Basic Terms to Conceptualize the Internet

Source: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/

Digital Natives: describes people who grew up using digital devices and are presumably quite comfortable with them, in contrast to digital immigrants, who only learned how to use such devices after they were adults.

Digital Tourists: some digital immigrants have noted that they actually have learned more about the internet, and learned to do more things on it, than digital natives they know. These digital immigrants are unimpressed with digital natives whose internet usage is limited to Tumblr, Snapchat, Instagram, and who use their cell phones for texting. Rather than distinguishing between digital natives and digital immigrants, these people suggest, perhaps it is more useful to distinguish between digital tourists and digital residents.

Sampling, Re-mixing and Mash-up: the digital age has made us more aware of how much creativity is the product of toying with content that has already been created and "re-purposing" it for new uses. King Solomon told us, many centuries ago, there is nothing new under the sun.

Hyperlinks: reflecting this crazy and nearly chaotic world of the internet hyperlinks allow people who browse the internet to create their own mash-ups in the rapid sequence of their viewing choices. We move rapidly from content to content. This raises concerns, however, that browsers have become even more superficial in reading and viewing content than they were in the analog days. They raise concerns that we have become even more impatient with depth and reflection -- seeking constant and rapid stimulation instead.

Memes: the name of the game on the internet is to get your content replicated. He who has replicated content wins. The term "meme" applies to anything that is imitated or replicated, whether it is behavior, ideas, images, fashions, or what have you. The internet is all about easy replication.

Long-Tail: because digital content on the internet is easily replicated, and because almost infinite amounts of it can be stored cheaply, almost forever, retailers can now go after niche markets (the long tail of the bell curve) rather than focusing almost exclusively on a mass market (the center of the bell in the bell curve). Due to lack of scarcity of shelf space your content now can stay on the shelf for as long as is necessary to find its market -- and it can potential generate revenue, or have influence, by reaching small and highly specialized audiences over many years of global potential. One is no longer confined to the short-term and the local. One no longer needs to be obsessed with mass appeal -- at least that's the theory.

Early Adapters: when you create content for a niche you should not expect it to spread just because you want it to; first you will need some pioneers -- some early adapters -- who have a passion for the kind of thing your content represents. Your first audience should be the early adapters, whom you want to take a "risk" and try your product out. It is by word of mouth, through the early adapters, that your content will have any chance to go viral.

Daniel Chandler provides an excellent primer for thinking about the internet in his online paper "Technological or Media Determinism".