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call for book reviewers: resource center for cyberculture studies
by David M Silver 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

aoir folk! each month, the resource center for cyberculture studies, or RCCS, publishes book reviews and author responses related to the field of contemporary media and culture. these book reviews and author responses are free, public, and available here: ( http://rccs.usfca.edu/booklist.asp ) if YOU are interested in writing a 1000-1500 word book review and can write the review by january 30, 2009, please contact me (dmsilver [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu) by OCTOBER 20, 2008. please include: a) your name and affiliation (if any); b) 1-2 books you wish to review (selecting more than 2 books automatically disqualifies you); c) a short paragraph explaining your qualifications/interest in reviewing the book or books you selected; and d) your agreement to provide a 1000-1500 word book review by january 30, 2009. if selected, i will send you a free review copy of the book and ask you to send me your review by the end of january. if you are busy or already have too many commitments, please pass until next time. the deadline to express interest in reviewing books is OCTOBER 20, 2008. (please note: because of the length of this post, some lists will truncate it. the full list of books can be found at: http://silverinsf.blogspot.com/2008/10/call-for-book-reviewers.html ) the following books are available for review: Rasha A. Abdulla, The Internet in the Arab World: Egypt and Beyond (Peter Lang, 2007) John Amman, Tris Carpenter, and Gina Neff, eds, Surviving the New Economy (Paradigm Publishers, 2007) Mark Andrejevic, iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era (University Press of Kansas, 2007) William Aspray and Paul E. Ceruzzi, eds, The Internet and American Business (MIT Press, 2008). Andrea J. Baker, Double Click: Romance And Commitment Among Online Couples (Hampton Press, 2005) Antonina D. Bambina, Online Social Support: The Interplay of Social Networks and Computer-Mediated Communication (Cambria Press, 2007) Megan Boler, Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times (MIT Press, 2008). Christine L. Borgman, Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet (MIT Press, 2007). Axel Bruns, Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage (Peter Lang, 2008) Fiona Cameron and Sarah Kenderdine, eds, Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage: A Critical Discourse (MIT Press, 2007) Andre H. Caron and Letizia Caronia, Moving Cultures: Moblie Communication in Everyday Life (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007) Paul E. Ceruzzi, Internet Alley: High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945-2005 (MIT Press, 2008) Samir Chopra and Scott Dexter, Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software (Routledge, 2008) David Ciccoricco, Reading Network Fiction (University of Alabama Press, 2007) Mia Consalvo, Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames (MIT Press, 2007) Hilde G. Corneliussen and Jill Walker Rettberg, Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader (MIT Press, 2008) Edgar Gomez Cruz, Las Metaforas de Internet (Editorial UOC, 2007 - written in Spanish) Mark Deuze, Media Work (Polity Press, 2007) Daniel Downes, Interactive Realism: The Poetics Of Cyberspace (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005) Susan Driver, Queer Girls and Popular Culture: Reading, Resisting, and Creating Media (Peter Lang, 2007) Anthony Dunne, Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, and Critical Design (MIT Press, 2005) David S. Evans, Andrei Hagiu, and Richard Schmalensee, Invisible Engines: How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries (MIT Press, 2006) Herve Fischer and Rhonda Mullins, Digital Shock: Confronting the New Reality (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006) Anthony Fung, Global Capital, Local Culture: Transnational Media Corporations in China (Peter Lang, 2008) Martin Hand, Making Digital Cultures: Access, Interactivity, and Authenticity (Ashgate, 2008) Kristen Haring, Ham Radio's Technical Culture (MIT Press, 2007) Byron Hawk, David M. Rieder, and Ollie Oviedo, eds, Small Tech: The Culture of Digital Tools (University of Minnesota Press, 2008) N. Katherine Hayles, Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary (University of Notre Dame Press, 2008) Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom, eds, Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice (MIT Press, 2007) Tim Jordan, Hacking: Digital Media and Technological Determinism (Polity, 2008) Eduardo Kac, ed, Signs of Life: Bio Art and Beyond (MIT Press, 2007) Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination (MIT Press, 2008) Sharon Kleinman, ed, Displacing Place: Mobile Communication in the Twenty-First Century (Peter Lang, 2007) Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford, and Greig De Peuter, Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003) Christophe Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970 (MIT Press, 2006) Rich Ling, New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication Is Reshaping Social Cohesion (MIT Press, 2008) Eugene Loos, Leslie Haddon, and Enid Mante-Meijer, The Social Dynamics of Information and Communication Technology (Ashgate, 2008) Geert Lovink, Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture (Routledge, 2008) Geert Lovink and Trebor Scholz, eds, The Art of Free Cooperation (Autonomedia, 2007) Annette N. Markham and Nancy K. Baym, eds, Internet Inquiry: Conversations About Method (Sage, 2009) Sharon R. Mazzarella, ed, 20 Questions About Youth & the Media (Peter Lang, 2007) Paul D. Miller, ed, Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (MIT Press, 2008) Kathryn C. Montgomery, Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet (MIT Press, 2007) Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Ramona S. McNeal, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation (MIT Press, 2008) David E. Nye, Technology Matters: Questions to Live By (MIT Press, 2006) Lisa Nakamura, Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet (University of Minnesota, 2008) Kate O'Riordan and David J. Phillips, Queer Online: Media Technology and Sexuality (Peter Lang, 2007) Laikwan Pang, Cultural Control and Globalization in Asia: Copyright, Piracy and Cinema (Routledge, 2006) Amelia Sanz and Dolores Romero, Literatures in the Digital Era: Theory and Praxis (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007) Shayla Thiel Stern, Instant Identity: Adolescent Girls and the World of Instant Messaging (Peter Lang, 2007) Tanja Storsul and Dagny Stuedahl, Ambivalence Towards Convergence: Digitalization and Media Change (Nordicom, 2007) Melanie Swalwell and Jason Wilson, Pleasures Of Computer Gaming: Essays on Cultural History, Theory and Aesthetics (McFarland, 2008) May Thorseth and Charles Ess, eds, Technology in a Multicultural and Global Society (NTNU University Press, 2005) Kim Toffoletti, Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body (I. B. Tauris, 2007) Sherry Turkle, ed, Evocative Objects: Things We Think With (MIT Press, 2007) Joseph Turow, Niche Envy: Marketing Discrimination in the Digital Age (MIT Press, 2006) Victoria Vesna, ed, Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow (University of Minnesota, 2007) Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite, eds, The Internet in Everyday Life (Blackwell, 2002) Zach Whalen and Laurie N. Taylor, eds, Playing the Past: History and Nostalgia in Video Games (Vanderbilt University Press, 2008) David Wills, Dorsality: Thinking Back through Technology and Politics (University of Minnesota Press, 2008) if YOU are an author/editor of a book related to cyberculture and contemporary media and you do not see your book on the list below, please send a review copy (or, better yet, 2-3 copies) to: David Silver/RCCS Department of Media Studies University of San Francisco 2130 Fulton Street San Francisco, CA 94117-1080 i am especially interested in reviewing books published outside the US and UK and books written in languages other than english. PLEASE NOTE: RCCS is a one-person operation. the last two RCCS call for reviewers generated between 200-250 requests to review books. for that reason, i ask two things: please follow the instructions above and please be patient. if the book or books you have selected have already been assigned to another reviewer, i will do my best to work with you to find another book for review. david silver http://silverinsf.blogspot.com

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net surfers updated?
by Barry Wellman 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

Dear Joseph Reagle, Many thanks for your continued liking of Net Surfers. Milena and I are proud of it, and it continues to be the most cited paper I have (co-)authored. You're right, The Qs remain relevant, but the e-world has changed since 1997 when we wrote it. My hunch is that the answers remain largely the same, but the examples would change. I don't plan on doing an update per se, and Milena is now busy working in the Canadian Goverment. However, Vincent Chua, Julia Madej and I are almost finished with a chapter for the Sage Handbook of Social Network Analysis on Personal Communities, which contains some Internet stuff, and a co-author and I are just starting a book tentatively called Netting Together which will deal with many of these issues. (I don't reveal co-author or publisher because it is too early: don't want to jinx things). Meanwhile, if someone else wants to redo Net Surfers, you have my blessing. Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology University of Toronto 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________

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deadline extended: AAAI-SSS-09: Social Semantic Web: Where Web 2.0 Meets Web 3.0
by Uldis Bojars 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

Deadline of the "Social Semantic Web: Where Web 2.0 Meets Web 3.0" symposium has been extended to 10 Oct 2008 (see below for details). Related events: a list of papers accepted to the 1st Social Data on the Web (SDoW 2008) workshop can be found at: http://sdow2008.semanticweb.org/#program (apologies for cross-posting) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- *** Extended deadline for submission 10 Oct 2008 *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- AAAI 2009 Spring Symposium: Social Semantic Web: Where Web 2.0 Meets Web 3.0 March 23-25, 2009, Stanford, California, USA -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Web 2.0 (aka. social web) applications such as Wikipedia, LinkedIn and FaceBook, are well-known for fast-growing online data production via their network effects. Meanwhile, emerging Web 3.0 applications, driven by semantic web technologies such as RDF, OWL and SPARQL, offer powerful data organization, combination, and query capabilities. The social web and the semantic web complement each other in the way they approach content generation and organization. Social web applications are fairly unsophisticated at preserving the semantics in user-submitted content, typically limiting themselves user tagging and basic metadata. Because of this, they have only limited ways for consumers to find, customize, filter and reuse data. Semantic web applications, on the other hand, feature sophisticated logic-backed data handling technologies, but lack the kind of scalable authoring and incentive systems found in successful social web applications. As a result, semantic web applications are typically of limited scope and impact. We envision a new generation of applications that combine the strengths of these two approaches: the data flexibility and portability of that is characteristic of the semantic web, and the scalability and authorship advantages of the social web. In this symposium, we are interested in bringing together the semantic web community and the social web community to promote the collaborative development and deployment of semantics in the World Wide Web context. We welcome constructive papers on, for example: (i) how semantic technologies, especially knowledge representation and collective intelligence, can benefit social web content organization and retrieval; (ii) how social web technologies can facilitate massive semantic content production; and (iii) how to address the requirements, e.g., reasoning scalability and semantic convergence issues, which emerge from the combination. We encourage submissions of full papers, extended abstracts, demonstrations and posters describing research and applications that deal with (but not limited to) the following topics on social semantic web: * Collaborative and collective semantic data generation and publishing * Semantic tagging and annotation for social web * Data integration * Data portability * Data analysis and data mining * Privacy, policy and access control * Provenance, reputation and trust * Scalable search, query and reasoning * Semantically-enabled social applications: semantic wikis, semantic desktops, semantic portals, semantic blogs, semantic calendars, semantic email, semantic news, etc. Submission Interested participants should submit papers in PDF format to http://www.easychair.org/conferences/conference_change_yes.cgi?iid=8040. Submissions should be formatted in the AAAI Format. Full papers are limited in 6 pages and position papers/demos are limited in 2 pages. Selected papers from the symposium will be published as an AAAI technical report. Important Dates * October 10, 2008 (23:59 PDT) - Submission due. (extended, old one was Oct 3, 2008) * November 7, 2008 - Notification of acceptance or rejection * March 23-25, 2009 - Symposium, Stanford University

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Towards Humane Technologies: Biotechnology, New Media and Ethics
by jeremy hunsinger 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

Sorry for the x-posting I wrote the series introduction for this volume, this is the series 'Transdisciplinary Studies' which I edit with Jason Nolan. We are still looking for good book proposals. Towards Humane Technologies: Biotechnology, New Media and Ethics Naomi Sunderland, Phil Graham, Peter Isaacs http://www.amazon.com/Towards-Humane-Technologies-Biotechnology-Ethics/dp/9… What are the ethical and political implications when the very foundations of life -things of awe and spiritual significance - are translated into products accessible to few people? This book critically analyses this historic recontextualisation. Through mediation - when meaning moves ‘from one text to another, from one discourse to another’ - biotechnology is transformed into analysable data and into public discourses. The unique book links biotechnology with media and citizenship. As with any ‘commodity’, biological products have been commodified. Because enormous speculative investment rests on this, risk will be understated and benefit will be overstated. Benefits will be unfairly distributed. Already, the bioprospecting of Southern megadiverse nations, legally sanctioned by U.S. property rights conventions, has led to wealth and health benefits in the North. Crucial to this development are biotechnological discourses that shift meanings from a “language of life” into technocratic discourses, infused with neo-liberal economic assumptions that promise progress and benefits for all. Crucial in this is the mass media’s representation of biotechnology for an audience with poor scientific literacy. Yet, even apparently benign biotechnology spawned by the Human Genome Project such as prenatal screening has eugenic possibilities, and genetic codes for illness are eagerly sought by insurance companies seeking to exclude certain people. These issues raise important questions about a citizenship that is founded on moral responsibility for the wellbeing of society now and into the future. After all, biotechnology is very much concerned with the essence of life itself. This book provides a space for alternative and dissident voices beyond the hype that surrounds biotechnology. --- The first book in transdisciplinary studies is: Making a Difference: Science, Action and Integrated Environmental Research by Lorrae Van Kerkhoff Which has a forward by Geoffrey Bowker http://www.amazon.com/Making-Difference-Integrated-Environmental-Research/d… Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Virginia Tech Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee http://wiki.tmttlt.com http://www.tmttlt.com Whoever ceases to be a student has never been a student. -George Iles

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Re: [Air-L] List of Resources for Online Research.
by Semenov Alexander 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

Hi All! I think that if we started talking about online research methods bibliography, the following site should be also mentioned: http://www.websm.org/ Best wishes, Alexander Semenov.

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Net Surfers Redux?
by Joseph Reagle 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

I've been using "Virtual communities as communities: net surfers don't ride alone" in the classroom for a number of years, and today a number of students noted in their responses that this article is now 10 years old. Time flies! But this prompts me to wonder if there has been an update? The article is accessible for undergraduates, I like the pointedness of the questions, and the agnosticism with respect to answers: the literature couldn't always speak definitively. But what have we learned since?

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The Future is Prologue: New Media, New Histories? - ICA Pre-conference announcement
by Steve Jones 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

The Future is Prologue: New Media, New Histories? New media encompass both new opportunities and new dilemmas for scholars. This ICA pre-conference invites participants to reflect on ways to analyze, preserve , and understand new media in a manner that is both sensitive to the past and to future needs of historical research. The history of new media is a burgeoning new subfield, but one aspect that often goes overlooked is how new media involve new ways of doing history. The purpose of this pre-conference is to focus attention on the shifting needs of historical scholarship about new media. It will include a demonstration of new technologies for collaboration and visualization under development at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago. We welcome papers on a wide array of historically-grounded themes. The following illustrations of topics suggest – but are not intended to limit – topics suitable for paper submissions: * The idea of ‘storage’ as it relates to new media and historiography. * The contextualization of historical problems in a new media milieu. * The changing meanings and implications of inscription as the internet more fully embraces a range of audio-visual forms of communication. * Ideological implications of speculations regarding the future. * The changing place of ‘the virtual’ in new media studies. * Digital history. * The reputed move away from print media to new media. * Changing meanings of the ‘global’ in relation to new media. * Ubiquity, indexing, correlation and access. * New media and transformations in the scholarly enterprise. Abstracts of 300 words should be submitted no later than November 1, 2008. Send abstracts to: David Park, Chair of the ICA Communication History Interest Group, at park(a)lakeforest.edu. Authors will be informed whether abstracts have been accepted by 21 November 2008. Papers will be due by May 1, 2009. The program for this pre-conference will take place all day on May 21, 2009, the date established for ICA pre-conferences. The available time allows for three consecutive blocks of short presentations and roundtable-style discussions. The pre-conference is a joint initiative by the Communication History Interest Group of the ICA, New Media & Society and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory and Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The pre-conference will be held at The University of Illinois at Chicago, and there will be transportation available for participants and attendees between the conference hotel and the UIC campus. Organized by * Dave Park, Chair, Communication History Interest Group, http://www.icahdq.org/sections/secdetinfo.asp?SecCode=DIV23 * Nicholas Jankowski and Steve Jones, co-editors New Media & Society, http://newmediaandsociety.com Click here for more information: http://www.icahdq.org/conferences/2009/future.asp

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Deadline Extended for the Gary Gumpert Research Incentive Prize
by John Monberg 02 Oct '08

02 Oct '08

Gary Gumpert Research Incentive Prize Two grants up to $1500 will be awarded to fund communication research relevant to enhancing understanding or improving the urban communication environment. The incentive award can be applied to the acquisition of resources, travel, and/or any other appropriate research related expenses. The Urban Communication Foundation Research Incentive is open to all National Communication Association members. The proposals will be judged for both originality and potential impact of the completed study in heightening the understanding of issues, problems and policies in the urban/suburban landscape. Applications should include a statement in no more than two pages describing the nature and significance of the project in relatively non-technical terms; anticipated schedule (expected completion time); plans for dissemination of the project results, and budget. You may wish to include an additional 2-page appendix for bibliography, photos, figures, etc. Applications should be sent to Dr. John Monberg and should be accompanied by a CV. The award recipient will be obligated to complete the research and provide the UCF with a report of research and progress results. The revised deadline for proposals is October 16. The award will be presented in November at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. Material can be submitted by email when appropriate. If hard copy is being sent submit materials to: Dr. John Monberg 263 Bessey Hall Michigan State University Or email to: jmonberg(a)msu.edu

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CfP: Public and Situated Displays to Support Communities - OZCHI 2008 Workshop
by Marcus Foth 02 Oct '08

02 Oct '08

PUBLIC AND SITUATED DISPLAYS TO SUPPORT COMMUNITIES Workshop in conjunction with OZCHI 2008: http://www.ozchi.org/ Tuesday 9th December 2008 James Cook University, Cairns, Australia http://wraydisplay.lancs.ac.uk/ozchi08 http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=42033775024 KEY DATES Submission deadline extended to October 10th. Please note that workshop participants are eligible for early bird registration after the normal deadline. October 10th 2008: Submission deadline October 24th 2008: Notification of acceptance October 31st 2008: Camera-ready submission December 9th 2008: Workshop AIMS AND SCOPE This OZCHI 2008 workshop will discuss the ways that public, situated displays can support communities. Our primary aim is to explore the potential for situated displays to support communities of all kinds by bringing together many individual community display projects, with the added benefit of increasing awareness and communication between researchers involved in this field. We hope to share experiences of working with communities and the challenges this can involve and explore the different approaches, techniques and technologies used by the workshop participants. In doing this, we aim to learn which of those have proved successful, which have not been so successful, and facilitate comparison of the various approaches and the contrasting communities in which they were based. It is our hope that the workshop will encourage collaboration between disparate research groups, and if suitable the outcomes of the event may be considered for publication in an appropriate venue. The day will comprise conference-style paper presentations, discussion of emerging themes and issues from the presentations, and a group design exercise based around a scenario for a new community display. We welcome all contributions related to the use of public situated displays in supporting communities. Relevant areas for discussion include, but are not limited to, the following: - Exploration of different settings and deployment environments - Techniques for gathering requirements and information for design - Display designs and design techniques - Discussion of key deployment challenges - Issues arising from working with communities - Evaluation of community displays and different interaction techniques - Issues arising from display content and repurposing of content - Access control and possible solutions and approaches - Persuasiveness and community-building effects - Sustainability and evolution of solutions - Managing multiple displays - Enticing and encouraging users, incentives to contribute - Role of gatekeepers and local champions - Spaces and places SUBMISSION We invite submissions of up to three pages in OZCHI submission format (see http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/Submitting) Submissions should be made via the workshop site: http://wraydisplay.lancs.ac.uk/ozchi08 PROVISIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE Michael Arnold (University of Melbourne, Australia) Margot Brereton (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) Areti Galani (Newcastle University, UK) Matt Jones (Swansea University, UK) Christian Kray (Newcastle University, UK) Gary Marsden (University of Cape Town, South Africa) Ann Morrison (University of Queensland, Australia) Kenton O'Hara (Hewlett-Packard Labs, UK) Mark Perry (Brunel University, UK) Fiona Redhead (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) Ingrid Richardson (Murdoch University, Australia) Mark Rouncefield (Lancaster University, UK) ORGANISERS Nick Taylor (Lancaster University, UK) Keith Cheverst (Lancaster University, UK) Christine Satchell (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) Marcus Foth (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) Ian MacColl (Australasian CRC for Interaction Design) -- Dr Marcus Foth Australian Postdoctoral Fellow Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation Queensland University of Technology (CRICOS No. 00213J) Creative Industries Precinct, Brisbane QLD 4059, Australia Phone +61 7 313 x88772 - Fax x88195 - Office Z6-511 m.foth(a)qut.edu.au - http://www.vrolik.de/publications/

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Deadline extended: Culture of Virtual Worlds issue of Journal of Virtual Worlds Research
by Mia Consalvo 01 Oct '08

01 Oct '08

Please note that we've extended our deadline for submissions to November 1, so please think about submitting if you haven't done so already. thanks! Mia CALL FOR PAPERS Journal of Virtual Worlds Research Special Issue: Culture of Virtual Worlds *Deadline: November 1, 2008* Publication Date: January, 2009 Guest Editors Mark Bell, Indiana University Mia Consalvo, Ohio University * jvwresearch.org * Early users of virtual worlds trumpeted their potential to bring together like-minded groups to create community, to encourage social activism, and to explore facets of identity. Over the past 20 years, we have seen virtual worlds develop from text-based to graphical, and from 2D to 3D interactive spaces. Some spaces have focused primarily on game-related activities, from MUD through Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, while others have concentrated on social aspects of being, allowing users to define their own goals, and often create many parts of the spaces they inhabit--from LambdaMoo to The Palace and Second Life. Virtual worlds have also become big business at the same time as some worlds remain resolutely tied to different goals. Yet what of the cultures that have grown up in, around, and through virtual worlds in this same time period? What do we know about that culture, or more accurately, those cultures and how to define them? Individuals, groups, and corporations are exploring the potentials of virtual worlds, and what is created in that process says as much about our everyday lives as it does about our times spent online. But what do we know? Because of their richly detailed spaces, virtual worlds tend to encourage specific sorts of participants and players, along with expectations about behavior and culture. Yet at the same time, we cannot know how participants will create a livable space, develop a unique culture, until it happens. How is that process occurring in today's virtual worlds? What do we know about past virtual worlds to guide us? We are slowly learning about how identity shifts and mutates online, yet isn't as free-floating as early theorists claimed. What of users who are in game-centric versus non-game centric places--how does game versus non-game make a difference in who uses the space, how, and why? Likewise, we now see virtual worlds with transnational user bases. How does that impact the culture, the creation, and the experience of virtual worlds. What happens when virtual worlds emerge, when they expand quickly, and when they die, either slowly or suddenly? What happens to users and how do they make sense of those experiences? How do developers play a role in managing all those expectations, and how much *can* they actually control? These questions are only the tip of iceberg, just as today's virtual worlds are at the forefront of emergent design of 3D spaces. This special issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is dedicated to exploring the issue of culture in virtual worlds. We welcome articles from academic researchers and practitioners in areas such as communications, sociology, psychology, anthropology, information systems, political science, game studies and cultural studies. Topics of interest include (but not limited to): • Definitions of Virtual Cultures • Ethnographies of Virtual Worlds • Social mechanics and networking in Virtual worlds • Historical development of Virtual Worlds • Identity • Differing goals of play versus non-play centric spaces • Emergent practices, player-generated content, activities • Dynamics of economies • "Serious" uses of Virtual Worlds • Transnational game spaces, player groups Guidelines and Deadlines We welcome submissions in the form of essays, papers, original research, interactive online exhibits with accompanying detailed descriptions, and other forms of scholarship. For specific submission instructions visit: http://jvwresearch.org. Deadline for Submission: September 30, 2008 Publication: November 29, 2008 For further information contact: Mark Bell, Indiana U, typewriter(a)gmail.com Mia Consalvo, Ohio U, consalvo(a)ohio.edu About the Journal The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is an online, open access academic journal that adheres to the highest standards of peer review and engages established and emerging scholars from around the world. The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is a transdisciplinary journal that engages a wide spectrum of scholarship and welcomes contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that intersect virtual worlds research. Editorial Board Edward Castronova, Indiana University, United States James Paul Gee, Arizona State University, United States Steve Jones, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States Jorge Peña, University of Texas at Austin, United States Joseph Straubhaar, University of Texas at Austin, United States Kathleen Tyner, University of Texas at Austin, United States Natalie Wood, Saint Joseph's University, United States Editor Jeremiah Spence, University of Texas at Austin, United States Associate Editors Mark W. Bell, Indiana University, United States Sun Sun LIM, National U. of Singapore, Singapore Suely Fragoso, Universidade do Vale do Rio do Sinos/Unisinos, Brazil Joe Sanchez, University of Texas at Austin, United States Amanda Salomon, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Henry Segerman, University of Texas at Austin, United States Yesha Y. Sivan, Shenkar College & Metaverse Labs, Israel Stephanie Smith, NASA JSC Learning Technologies, United States Caja Thimm, University of Bonn, Germany ******************************************* -- Mia Consalvo, Ph.D. School of Media Arts & Studies (formerly the School of Telecommunications) Ohio University 9 South College Street Athens, Ohio 45701 USA 740.597.1521

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