We cherish the Internet for its fast paced relay of information. The Internet is customized by its users through their own searches, and furthermore, from their own inputs. The brilliance of the Internet lets every little-man compete with the big-man, or at least the intention of the Internet still remains. Therein, the idea of bypassing the would be "gate keepers" that one faces in other mediums, the Internet offers a myriad of options for self expression.
In mass media, and the mass markets they function on, the user is more than likely to take on the role of the recipient. With the division of labor in Capitalist mass markets, the user/recipient plays little to no part in the process of production and distribution. That is the difference between a market and a network. The online network removes the divisions standing between production, distribution, and consumption. As an example, I can make a website, email the link to my friends, and the recipients can also make their own websites inspired by mine, furthering the discourse between the group of online users. But for nearly thirty years before the dawn of the Internet and the Intranet, there has been a similar technology of ideas operating within the mail-art scene.
The mail-art scene provides a rich example of the removal of the division of labor. Artists used the postal service and other bureaucratic trappings, such as stamps, logos, and other fetishistic items of officialdom, to create a code that could be read by the intended persons on the network. The artists could respond to other pieces and create a dialogue of their own based on inside jokes and puns. In course of it all, they became part of production, distribution, and consumption and removed the previously established division. The network itself became the canvas or site of creation, rather than just the individual themselves. This is where the term sociopoetic gains meaning: an art work created within a network, rather than just one individual, is deemed sociopoetic.
Today the computer is almost analogous to the practices of mail-art networks. It removes the divisions of the mass market mentioned above and, more significantly, it relays a code to be translated by particular recipients who are part of the network. A great example would be www.ihazcheezburger.com or www.ytmnd.com. Both sites rely on their users to by savvy with the jargon of current discourse carrying inside puns and discussions of the absurdity of today. The examples may not be considered soiciopoetic in these regards, but more importantly they draw upon the technology of ideas that were embodied from earlier sociopoetic movements, namely networked mail-art.
