*TRACK: INTERNET AND THE DIGITAL ECONOMY* * Minitrack: Technologically Mediated Relationship Creation and Maintenance * Online dating sites are a unique laboratory for understanding human relationship initiation, development and self-identified success. Presently, online dating research is scattered across numerous disciplines. An integrated, interdisciplinary discourse of how technology mediates the initiation and maintenance of relationships is necessary to advance the research and development of information and communication technologies to support online relationship formation. For example, the work of the organizers suggests that there are different views of what a successful online dating relationship looks like, depending on the socio-technical context. What will the next generation of online dating do to accommodate these differences? To what extent will online dating emerge as a significant component of social media more generally? How do the needs of online daters change through life? We invite papers that address Technology-Mediated Relationship Creation and Maintenance, which can include online dating or a number of other topics such as the following: 1. User motivation for undertaking online dating 2. Profile Development and Maintenance 3. Information seeking behavior within the websites 4. Communication activity within and external to the website 5. Access mechanisms for online dating sites 6. Social media utilization for similar purposes or to verify information about potential dates 7. Motivation for terminating the usage of a site (both successful and unsuccessful) 8. Outside of sites explicitly designed for dating, where and how do people create relationships online? 9. Non-romantic measures of online relationship creation success We invite you to check out http://www.onlinedatinginformatics.com for a full CFP and email cmascaro@gmail.com with any questions