists of those based on genrexisting in other media, such as paper or video,that have migrated to this new medium. Theclass of novel subgenres consists of those genresthat have developed in this new medium andhave no real counterpart in another medium.

When a genre existing in a noncomputermedium migrates to a computer environment, it

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tends to be faithfully replicated and, initially aleast, not to exploit the capabilities of its nemedium. This is consistent with McLuhan’s [9observation that, “The objectives of new medhave tended, fatally, to be set in terms of tparameters and frames of the older media.” an example, Crowston and Williams [2] sample100 pages on the Web and found that 80 of pages more or less faithfully replicated thgenres in the traditional media.

We expect and see that these genres typicevolve from an electronic replication of thoriginal, through an initial adaptation to thmedium, to genres that fully exploit the nemedium and may be recognized only marginaas the original genres. A driving force behinthis evolution is the availability of additionacapabilities or functionalities inherent in the nemedium. Erickson [4] proposes that, “… on-lininteraction has the potential to greatly speed the evolution of genres.” While non-digitagenres can be characterized by the tup<content, form>, we characterize cybergenres the triple, <content, form, functionality>, wherfunctionality refers to capabilities now availablthrough the new medium.

The following subsections describe thindividual subclasses of cybergenre.

2.1. Extant cybergenres

The class of extant cybergenres includes thogenres that are based on genres as they appein their source media. These genres range frfaithful reproductions or replications of theoriginal genres to significant variants of thosegenres.

Replicated cybergenres. Replicated genresincluding most digitized text documents, arelatively faithful reproductions of the genres athey appeared in their source media. The contand form are virtually the same and there is litnew functionality based on the new medium.

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Variant cybergenres. Variant genres are based onexisting genres but have evolved by exploitingthe capabilities afforded by the new mediumThe form and content may be somewhat differenand there should be substantial newfunctionality. As an example, a hyperlinkeddocument with images or video components is variant of the standard text document.

2.2. Novel cybergenres

Novel cybergenres are those genres wholldependent on the new medium. They may bcompletely new genres, not based on any genexisting previously in another medium, or theymay be based on genres originally replicated ithe new medium but which have evolved so fafrom the original that they are classed as beinnew genres. The primary distinguishing featurof these genres is a level of functionality thamakes it fully dependent for its existence on thnew medium.

Instantiations of novel genres, bothemergent and spontaneous, may be eithpersistent or virtual. In virtual instantiations,content and/or form are generated by a proceonly as needed and may be different for differenusers or even different for the same user adifferent times. Persistent instantiations, on thother hand, depend on a store or dataset content and form.

Emergent cybergenres. Emergent cybergenres aregenres that have evolved to the extent that theare new genres. The typical evolutionary path ifrom simple replication through variant toemergent. The key evolutionary force is theprogressive exploitation of the newfunctionalities afforded by the new medium.

Spontaneous cybergenres. Spontaneouscybergenres have no counterpart in other medand include such cybergenres as the home pagthe hot list, and FAQ’s [2].

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2.3. Example of the evolution of news cybergenre

Replicated news cybergenre. The ink-on-papernewspaper has evolved over 300 years intowell-recognized genre, characterized by consistent set of content and forms. The contconsists of items of international, national, locaand sports news, etc. The form consists of sharticles arranged in a broadsheet layout withjuxtaposition of text and photographs. Th<content, form> pair allows us to recognizsimilarity in the midst of difference, i.e., weknow that it is not a magazine or an academjournal. The genre provides the user wiinteraction options that are familiar, such agoing to a section and turning the page.

The earliest versions of newspapers computers mimicked the broadsheet format [of the ink-on-paper newspaper (Figure 2). Thewas almost no difference in either content form from the ink-on-paper newspaper and velittle added functionality. While there was somconcern over the acceptability of the newspapin electronic versus paper form [10], thelectronic form appeared to be inevitable.

An initial adaptation to the new medium wathe introduction of graphics and video whilmaintaining the broadsheet metaphor. AppComputer, Inc., was one of the first tdemonstrate such a system at the EDUCO1990 Conference [6]. It downloaded integratevideo, graphics, and text into Hypercard. At thpoint, the genre had evolved somewhat content and form but had little new functionality

Variant news cybergenre. The replicated newscybergenre evolved quickly, adding nefunctionality building on the capabilities of thnew medium. The Electronic News Project1 [12, 1The Electronic News Project involves Dalhousie University, AcadiaUniversity, the University of Waterloo and has been support by theNational Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, MT&Canadian Broadband Applications Research Program, the HalifaxHerald, and ATV/ASN.

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13, 16] has developed examples of variants othe news cybergenre. The focus of this projechas been the organization and delivery onewspaper text and photographs and televisionews clips in an integrated and interactivemultimedia presentation across high bandwidthcommunication networks. Figure 3 is anexample of this variant cybergenre. The smallevideo clips consist of keyframes identifiedautomatically in the full video clips. Thesekeyframe sequences play slowly without audio sothat the user has some idea of the content of thvideo clips. By clicking on one of these smallwindows, the full video clip is brought up andplayed at 30 frames per second with audio anfull VCR-type controls. The interface for thisdigital newspaper looks and acts like anewspaper but includes the video clips and blowups of stories and photographs. There issubstantially more functionality thanincorporated by the initial replicated news genreThe functionality includes the VCR-type controlson the video, blow ups of stories andphotographs, and interaction based on strinsearching and hypertext links. These are acapabilities not available in the traditional papermedium.

Interestingly, the first World-Wide Web newsproviders adopted the Web’s single documenwindow mode of presentation. Now, thedominant Web-based news genre appears to bevolving back to something closer to its originalgenre in print (Figure 4). This appears to bebecause the broadsheet form of the prinnewspaper genre is so well suited to the task o“reading the news,” where the enjoyment of theprocess of reading the news is as important as thinformation gained [3, 14]. In one study ofreading electronic news [17], it was found thatnot only did readers overwhelmingly prefer toread news using the interface based on thbroadsheet form rather than a hierarchical linkeone-story a page format, but that the readerrequired no training to use the basic broadshee

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interface.

Emergent news cybergenre. Further evolution ofthe news cybergenre has led to the emergencenovel forms of the news, often with the virtuainstantiation of news content. Personal agenfilter the incoming news, software agents roamthe Internet finding news, and users can interawith contributors and/or other readers [5]. Thimeans that news content as seen by one persodifferent from the news content delivered toanother person. It is generated dynamically angenerally, does not persist beyond that particulpoint in time.

An example of such personalized news is thKrakatoa Chronicle [7]. The KrakatoaChronicle is intended for access on the Interneby Java-based browsers. In the KrakatoaChronicle system each article is assigned both personal weight (i.e., a weight computed for eacreader based on the reader’s profile) and community weight which is the average of thpersonal weights for that article. When creatin“today’s newspaper”, the personal weights ancommunity weights are combined to determinwhich articles will be included in the newspaper

Researchers at GMP-IPSI have developed tIndividualized Electronic Newspaper (IEN) [5],as part of the larger issue of active publicationi.e., publications that have programs attached them to allow the publications to act on itsenvironment. The IEN is an individualizedpublication, composed on demand for the readand then delivered electronically.

The news cybergenre has evolved from replicated paper newspaper genre througdynamic and interactive genre variants to novcybergenre based on virtual instantiations oform and content. Although much of the cor<content, form> of the original are still met,additional functionality has been incorporatethat results in the emergence of a novecybergenre of news.

2.4. Example of the Evolution of the Math

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Dictionary Cybergenre

Replicated math dictionary cybergenre. As a genre,dictionaries invoke a certain content(independent information units about distinctterms) and a certain form (short entries in alinear ordering). The first computer-baseddictionaries were simple reproductions of thepaper genre. The content and the form were thsame as the paper genre. Functionality includescrolling through the items and searching for aterm and jumping directly to the definitionwithin the order. Figure 5 is an example of whatsuch an entry might look like.

Variant math dictionary cybergenre. A progressionof on-line dictionary interfaces have beendeveloped as part of a long-term exploration intothe use of mathematical texts on-line [8, 15].Figure 5 actually shows not a replicateddictionary interface, but an interface that hasadopted several value-added features available the new medium. Unfortunately, some featurescannot be distinguished in the black and whitereproduction necessary in the “printedconference proceedings” genre. This interfacehas typed hypertext links indicated by colour,word search, multiple subject views, and cut-and-paste. Although the content and form haveremained consistent with the paper dictionarygenre, however, there is considerable addefunctionality. We noticed that the similarity in<content, form> of the variant dictionary to theoriginal paper dictionary meant that studentsusing the electronic version required noinstruction in the use of the software.

Emergent math resource cybergenre. This genre hasnow evolved to the point where it is no longerjust a mathematics dictionary, rather it is amathematics resource. While it maintains the<content, form> and basic process of the earliegenre, there is a new level of functionalityafforded by the new medium. This novel genre

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permits the user to interact with the entries draw graphics, manipulate 3D renderings, try odifferent problems or enter values focomputation. The user now interacts direcwith the contents as a more intense way understanding and generating mathematiresults for other purposes. Figures 6 andillustrate these capabilities.

In Figure 6, the user is investigatin“integrals”. The user may input or change default function and set the parameters consistof the range and the number of rectangles toused in determining the value of the integrFigure 6 also shows the result of the integral the function and parameters as specified by user. Figure 7 shows the result after the user requested a plot of the function under tspecified conditions. Whenever the user chanthe function and/or parameters, a new valuecalculated and a new plot generated.

The increased functionality permits each usto interact with the system for a range of tasbeyond the narrow scope of “finding definition”. Each user can input a differenfunction and/or set of values for the same entgenerating different results and plots on the fAs a result of this vastly increased functionalitthe genre is no longer “just a dictionaryRather, a cybergenre has emerged that is nomath resource that allows the user to actuamanipulate the content in meaningful ways.

3. Summary

A new class of genre, called cybergenre, hbeen proposed. While genres in other media be characterized by the tuple, <content, formcybergenres are characterized by the trip<content, form, functionality>. The functionalitafforded by this new medium results in novgenre, both emergent and spontaneoSpontaneous genres are directly dependent onfunctionality unique to the new mediumEmergent novel genres evolve progressiv

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from replicated genres through variants of threplicated genres until a novel genre emergeAgain, the distinguishing feature is the newfunctionality in the new genre.

A (fuzzy) taxonomy of cybergenres has beeproposed as a means of attempting to understathe types and directions of this evolutionaryprogression. In particular, this taxonomyrecognizes that novel genres will continue toemerge in this new medium. Some of thesesuch as the hotlist and homepage, will bspontaneous in nature while others will emergthrough an evolutionary pattern. Some novegenres will emerge as virtual genres, i.e., genrewhose instantiations are virtual. Theseinstantiations are generated by process and mbe different for different users and even differenfor the same user at different times.

We suggest that it is appropriate to rely on thprogressive evolution of genre from replicationto novel to maintain the notion of fixity [20] inchanging systems. The continuation of a threaof <content, form>, even as the functionalitychanges, provides a familiar and strongmetaphoric reference for users that transcenchanges in functionality. It is appropriate todesign applications for the Internet by startingwith associated non-digital genres and evoking natural progression of the genre to exploit thmedium [2, 20]. Such an approach providecontinuity for the users and a common thread tthe development of novel cybergenre.

4. References

[1] E. Ashton and G. Cruickshank, “The Newspaper of theFuture: A Look Beyond the Front Porch”, In Proceedings of the14th National On-line Meeting, 1993, pp.11-16.

[2] K. Crowston and M. Williams, “Reproduced and EmergenGenres of Communication on the World-Wide Web”, InProceedings of the Thirtieth Annual Hawaii InternationalConference on System Sciences, Maui, Hawaii, 1997, Vol. 6, p30-39.

[3] D. Dozier and R. Rice, “Rival Theories of ElectronicNewsreading”, In R. Rice (ed.), The New Media, SagePublications, London, 1984, pp. 103-128.

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[4] T. Erickson, “Social Interaction on the Net: VirtuaCommunity as Participatory Genre”, In Proceedings of tThirtieth Annual Hawaii International Conference on SysteSciences, Maui, Hawaii, 1997, Vol. 6, pp. 13-21.

[5] A. Haake, C. Huser, and K. Reichenberger, “ThIndividualized Electronic Newspaper: An Example of an ActivPublication”, Electronic Publishing, 7(2), 1994, pp. 89-111.

[6] E.M. Hoffert and G. Gretsch, “The Digital News System EDUCOM: Computing, Newspapers, Television and HigSpeed Networks”, Communications of the Association fComputing Machinery, 34, 1991, pp. 113-116.

[7] T. Kamba, K. Bharat, and M.C. Albers, “The KrakatoChronicle - An Interactive, Personalized, Newspaper on Web”, In Proceedings of the Fourth International World WidWeb Conference, 1995,(http://www.w3.org.pub/Conferences/WWW4/Papers/93/)

[8] MathResources. Halifax, Nova Scotia. 1996http://mathresources.com

[9] M. McLuhan. “Is it natural that one medium shoulappropriate and exploit another?” In Gerald E. Stern (edMcLuhan: Hot and Cool. New American Library, Signet BookNew York, 1967. Reprinted in, Eric McLuhan and FranZingrone (eds.), Essential McLuhan, House of Anansi PrLimited, Concord, Ontario,1995.

[10] T. Pack, “Electronic Newspapers -- The State of the ArtIn Proceedings of the 14th National Online Meeting, 1993, pp.331-335.

[11] A. Rosmarin, The Power of Genre, University oMinneapolis Press, Minneapolis, 1985.

[12] M.A. Shepherd, C.R. Watters, and F.J. Burkowski, “Digit

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Libraries for Electronic News. In Proceedings of Advances inDigital Libraries. McLean, Virginia, 1995, pp. 13-20.

[13] M.A. Shepherd, C.R. Watters, and F.J. Burkowski, “Deliveryof Electronic News”, In The Second International Workshop onNext Generation Information Technologies and Systems, NahariaIsrael, 1995, pp. 124-131.

[14] W. Stephenson, The Play Theory of Mass Communication.Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1967.

[15] C. Watters, and J. Ho. “MathProbe: Active MathematicalDictionary”, In RIAO 94 Conference Proceedings, New York,1994, pp. 552-569.

[16] C.R. Watters, M.A. Shepherd, and F.J. Burkowski, “TheElectronic News Project”, Journal of the American Society forInformation Science. To appear.

[17] C.R. Watters, M.A. Shepherd, T. Chiasson, and L.Manchester, An evaluation of two metaphors for electronicnews presentation. Technical Report. Computing ScienceDivision, Dept. of Mathematics, Statistics & Computing Science,Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. 1996.

[18] J. Yates and W. Orlikowski. “Genres of OrganizationalCommunication: A Structurational Approach to StudyingCommunication and Media”, Academy of Management Review,17(2), 1992, pp. 299-326.

[19] J. Yates, W. Orlikowski, and J. Rennecker, In Proceedingsof the Thirtieth Annual Hawaii International Conference onSystem Sciences, Maui, Hawaii, 1997, Vol. 6, pp. 50-59.

[20] S.J. Yates and T. Sumner. “Digital Genre and the NewBurden of Fixity”, . In Proceedings of the Thirtieth AnnualHawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Maui,Hawaii, 1997, Vol. 6, pp. 3-12.

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Figure 2. Replicated Newspaper Genre

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Figure 3. Variant News Genre

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Figure 4. Web-Based Variant News Genre

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Figure 5. Replicated Math Dictionary Cybergenre

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Figure 6. Emergent MathResource Cybergenre.

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Figure 7. Emergent MathResource Cybergenre with Plot.

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