Hi Terri: I am doing my dissertation on edutainment and convergence and how entertainment techniques can be utilized in higher education. My focus is different because I am looking at entertainment professionals as my subjects, not professors primarily. What is interesting is that you will find that the sex industry which is a $10 billion dollar industry according to AVN has driven much of the new digital technology in mainstream films, gaming, telephony, wireless and streaming technology. When George Lucas formally adopted digital filmmaking it became the new standard for production for many new filmmakers and old alike. He is making sizable contributions to education, and so is Bill Gates through his foundation with his wife. However, let's be clear, the real pioneers from both a business model and a creative standpoint are the porn producers who began with the 976 lines, cable television channels, pay per view movies in 80's, the 900 lines, websites, dvds, cds, data mining and ezines. In this decade, streaming, podcasting, mobicasting, videogames and swarmcasting and wireless on demand products are being marketed heavily in the porn industry and now bleeding into the mainstream. Isn't interesting to note that no one hears about the porn industry suing its customers like the RIAA for downloading their products. Yet one can go to any city worldwide and purchase pirated mainstream and porn movies on the streets. The question is why does mainstream media sue its customers for engaging in questionable ethical conduct while the porn industry, which many consider questionable, does not sue its customers. Porn revenues have been growing well, while mainstream movie and music revenues are suffering from pirating. Your research will eventually show you that the porn industry has been increasingly evolving its business model on how to work with and exploit the new digital technologies to make more money rather than spending too much time in the courtroom on copyright infringement lawsuits. The porn industry is more interested in the First Amendment and protecting it through court cases. Many could argue that mainstream media has forfeited civil liberties by not taking harder stances against government action over the past 20 years to protect civil liberties. Have fun, I hope we can help one another through the journey. I am interested in globalism effect on technology because it would appear that the Asian nations and the Europeans are moving with more diligence on wireless and new technologies than Americans. Chris A. Heidelberg PhD Student Higher Education Administration Morgan State University -----Original Message----- From: air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-aoir.org-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Terri He Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 3:29 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] Internet and fun/joy/pleasure Hi all I am a Mphil/PhD student doing research on the intersection of sexuality and technology. And just recently I got *very* intrigued by the kind of fun/joy/pleasure that we derive from internet use- be it random chatting, blogging, online games etc etc. I realise that this is a very broad thing to discuss, and so as a start, I have in mind a more communal kind of 'fun' that we're having together as a group: e.g., online interactions in mailing lists, message boards, or even flame wars. I plan to pose this question to find out both more about existing literatures related to this specific discussion (which obviously is beyond my knowledge) and people's points of view on issues as such. So far the ideas people and I myself have come up with are quite related to psychoanalytic approach in which joy (jouissance) and pleasure are two notions already prominent in that particular field. But what about fun? I think we need an anatomy of fun. And at the same time I reckon that it is a very American English word though it does travel to a host of other places/cultures all the time. Thanks in advance for any input/feedback on this. Terri _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@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/