To speak of a virtual world (often understood as the internet) in opposition to “the real world” is a short-sighted view. It misses the physical aspects : servers, mouses-screens-keyboards, graphical interfaces, energy, etc. Jack Goody would speak of a Great Divide.
Much much more to come but, here are first links :
- “Computers and the environment : Buy our stuff, save the planet” (The Economist, 200805).
- United States’s EPA Report on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency.
- @WebOL : SENSEI, Webbed mobility, STS (Science Technology Society), Jack Goody.
- @Lavoisy/Net : OL’s own PhD about technical drawings + CAD (Computer Aided Design).
