Christian, et al. There is a huge literature on Human-Machine interaction, under the rubric of HCI, or Human-Computer Interaction. One annual conference organized by ACM's SIGCHI. (why HCI became CHI in this acronymn is a little puzzling, prouncability I guess). Plus an annual conference on CSCW (computer supported cooperative work) that alternates between Europe and US. You can catch up re the published Proceedings of these conferences, plus Transactions of CHI (or is it HCI) journal. plus much, much more. Alas, AoIR has not reached out to invite the folks doing this work into its activities. To mutual detriment. Many smart folks, mostly in computer science, communication science, info sci, etc. William Bainbridge is now putting together a Handbook of HCI for Berkshire Reference Works, but it will be at least 6 months before publication. Barry _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________