Before, at all, analysing the logic of networks on ‘Terror Online’ in more depth, it is imperative to understand the complexity of networks! To have a clearer insight of what ‘networks’ are all about it is interesting to draw a parallel understanding of the spider web. As the spider web is interlaced with one main thread to create one large stretch of net and each binding point can lead to any other point on the spider web, the network is constructed in the same mode of inter-connectedness by nodes similar to the binding points of the spider web. Each node of the network is away from another node of the same network with an incredibly short distance compared to two nodes which cannot experience the speed of flows and reduced distances if they do not form part of the network. The networks which Castells exposes are open structures able to expand without limits which are flexible to engulfing into the system new and unlimited nodes to strengthen the existing networks. Castells sees the contemporary society as a network society. This network society is born out of communication and information technologies and “both are a necessary condition for, and inextractable dimension of that society, and pose complex results and challenges” (Castells, 2000) The system is enriched because of its flexible capacity of incorporating in its servers any information a user wants to add or share on the net… hence adding up additional nodes of connectivity as explained by Castells.
The network logic can further become clearer if one is able to understand the flow of information on the Internet which is a mega network of several networks connecting with digital nodes. It’s as simple if not as complex as information is linked with another set of information on any web search we do on the net!
The fast diffusing and pervasive internet culture is a genuine example of what Castells sees as “the new social morphology of our societies” and the worldwide diffusion of the ‘networking logic’ affect the modes of operation and the resulting outcomes in areas as diverse as production, experience, power and culture. This diffusion of network is the outcome of a set of influencing factors ranging from cultural and social changes in the behavioural patterns, economic developments, scientific and technological developments and the forceful nature of globalisation.