I wonder if this is also connected to the growing popularity of steampunk style, which is an interesting blend of literary and scientific cultures. --There was even a story in the NYTimes on it! And hackers have had sort of an edgy cool, even before the Matrix. ;-) Kim On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 12:04 PM, Mark Chen <markchen@u.washington.edu> wrote:

Henry Jenkins posted about MC Lars' song "Ahab" and the nerdcore movement on his blog recently. Maybe he'd be a good place to start?

mark

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 8:35 AM, Sarita Yardi <sarita.yardi@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Does anyone know of any recent research about how new media relates to nerd culture stereotypes? There are a large number of very recent books and news articles about this topic, and some claim that being nerdy is going mainstream. Presumably they mean it's not necessarily defined by computers and A/V and pocket protectors anymore, but video games and MMORPG's and MySpacers and other activities that may break the traditional white male nerd stereotype. Computer science is still as nerdy as ever, a perceived by kids, but do we know if new media studies or cultural studies indicates different trends in other areas? Speculation welcome, even if you don't know of any research being done on it.

Thanks very much, Sarita

-- Human-Centered Computing College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology www.cc.gatech.edu/~yardi <http://www.cc.gatech.edu/%7Eyardi> < http://www.cc.gatech.edu/%7Eyardi> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@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/

-- Mark Chen | PhD Candidate | Games researcher/designer | Tech instructor College of Education - Ed Tech | University of Washington - Seattle My games research and life in academia blog: markdangerchen.net _______________________________________________ The Air-L@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/

-- Kim De Vries http://else-if-then.blogspot.com

Hi, I'm researching youth subcultures - specifically hip hop - and virtual communities. I'm looking at how youth in subcultures like hip hop are engaging on-line around any aspect of hip hop subculture such as the music, fashion, videos, graffiti, breakdancing. One of the big questions I'm asking is if and how online involvement is challenging authenticity and identity within youth subcultures. Does anybody know of any research that would be related? Eloise Tan An unlikely scholar http://freire.education.mcgill.ca/blog/182 Ph.D. student Dept. of Integrated Studies in Education McGill University _______________________________________________

The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org <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/

_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org <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/

Hi Eloise, Are you looking at specific geographies as well? I know of some work done by Eva Tsai at the National Taiwan University, Taipei, who has made some very interesting interventions with popular youth subcultures in Taiwan and what happens when they get inflected with digital technologies. However, her work is very specific to the national geography of Taiwan. She has published some work in the Inter Asia Cultural Studies Journal, but is also easy to approach and very friendly to younger scholars. Hope that helps. Sorry I do not have a bibliographic entry for her. regards Nishant On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 10:42 PM, Eloise Tan <eloise.tan@mail.mcgill.ca> wrote:

Hi,

I'm researching youth subcultures - specifically hip hop - and virtual communities. I'm looking at how youth in subcultures like hip hop are engaging on-line around any aspect of hip hop subculture such as the music, fashion, videos, graffiti, breakdancing. One of the big questions I'm asking is if and how online involvement is challenging authenticity and identity within youth subcultures.

Does anybody know of any research that would be related?

Eloise Tan

An unlikely scholar http://freire.education.mcgill.ca/blog/182

Ph.D. student Dept. of Integrated Studies in Education McGill University

_______________________________________________

...

The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org < 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/

_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org < 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/

_______________________________________________ The Air-L@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/

-- Nishant Shah Doctoral Candidate, CSCS, Bangalore. Director (Research), Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore Asia Awards Fellow, 2008-09 # 0-9740074884

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 3:40 PM, Peter Timusk <ptimusk@sympatico.ca> wrote:

So Nerds have to do free software eh? I do not buy the open source craze. It is like Lessig saying hackers did it for security reasons. Two many generalizations.

I'm not sure I buy the closed source craze, and half suspect it may be a fad :). There is good reason for nerdiness to be tied to the free software movement, and there are ties back to academia, as well. And, of course, to hacking. I suppose there could be a nerdy narrative that avoids much of the development of computing and open exchange of ideas, that skips the 1970s and Unix and Spacewar. This narrative would hold the progenitors of nerd culture, and the ideal nerds to be people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and maybe Mitch Kapor. But I think that narrative would be pretty hard to sell to those who self-identify as nerds. I think that it's fare to claim that part of the shared value system of geek/nerds is the open sharing of ideas. That's one of the claims Himanen makes in the Hacker Ethic, not to mention Nelson's Computer Lib. That dedication to openness is not unproblematical, but I think if you asked most people who self-identified as nerds or geeks, they would be users of or fans of open source and free software. The reasons need not be political: if you like working with technology, you enjoy the ability to take things apart and put them together again--to hack. While that is theoretically possible with everything, from Legos to atoms, from Linux to Vista, it's easier with Legos and Linux. Is it a generalization? Of course. Do all self-described nerds use open source software tools exclusively? Highly unlikely. Nonetheless, the ideals embodied by these tools seem to match the ideals espoused by most nerds--openness, sharing, decentralization--and so I would expect there to be a certain affinity there. - Alex -- // // This email is // [X] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, cyberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net //

A post on the Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus points to a Newsweek story on "nerdchic," the follow up comments provide interesting reflections on the value of nerds and role models, etc. 'Nerd Girl' Group at Tufts U. Seeks to Challenge Stereotypes of Engineering June 16, 2008 | 4 comments http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3092/nerd-girl-group-at- tufts-u-seeks-to-challenge-stereotypes-of-engineering The latest issue of Newsweek features an article about—and plenty of glossy pictures of—“Nerd Girls,” a student group at Tufts University. They group is working on building a solar car that they plan to drive around the country visiting schools and encouraging girls to pursue engineering—and making a documentary about their adventures. “They’re ‘Beauty and the Geek’ all in one package!” says their Web site. — Jeffrey R. Young Posted on Mon Jun 16, 03:25 PM | Permalink | Comment [4] [1] Revenge of the Nerdette, http://www.newsweek.com/id/140457 "As geeks become chic in all levels of society, an unlikely subset is starting to roar. Meet the Nerd Girls: they're smart, they're techie and they're hot." [2] NerdGirls.org, http://www.nerdgirls.org/