Dear AOIRniks, Charles Ess asked about the place of Culture in the new Encyl of HCI. Of course to answer that question would be to start an extended debate about what "Culture" is -- a matter I've avoided since my theory exams in the mid-60s. (Re exams: more fun to give 'em than to receive 'em). Are we talking about Shakespeare on line, or culture in the way that anthropologists and sociologists do, the latter often distinguishing from social structure? [Note: I will not answer any questions on the matter: see Re exams sentence.] Anyways, I digress. I have asked the publishers and editor of the Ency to answer, as they know the beast better than me. However, a browse of the entries shows me lotsa culture stuff, depending on how you slice it: Recommender and Reputation Systems (wot's yr fave movie?); Cognitive Walthru; Constraint Satisfaction; Ethics; Ethnography; Ontology; Soci-technical ...; value Sensitive Design; Digital Divide; Privacy; Spamming; Hackers; Peer-to-Peer; Anthro; AI, Law; PoliSci, SocPsych; Soc; Language Generation; Semantic Web; Social Implications; Chatrooms; Children; Collaboratories; CSCW; Cybersex; Cyborgs; Education; Gender; Worldwide Diffusion; Human-Robt Interaction (HRI?); Movies; Sociable Media; SOftware Cultures; Work: Workforce, MUDS; Culture-Based-Capture Systems; and of course, Internet in Everyday Life; and the many pages on movies, songs, fiction, non-fiction, and shows having to do with HCI (RUR to I Robot). In short, culture pervades the 2 volumes, without there being a special entry on "Culture". I rather like it this way, for reasons noted in the 1st para. YMMV 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 _____________________________________________________________________