DYEHOUSE, Jeremiah

Summer 2009, 39:3, pages 281 - 302

The Cyberspace Incrementum: Technology Development for Communicative Abundance

Abstract:         

This study of the "cyberspace incrementum" adapts Jeanne Fahnestock's argument-oriented theory of rhetorical figuration, applying it to a case in technology development. It identifies a key series argument in the development of a failed cyberspace technology, namely VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language). The analysis describes how differing forms of argumentation helped advance VRML as a project. Interpreting the figure, this article suggests "communicative abundance" as the problematic situation to which VRML responded.