It is with great interest that I read David Silver's paper about Internet Studies, after sitting on the panel at Toronto meeting. Excellent work, David! Silver, D. (2004). "Internet/cyberculture/digital culture/new media/fill-in-the-blank studies." New Media & Society 6(1): 55-64. I wanted to (unpublished scholar as yet) offer my definition of the field, Internet Studies & Research, (I built my own fill-in-the-blank) for free: A preliminary definition of Internet Studies & Research states: Internet Studies & Research, as it develops within programs of study or research projects at universities, research centers or institutes, is elaborated by scholars who work across disciplines and take the internet, *its use and users* as their objects/subjects of study and research (Rall, 2003). ------------------------------------------------------- It's a bit awkward there with the subjects/objects hybrid there - but sometimes internet interactions are objects (infometrics, webmetrics, measuring links - I wouldn't call them subjects) and sometimes they are subjects or rather, participants, but the objects/partcipants seemed even dicier than objects/subjects. Sometimes internet reseach measures things, and sometimes it considers people . . . not to open the QUANT/QUAL discussion again! It's a free definition, so feel free to comment! (and I will *seek permission* from you invididually before using any email responses for my research!!!!) Cheers, Denise ===== Denise N. Rall, PhD student, Env. Science & Mgmt, Southern Cross Uni, Marker for Protected Area Management, BIO00244 Lismore, NSW, 2480 Australia Phone +61-2-6624-8627 Fax +61-2-6624-8637 Office (Tuesdays) (02) 6620 3577 Mob 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/index.html