Global Time

The orchestration of 'global' time lines is a very hard to conceive issue (Achterhuis 2003), Especially when bio-rhythm's, which can not be active 24 hours 7 days a week, are to be respected. When inside the networks, local context loses its significance. Being in mediated presence can annihilate the awareness of natural presence. While reading a book or being immersed in entertainment this can happen as well. What is interesting about Rop's remark concerning social interaction, is that he emphasizes that every person also lives in a personal time zone, even when present in the same physical space. Some live at night, some get up at eight. The rhythm of Paradiso was different to that of the hackers, the rhythm of the hackers was different to the rhythm of the politician, the rhythm of the politician was different to the rhythm of the nurse, and so forth. Natural, mediated and witnessed presence impact on these personal time zones. People in Wellington, New Zealand, woke up when we went to bed, the Americans were having lunch when we had dinner and so forth. The rising of the sun in the different parts of the world determines the day-to-day social rhythms and these influence how people will be able to interact socially. When engaging in mediated presence with another person, the natural context of the people who are going to interact socially influences their mediated presence. When to log on and be able to meet is one of the first issues to be solved. The Wellington connection to the GHP stayed up all night to be able to communicate with us in Paradiso during our daytime. The hackers in Paradiso did not want to leave the building because in other time zones people were awake whom they could communicate with. The hackers preferred to change their personal time rhythm to be able to communicate (and I have seen many people do this for many years).

CN