There are some histories, or historical views: Silver, D. (2000). Looking backwards, looking forward: Cyberculture studies 1990-2000. Web.studies: Rewiring media studies for the digital age. D. Gauntlett. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 19-30. Silver, D. (2000). "A Field matures: Cyberstudies at the turn of the millennium [online] Available at: http://www.easst.net/easst004.html 19(4). Strate, L. (1999). "The varieties of cyberspace: Problems in definition and delimitation." Western Journal of Communication 63(3): 382-412. and some helpful papers by Aoir members: Silver, D. (2004). "Internet/cyberculture/digital culture/new media/fill-in-the-blank studies." New Media & Society 6(1): 55-64. Wellman, B. (2004). "Internet studies: fifteen, ten and 0 years ago." New Media & Society 6(1): 123-129. Rall, D. N. (2005). Exploring the range of disciplinary backgrounds of internet scholars participating in AoIR meetings, 2000-2002. Internet Research Annual Volume 3. M. Consalvo and K. O'Riordan. New York, Peter Lang: 107-122. Also a review of internet studies to date was (unfortunately) rejected by the editors of the TIS special issue, but takes a global view of internet studies from 1999-present. Contact me personally if you want a copy of the manuscript. Regarding the internet as a research object, consider the following: Johns, M. D., S.-L. S. Chen, et al., Eds. (2004). Online social research: Methods, issues, & ethics. New York, Peter Lang. Gurak, L. (2001). Cyberliteracy. Cambridge, MA, Yale University Press. Regarding disciplines: Becher, T. and P. R. Trowler (2001). Academic tribes and territories: Intellectual enquiry and the cultures of disciplines. Buckingham, UK, SRHE and Open University Press. Weingart, P. and N. Stehr, Eds. (2000). Practising interdisciplinarity. Toronto, University of Toronto Press. I would generally agree with Nancy that it's not a discipline, however, media and communiction scholars have different ideas about disciplinarity to mine, which derive from the educational literature. However, there's been plenty of recent research to support that it could be an interdiscipline or as she says, a field of study. I would argue that it's stronger than a field of study, rather a hybridized (inter- trans- post- multi- cross-) discipline. William Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute suggested 'cross-discipline' and the term 'cross disciplinary' research is used in the AoIR statement of purpose. My own definition follows: Rall, D. N. (2003/2004). "A preliminary definition of internet studies and research [online] Available at:." http://scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall [1 August 2004]. Cheers, Denise Denise N. Rall, Ph.D. submitted, School of Environ. Science, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA Tuesdays: Room T2.12, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 or Mobile 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/index.html Virtual member, Cybermetrics Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/index.html