March 2005 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Re: [Air-l] Literature of bloggers
by Oriana Solta Gatta 26 Mar '05

26 Mar '05

Hello, Check out www.professional-lurker.com/linked/ static/Weblog_and_Blog_Bibliography.pdf for a bibliography of recent research and Gurak, et al's Into the Blogosphere, which is listed in the bibliography. Take care, Oriana -----Original Message----- From: "LEE JENG HOON" <jenghoon(a)hotmail.com> To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 23:52:39 +0000 Subject: [Air-l] Literature of bloggers Hi. I am looking for some academic literature that analyzes blogging or bloggers. As many claim, bloggers show significant social impacts. Especially, recent journalistic functions generate much concerns and interests. If anyone knows good academic or even non-academic reports, I hope I like to read them. Please, let me know. Jenghoon Lee _________________________________________________________________ FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar - get it now! http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/

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Re: MUDs, MOOs, MMRPGs, etc.
by Dmitri Williams 26 Mar '05

26 Mar '05

Folks considering questions relating to MUDs, MOOs, MMRPG, and any other sundry acronyms relating to online virtual worlds (competitive or otherwise) should point their browsers to http://terranova.blogs.com/ where they will find a vibrant blog comprised of academics and thoughtful game designers. There is also a research rolodex on the right that lists the now hundreds of researchers doing work in the area. It's a great resource. The "embedded ethnographer" would probably be one of these people, perhaps Constance Steinkhueler at Wisconsin. And, by the way, let me plug experiments and surveys as worthwhile data collection techniques in MMRPGs. I do this, and so do two enterprising Ph.D. students, Nick Yee at Stanford and Fleming Seay at Carnegie Mellon. It's worth noting that nearly every researcher in this area is also a player, regardless of their primary research method. -Dmitri >> >>I'm also interested in what people have found on this >> >>As for the young generation of mush-ers, how active and big is it? >> >>Even among my most online-active students, only a very few even >> >>know what a mud/moo/etc. is. They participate on message boards, >> >>blogs, IM, but don't mud. >> > >> >From your analytical perspective would the MMPORGs (eg Sims online, >> >World of Warcraft, Second Life and so on) be the same as MUDs? I'd >> >say that there would be plenty of people that don't know a MUD from >> >a MOO but are active MMPORGers. >> >> I agree - they follow similar logics - but several players dont >> necessarily know this. > >I think first of all we need a distinction here between MMORPG games >that are ostensibly about scoring points/leveling/advancing (world of >warcraft, knights of the old republic, everquest) and simulation games >which don't have any of that and are more about >roleplaying/performativity (second life, there). Correct me if I'm >wrong Radhika, you know I don't know much about history, but this >would be like the MUD/TinyMUD distinction, no? >There are already several people doing research in both fields: >*http://socialstudygames.com/ is a site where a bunch of ethnographers >come together to post about their work >*http://xirdal.lmu.de/ is a study of the quake modding subculture, >which is really interesting because of his research design. >*http://www.alex.golub.name/log/ Alex Golub is a UChicago PhD >candidate who is working on a project in Second Life among other >places and teaches a class on this topic >*there's definitely at least one other anthropologist who calls >herself an "embedded ethnographer" on an MMORPG but I can't remember >her name. >> >> > >> >Do you think that the non-text based and unarchived nature of the >> >games might make them harder to study? >> >> I would say you can study this - a triangulation of some particular >> methodologies would be useful - self-observation (actually playing >> and making notes), participant observation, reading manuals, and >> doing an observation of other players while they are playing and you >> are not, doing interviews... >> >> available static text transcripts are not necessarily the best way >> even with text based moos really. > >Of course you can study it! How do you think ethnographers work in >the offline world? No, it's not any harder--in some ways as an >anthropologist it's harder to have your fieldsite online because you >don't have the same Going To The Field separation experience as other >people do and thus you find yourself typically living life half in the >field and half at school and not doing either terribly well. I agree >with Radhika. Go take notes while watching people fragging IRL at >cons, if what you want to study is Quake. Observe your own >participation in the world. Copy and paste text from the talk >channels. Hang out in the world practicing some passive skill like >fishing or sitting around town so that you're a participant, yet you >can focus on chat. You might also look at avatars and the way they >interact through emotes, and who follows who in groups. The hard >thing about studying some MMORPGs would be that most of the activity >takes place within clan groups, which means that you would probably >have to qualify and maintain the requirements to be in one or maybe >several. This is also true of some simulation games, surprisingly. > >Kathy Mancuso >Department of Anthropology >University of South Carolina --------------- Dmitri Williams Assistant Professor, Speech Communication University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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RE: [Air-l] virtual rape?
by Amanda Lenhart 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

Kathy, I wrote a short paper recently on the concept of virtual harm, using virtual rape as the case study. Here are some of the most relevant sources I used: Herring, Susan C. (2002) Cyber Violence: Recognizing and Resisting Abuse in Online Environments. Asian Women, vol. 14 (Summer) pp. 187-212 Huff, Chuck, Johnson, Deborah G., and Miller, Keith (2003). Virtual Harms and Real Responsibility: A Rape in Cyberspace, [WWW Resource] accessed from http://www.njcc.com/~techsoc/huff.html Mackinnon, Richard, (1997) Virtual Rape, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, [Online] vol 2. no. 4. March, 1997 accessed from http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol2/issue4/mackinnon.html And two readings from N. Katherine Hayles that aren't exclusively about virtual rape, but do speak compellingly about the virtual body: Hayles, N. Katherine. (1996) Boundary Disputes: Homeostasis, Reflexivity and the Foundations of Cybernetics, in Robert Markley (ed.) Virtual Realities and Their Discontents. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 11-37. Hayles, N. Katherine. (1999) The Condition of Virtuality, in Peter Lunenfeld, (ed.) The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp 68-94. I hope this is helpful. Best, Amanda Amanda Lenhart Georgetown University MA Candidate, Communications Culture and Technology and Pew Internet & American Life Project -----Original Message----- From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Kathy Mancuso Sent: Fri 3/25/2005 2:32 PM To: air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] virtual rape? AoIRers, Who writes about virtual rape and sexual harassment other than Julian Dibbell (or people arguing online about the mr bungle case who get their facts from dibbell)? Thanks, Kathy Mancuso University of South Carolina Department of Anthropology -- "Sometimes, I get so sick of fighting. I have to slay the dragons of the myth of heterosexual European [able-bodied] male society in my dreams, then get up in the morning and be an activist . . . What if there really was a level playing field? I would love to see how far I could actually go. What if all I had to show off was my mad skills? Wouldn't I really be able to fly then?" --Margaret Cho Websites for my projects: Anthropologists and labor unions allied: http://AAAUnite.blogspot.com Orphan Films (22-26 March 2006, CFP): http://www.sc.edu/filmsymposium Social software/blogging research (ask for CFP): http://del.icio.us/museumfreak SC Student Anth Conf (CFP): http://www.cas.sc.edu/Anth/events/scconference.htm USC does Britten's War Requiem: April 19, 7:30, Koger Center _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/

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RE: [Air-l] virtual rape?
by Radhika Gajjala 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

I think Sandy Stone has a reference to Dibbel's work as well. Marcy Chvasta presented last year at a virtual seminar I organized and her position paper is up at http://www.cyberdiva.org/PTT/Marcy.html r At 03:50 PM 3/25/2005 -0500, you wrote: >Kathy, > >I wrote a short paper recently on the concept of virtual harm, using >virtual rape as the case study. > >Here are some of the most relevant sources I used: > >Herring, Susan C. (2002) Cyber Violence: Recognizing and Resisting Abuse >in Online Environments. Asian Women, vol. 14 (Summer) pp. 187-212 > >Huff, Chuck, Johnson, Deborah G., and Miller, Keith (2003). 'Virtual Harms >and Real Responsibility: A Rape in Cyberspace," [WWW Resource] accessed >from http://www.njcc.com/~techsoc/huff.html > >Mackinnon, Richard, (1997) "Virtual Rape," Journal of Computer-Mediated >Communication, [Online] vol 2. no. 4. March, 1997 accessed from >http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol2/issue4/mackinnon.html > >And two readings from N. Katherine Hayles that aren't exclusively about >virtual rape, but do speak compellingly about the virtual body: > >Hayles, N. Katherine. (1996) "Boundary Disputes: Homeostasis, Reflexivity >and the Foundations of Cybernetics," in Robert Markley (ed.) Virtual >Realities and Their Discontents. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University >Press, pp. 11-37. > >Hayles, N. Katherine. (1999) "The Condition of Virtuality," in Peter >Lunenfeld, (ed.) The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media, >Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp 68-94. > >I hope this is helpful. > >Best, > >Amanda > > >Amanda Lenhart >Georgetown University >MA Candidate, Communications Culture and Technology >and >Pew Internet & American Life Project > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Kathy Mancuso >Sent: Fri 3/25/2005 2:32 PM >To: air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org >Subject: [Air-l] virtual rape? > >AoIRers, > >Who writes about virtual rape and sexual harassment other than Julian >Dibbell (or people arguing online about the mr bungle case who get >their facts from dibbell)? > >Thanks, >Kathy Mancuso >University of South Carolina >Department of Anthropology > >-- >"Sometimes, I get so sick of fighting. I have to slay the dragons of >the myth of heterosexual European [able-bodied] male society in my >dreams, then get up in the morning and be an activist . . . What if >there really was a level playing field? I would love to see how far I >could actually go. What if all I had to show off was my mad skills? >Wouldn't I really be able to fly then?" --Margaret Cho > >Websites for my projects: >Anthropologists and labor unions allied: http://AAAUnite.blogspot.com >Orphan Films (22-26 March 2006, CFP): http://www.sc.edu/filmsymposium >Social software/blogging research (ask for CFP): >http://del.icio.us/museumfreak >SC Student Anth Conf (CFP): http://www.cas.sc.edu/Anth/events/scconference.htm >USC does Britten's War Requiem: April 19, 7:30, Koger Center >_______________________________________________ >The Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://www.aoir.org/ > > > >_______________________________________________ >The Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://www.aoir.org/

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Re: [Air-l] virtual rape?
by Elizabeth Pass 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

These may be a little dated, but what I have on my shelf are Donna J. Haraway _Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan_Meets_OncoMouse:T Feminism and Technoscience_ (1997) Lynn Cherny and Elizabeth Reba Weise, eds. _wired_women: Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace_ (1996) Wendy Harcourt, ed. __women@internet: Creating New Cultures in Cyberspace_ (1999) James Brook and Iain A. Boal, eds. _Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information_ (1995) Most of the edited works are full of leaders in this area who are still doing work in the field. These books would be a good place to start exploring and then see what has been done since then. Elizabeth Pass ---- Original message ---- >Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 14:32:38 -0500 >From: Kathy Mancuso <kmancuso(a)gmail.com> >Subject: [Air-l] virtual rape? >To: air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org > >AoIRers, > >Who writes about virtual rape and sexual harassment other than Julian >Dibbell (or people arguing online about the mr bungle case who get >their facts from dibbell)? > >Thanks, >Kathy Mancuso >University of South Carolina >Department of Anthropology > >-- >"Sometimes, I get so sick of fighting. I have to slay the dragons of >the myth of heterosexual European [able-bodied] male society in my >dreams, then get up in the morning and be an activist . . . What if >there really was a level playing field? I would love to see how far I >could actually go. What if all I had to show off was my mad skills? >Wouldn't I really be able to fly then?" --Margaret Cho > >Websites for my projects: >Anthropologists and labor unions allied: http://AAAUnite.blogspot.com >Orphan Films (22-26 March 2006, CFP): http://www.sc.edu/filmsymposium >Social software/blogging research (ask for CFP): http://del.icio.us/museumfreak >SC Student Anth Conf (CFP): http://www.cas.sc.edu/Anth/events/scconference.htm >USC does Britten's War Requiem: April 19, 7:30, Koger Center >_______________________________________________ >The Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://www.aoir.org/ ____________________________ Elizabeth Pass passer(a)jmu.edu Institute of Technical & Scientific Communication James Madison University MSC 1803, Keezell Hall B-6 Harrisonburg, VA 22807 w 540.568.8139 f 540.568.8070 C 540.246.6767

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Re: [Air-l] A new web annotation tool
by Judy Rice 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

I agree about Explorer. Could you provide the names of the various governments that are warning against its use? This would help give validity to my words of caution. ------------------------------ On Mar 18, 2005 jeremy hunsinger wrote: >I'd strongly advise that people stop using explorer, various national >governments have advised against using it. and stopped using it because >of the huge number of security holes it provides. One of the best >strategies for information security is to avoid information >monocultures, and internet explorer seems to provide one of most >convincing case in points of this, because its basic core functionality >is tied into the o.s. itself, and thus its security problems are the >whole computers problem, whereas taking a browser like firefox, opera, >safari, etc. is far more safer because it is not a core part of the >o.s. and if it has an exploit, it is far less likely directly affect >the o.s.. Judy Rice User Experience Engineer Family and Church History riceja(a)ldschurch.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message may contain confidential information, and is intended only for the use of the individual(s) to whom it is addressed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: MMORPGs as MOOs/MUDs
by Kathy Mancuso 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

> Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:01:36 -0500 > From: Radhika Gajjala <radhika(a)cyberdiva.org> > Subject: Re: [Air-l] hanging out and mushes - performatively masculine > still? > To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org > Message-ID: <a0611042abe68da67d933(a)[192.168.1.101]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" > > >On Mar 24, 2005, at 12:47 PM, Kendall, Lori wrote: > > > >>I'm also interested in what people have found on this issue. It is > >>worth noting that the mud I studied was more male-dominated (in > >>both numbers and culture) than many, if not most, existing at that > >>time. That group still exists online (with some loss of original > >>members and some new participants) and remains as male-dominated as > >>ever. But it has never been typical. > >> > >>As for the young generation of mush-ers, how active and big is it? > >>Even among my most online-active students, only a very few even > >>know what a mud/moo/etc. is. They participate on message boards, > >>blogs, IM, but don't mud. > > > >From your analytical perspective would the MMPORGs (eg Sims online, > >World of Warcraft, Second Life and so on) be the same as MUDs? I'd > >say that there would be plenty of people that don't know a MUD from > >a MOO but are active MMPORGers. > > I agree - they follow similar logics - but several players dont > necessarily know this. I think first of all we need a distinction here between MMORPG games that are ostensibly about scoring points/leveling/advancing (world of warcraft, knights of the old republic, everquest) and simulation games which don't have any of that and are more about roleplaying/performativity (second life, there). Correct me if I'm wrong Radhika, you know I don't know much about history, but this would be like the MUD/TinyMUD distinction, no? Re age: I am the younger generation of which we speak. I only personally or from online know one active MOO user under 30, who is part of LambdaMOO. A quick LiveJournal search turned up only 43 communities and 173 users interested in mu*, but this only tenuously points to a possible low interest among young people. It assumes a correlation between 1) youth and livejournal use 2) livejournal use and use of other internet sites and it also assumes that people actually bother to fill out the interests thing in their profile. All those assumptions are problematic, especially #2. There are already several people doing research in both fields: *http://socialstudygames.com/ is a site where a bunch of ethnographers come together to post about their work *http://xirdal.lmu.de/ is a study of the quake modding subculture, which is really interesting because of his research design. *http://www.alex.golub.name/log/ Alex Golub is a UChicago PhD candidate who is working on a project in Second Life among other places and teaches a class on this topic *there's definitely at least one other anthropologist who calls herself an "embedded ethnographer" on an MMORPG but I can't remember her name. > > > > >Do you think that the non-text based and unarchived nature of the > >games might make them harder to study? > > I would say you can study this - a triangulation of some particular > methodologies would be useful - self-observation (actually playing > and making notes), participant observation, reading manuals, and > doing an observation of other players while they are playing and you > are not, doing interviews... > > available static text transcripts are not necessarily the best way > even with text based moos really. Of course you can study it! How do you think ethnographers work in the offline world? No, it's not any harder--in some ways as an anthropologist it's harder to have your fieldsite online because you don't have the same Going To The Field separation experience as other people do and thus you find yourself typically living life half in the field and half at school and not doing either terribly well. I agree with Radhika. Go take notes while watching people fragging IRL at cons, if what you want to study is Quake. Observe your own participation in the world. Copy and paste text from the talk channels. Hang out in the world practicing some passive skill like fishing or sitting around town so that you're a participant, yet you can focus on chat. You might also look at avatars and the way they interact through emotes, and who follows who in groups. The hard thing about studying some MMORPGs would be that most of the activity takes place within clan groups, which means that you would probably have to qualify and maintain the requirements to be in one or maybe several. This is also true of some simulation games, surprisingly. Kathy Mancuso Department of Anthropology University of South Carolina -- "Sometimes, I get so sick of fighting. I have to slay the dragons of the myth of heterosexual European [able-bodied] male society in my dreams, then get up in the morning and be an activist . . . What if there really was a level playing field? I would love to see how far I could actually go. What if all I had to show off was my mad skills? Wouldn't I really be able to fly then?" --Margaret Cho Websites for my projects: Anthropologists and labor unions allied: http://AAAUnite.blogspot.com Orphan Films (22-26 March 2006, CFP): http://www.sc.edu/filmsymposium Social software/blogging research (ask for CFP): http://del.icio.us/museumfreak SC Student Anth Conf (CFP): http://www.cas.sc.edu/Anth/events/scconference.htm USC does Britten's War Requiem: April 19, 7:30, Koger Center

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Reminder: GLS Conference Submission Deadline
by Alice J. Robison 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

Just a brief reminder that submissions to the Games, Learning & Society Conference in Madison, Wisconsin June 23-24 are due in 1 week! Please see the conference website for submission details. Game designers, developers, researchers, and educators are encouraged to propose sessions for this unique conference. We hope to see you in Madison this summer! www dot glsconference dot com Thanks, Alice Robison GLS Conference Program Chair University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Open access journals
by Wainer Lusoli 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

Dear all - Just come across this, and thought it was in the very spirit of AiR Directory of Open Access Journals (1485 at last count) http://www.doaj.org/ "The aim of the Directory of Open Access Journals is to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals thereby promoting their increased usage and impact" Open source, between Lessig's pragmatics and the Open science initiative ethics, Internet enabled. Kind regards Wainer ----------------------- Wainer Lusoli Research Fellow @ ESRI University of Salford http://www.lusoli.info -----------------------

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RE: [Air-l] hanging out and mushes - performatively masculine still?
by Radhika Gajjala 25 Mar '05

25 Mar '05

At 12:47 PM 3/24/2005 -0500, you wrote: >I'm also interested in what people have found on this issue. It is worth >noting that the mud I studied was more male-dominated (in both numbers and >culture) than many, if not most, existing at that time. That group still >exists online (with some loss of original members and some new >participants) and remains as male-dominated as ever. But it has never >been typical. Lori - I really liked your book:) >As for the young generation of mush-ers, how active and big is it? Even >among my most online-active students, only a very few even know what a >mud/moo/etc. is. They participate on message boards, blogs, IM, but don't >mud. I know (of) a few kids who still hang out and play in mushes (they also tend to be offline "gamers" hanging out at hobby stores and so on - but I really shouldnt generalise from my small "sample":)) - from College dorms etc = so I think these environments are still being built and used. r >Lori >__________________________________ >Lori Kendall >Associate Professor of Sociology >Purchase College-SUNY >lori.kendall(a)purchase.edu >_______________________________________________ >The Air-l-aoir.org(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: >http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://www.aoir.org/

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