- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

religion and the internet
by Barry Wellman 22 Jan '07

22 Jan '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:34:12 -0500 From: Blackwell Publishing <BlackwellEmail(a)bos.blackwellpublishing.net> To: wellman(a)chass.utoronto.ca Subject: Special Issue from Religious Studies Review Special Issue: Religion and the Internet Guest Editor: Christopher Helland Read the introduction by Guest Editor Christopher Helland FREE on Blackwell-Synergy: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/rsr/32/4. This special issue of Religious Studies Review was organized to provide accurate, up-to-date information on websites useful to scholars studying religion. Contributors to the issue were asked two very general questions, posed as though they came from a student or a faculty member without a background in their field: -"What are some good websites for getting information about your topic of research?" -"Why are those websites reliable?" In addressing these questions, some contributors selected three or four websites that they believed were the best for this pursuit. In other cases, the contributors recognized themes or categories of online activities related to their field of study and then chose websites that were best suited for that particular theme. In both cases, contributors reviewed some of the most up-to-date and important websites, explaining why they are good sources, what type of information can be found at the site, and also some of the limitations or cautions that should be taken when using the Internet and the Web for their particular research. Topics covered in the special issue are: -Biblical studies -Christianity -Wicca -Witchcraft -Modern Paganism -New religious movements -Buddhism -Judaism -Islam -Hinduism -Religious statistics -Religion and the media Browse the abstracts online: www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/rsr/32/4. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For full information about Religious Studies Review's subscriptions, electronic Table of Contents Alerts (E-Tocs), manuscript submission policy, and other details, visit http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/rsr or call Blackwell Publishing at 1-800-835-6770 (toll-free in North America), 1-781-388-8599 (U.S. office), or +44 1865 778315 (UK office). You are welcome to share this information with others who might be interested in the journal.

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workshop part 2
by T. Kennedy 22 Jan '07

22 Jan '07

Hi Folks, I just wanted to thank everyone who came to our two brainstorming workshops at the Virtual Center for Digital Media last Thursday. We had a great turn out in both sessions - even though we had a griefer at the second session (what an interesting little display of what can happen in a virtual classroom). While both sessions were very different in their discussion of how to mod our existing seminar room, there were some really fabulous ideas. We would like to put these ideas into practice at our next workshop: Wednesday, January 24th 10am PST/SLT (Please note the time change). We will meet at the VCDM (139, 34, 25) for a brief chat and recap and then teleport everyone to our modding location. As an aside - one thing that we gleaned from the workshops (particularly from the second group) is that there is a lot to talk about with respect to virtual learning environments; many questions need to be asked and many things need to be teased out. I'm including the original post at the end of this email... Thanks! Tracy Hello fellow SL researchers and educators! My name is Tracy Kennedy - I'm a Virtual Research Assistant for the Center for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver, British Columbia. Some of you may remember me from last November when I posted an invitation to our Virtual Open House at the Virtual Center for Digital Media where we talked about a new Masters of Digital Media (MDM) program at the Great Northern Way Campus starting in September 2007. The open house was a great success and we are moving forward to put together some innovative ideas & educational tools in Second Life for our 'real life' curriculum. One initiative that we are currently working on is transforming traditional style educational spaces (for example lecture halls and seminar rooms) into student designed collaborative learning environments. We would like to move beyond conventional 'real life' pedagogical delivery modes and encourage students to actively engage and participate in their learning milieu by creating virtual learning spaces & places, and have students learn technical design skills (and modding) at the same time. Having said that, I'd like to invite you to a workshop we are having at the Virtual Center for Digital Media (139, 34, 25) on Thursday January 18th - 1pm PST/SLT (we've added 10am PST/SLT) where we will have a 'brainstorming' session to take the existing seminar room at the Virtual Center for Digital Media, and transform it into a dynamic, creative workspace that is collaboratively designed and built by a group of individuals - the intention is to show that a group of individuals can come together and create their own learning space. The following week (Wed Jan 24th 10am PST/SLT) we will put theory into practice and actually do the modifications and changes to the room to see what the end result might look like. However if you only want to come to the brainstorming session on the 18th - that's fine too - We're interested in your thoughts, ideas and expertise. If you have questions, please feel free to email me off-list at tracy(a)gnwc.ca. More information about the program here: http://www.gnwc.ca/mdm/ http://www.mastersofdigitalmedia.blogspot.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnwc Thanks! Tracy Kennedy ******************************************** Second Life - TracyTrail Blazer Virtual Research Assistant Center for Digital Media Great Northern Way Campus 555 Great Northern Way Vancouver, BC V5T 1E2 tracy(a)gnwc.ca First Life - Tracy L. M. Kennedy PhD Candidate - Department of Sociology Graduate Fellow - Knowledge Media Design Institute www.kmdi.utoronto.ca/collaborative Research Coordinator - NetLab - Center for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 725 Spadina Ave. Toronto, ON M5S 2J4 www.netwomen.ca/Blog Research Director - Netwomen Consulting tkennedy(a)netwomen.ca ********************************************

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Re: [Air-l] Welcome to the first AoIR Newsletter!
by Caroline Haythornthwaite 22 Jan '07

22 Jan '07

---- Original message ---- >Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:16:55 -0000 >From: "O'Riordan, Kate" <k.oriordan(a)lancaster.ac.uk> >Subject: Re: [Air-l] Welcome to the first AoIR Newsletter! >To: <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> > >in case you had any trouble with the link: > >http://aoir.org/newsletter >________________ >_______________________________________________ >The air-l(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/ ---------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820

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Welcome to the first AoIR Newsletter!
by O'Riordan, Kate 21 Jan '07

21 Jan '07

Dear AoIR-L I would like to offer a very warm welcome to you all to the first edition of the AoIR Newsletter which is now available on the AoIR web site here: http://aoir.org/newsletter/ <https://exchange.lancs.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://aoir.org/news…> I hope you will all be able to find time to take a look at this and that you find the first edition useful and enjoyable. I would like to thank everyone on the existing newsletter team for all their hard work - and to thank the contributors to the current issue - as well as the exec for their support. Like almost all AoIR activity this was developed by a collective of volunteers who put in lots of time and effort. This newsletter is primarily is intended to be a resource for AoIR members and for there to be collective ownership of it, and we hope will it will develop these aims further over time. The first issue focuses on the last conference although this kind of focus will no doubt change in the future. Please let me know if you find this useful and enjoyable, but also feel free to let me know how we could do better next time too! If you would like to contribute to future editions, and if you have comments about the structure, content or anything else please contact me. The newsletter team is open to more volunteers and feedback and content for the next edition is welcome! Many, many thanks to the current team - Karine Barzilai-Nahon; Sandra Bavasso Roffo; Mark Bell; Andrew Cox; Eliezer Ferreira; Deanya Lattimore; Denise Rall; Pedro Oiarzabal; Jamie Switzer; Monica Whitty. Welcome again and I hope you all find this enjoyable, I look forward to feedback and contributions in the future. All the best Kate O'Riordan University of Sussex and CESAGen

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where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing
by Barry Wellman 21 Jan '07

21 Jan '07

I am puzzled by the notion that most teens will do things to terrify their parents. Are there data on that? Or is it just autobiographical projection? Speaking autobiographically, and from a distance of 50 years, I suggest that most teens will try to avoid their parents' scrutiny. Terrifying them would only bring more scrutiny. "Where did you go? "Out. "What did you do? "Nothing." is the title, of a book about teen-parents relationships. By Robert Paul Smith. Published in 1959, which suggests that it was a general phenomenon then for my generation. And still in print, according to Amazon, which suggests some longterm relevance. Barry Wellman, with fond memories for the Fordham Flames. _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________

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Interesting Article in the BBC
by Ingbert Floyd 21 Jan '07

21 Jan '07

Perhaps most of you have seen this already, but there was a short article in the BBC about how some computer science teachers at West Nottinghamshire College modded Neverwinter Nights in order to teach students basic math and literacy. I thought it was interesting because of the success they had (or at least claim to have had), but disturbing that they had to teach teenagers how to compute area: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6254989.stm I think Neverwinter had networked multiplayer (I never really played the game); I wonder if they left that in and if it has become a place where social, informal learning occurs as students try to complete tasks... Ingbert -- ========================================== Check out the unofficial GSLIS Wiki: http://www.gslis.org/ Tell me what you think, if you find it useful, or if you have any ideas for how to organize it better. And if you feel comfortable doing so, I heartily encourage you to contribute content! This GSLIS is the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

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Quantitative Data about the Internet (thank you & follow up)
by Marc H. 21 Jan '07

21 Jan '07

Thank you all for your help with my question about finding quantitative data for SPSS. I found the data set I need and also came across three websites that may prove useful to your research: 1) International Telecommunications Union. http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ (PC, Internet Hosts and Cell Phone data by country) 2) A company that does the most dynamic visual presentations of statistics I have every seen: http://www.gapminder.org/ (UNDP data presented with such ingenuity it may inspire you) 3) A HUGE warehouse of all kinds of statistics http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html Marc K. Hebert -- PhD Student, Applied Anthropology University of South Florida 4202 East Fowler Avenue, SOC 107 Tampa, Florida 33620-7200 U.S.A. e-mail: mkh(a)mail.usf.edu website: anthropology.wetpaint.com

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Re: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing
by richard.ling＠telenor.com 20 Jan '07

20 Jan '07

Hi Barry, Check out the article by Reyna and Farley in the December/January article of Scientific American Mind. It has an interesting examination of the restructuring of adolescents brains - if you want to take a neuropsychological view of it. Rich L. -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Barry Wellman Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 10:27 PM To: aoir list Subject: [Air-l] where did you go, out; what did you do, nothing I am puzzled by the notion that most teens will do things to terrify their parents. Are there data on that? Or is it just autobiographical projection? Speaking autobiographically, and from a distance of 50 years, I suggest that most teens will try to avoid their parents' scrutiny. Terrifying them would only bring more scrutiny. "Where did you go? "Out. "What did you do? "Nothing." is the title, of a book about teen-parents relationships. By Robert Paul Smith. Published in 1959, which suggests that it was a general phenomenon then for my generation. And still in print, according to Amazon, which suggests some longterm relevance. Barry Wellman, with fond memories for the Fordham Flames. _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ The air-l(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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Japanese suicide references
by David Brake 20 Jan '07

20 Jan '07

A mix of popular media references (most but not all to Japanese suicides) and a few academic articles follow FYI (academic articles first) Savin-Williams, R. C. and G. L. Ream (2003) "Suicide Attempts among Sexual-Minority Male Youth", Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32 (4), p. 509. Becker, K., M. El-Faddagh and M. H. Schmidt (2004) "Cybersuicide or Werther-Effect Online: Suicide Chatrooms or Forums in the World Wide Web", Kindheit und Entwicklung, 13 (1), p. 14. Becker, K., et al. (2004) "Parasuicide Online: Can Suicide Websites Trigger Suicidal Behaviour in Predisposed Adolescents?" Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 58 (2), p. 111. Prasad, V. and D. Owens (2001) "Using the Internet as a Source of Self-Help for People Who Self-Harm", Psychiatric Bulletin, 25 (6), pp. 222-225. http://pb.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/6/222 Rajagopal, S. (2004) "Suicide Pacts and the Internet", BMJ, 329 (7478), pp. 1298-1299. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com Craig, O. (2003) Chatmates Watched Internet Suicide Last accessed: Last updated: 2003/02/09/ Address: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F02%2F09% 2Fwsuic09.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=108966 Kennedy, H. M. T. (2003) He Takes Fatal Od as Internet Pals Watch: Chatroom Vultures Egged Him to Pop More Rx Pills Last accessed: Last updated: 2003/02/01/ Address: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ story/56497p-52905c.html Nichols, J. (2003) Net Friends Faulted in Online Overdose Last accessed: Last updated: 2003/02/05/ Address: http:// arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0205webfolo.html Wark, P. and R. DiGirolamo (2003) Self-Oblivion Just a Click Away Last accessed: Last updated: 2003/02/07/ Address: http:// www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5947888%255E13762,00.html Fiedler, G. and R. Lindner (2001) "Suicide Fora on the Internet" http://www.magpiebridge.net/suicidefora.htm Doctorow, C. (2002) Searching Google for Suicide Boing Boing Last accessed: Dec 18 2002 Last updated: Dec 10 2002 Address: http:// boingboing.net/2002_12_01_archive.html#90036289. Parry, R. L. (2005) "Suicide, the Net and Death with a Stranger". in The Times, 30 June 2005, http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/ 0,,19509-1673850,00.html Cobain, I. (2005) "Clampdown on Chatrooms after Two Strangers Die in First Internet Death Pact". in The Guardian, 11 Oct 2005, http:// www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1589260,00.html Harding, A. (2004) Japan's Internet 'Suicide Clubs' BBC Last accessed: 9 Sep 2005 Last updated: Address: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ 1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4071805.stm. --- David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/ (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog) Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ dealingwithemail/> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)

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avatar and identity
by nadja.miczek＠zegk.uni-heidelberg.de 20 Jan '07

20 Jan '07

For a research project I'm looking for studies (qualitative or quantitative) from e.g. sociology or psychology dealing with the relationship between the use of avatars (especially in 3D worlds) and real life identity. Thanks for any help Nadja Miczek Nadja Miczek M.A. SFB 619 Ritualdynamik - Teilprojekt C2 Institut für Religionswissenschaft Universität Heidelberg Akademiestr. 4-8 D - 69117 Heidelberg Tel.: ++49-(0)6221-547682 Fax.: ++49-(0)6221-547624 E-Mail: nadja.miczek(a)zegk.uni-heidelberg.de http://www.rituals-online.uni-hd.de/

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