I was wondering, and I have asked the firm where I
work, if all web sites (commercial and otherwise)
should "go dark" in memory of the victims today.
on this suggestion, i put my entry page of a web design course dark, so
we could discuss the issues and techniques of design in the course. the
technique is rather simple, but the motivations are a little more complex
than i had anticipated.
how many times can any of us recall that this was done? for what reasons?
i seem to recall that some web sites went dark after the passage of the
telecommunications act of 1996. this was done in protest over the
censorship issues in the decency parts of the bill, and these were
eventually struck down by the supreme court. i would not imply any
causality here, but the judicial result did give some validation to the www
expression.
going dark in protest is a different motivation than going dark as an
expression of support for victims. same technique, different goals. it
seems to me there is some risk of misunderstanding ambiguous sentiments
tied to the same expression. i had thought that support of victims means
the people who survived the attack, and the relatives of those who died--
and probably those of us who have an empathy of this event as a tragedy.
there is a different 'support of victims' which means to focus on the dead.
like 'remember the alamo' was a symbol to charge emotional energy and spur
soldiers into later battles.
news agencies are showing detailed images of the towers falling which are
intended to charge the sentiments of the viewers. children will be
drawing images of jets, towers and smoke to discharge these anxieties they
get from the news. very similar symbolic expressions which either build
catharsis or discharge it.
i could use a little RFC on this design technique of web sites going dark,
at least to collect data on when and how this has been used. perhaps some
informal guidelines on the range of motivations and use of symbols.
stan