_____________________________________________________________________ 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 _____________________________________________________________________ Folks, I think that many of us would be interested to know that the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Human-Comupter Interaction is now out. Edited by sociologist William Sims Bainbridge, the two hefty volumes is an important reference resource in our fast-growing field. It draws upon many branches of social, behavioral, and information sciences, as well as computer science, medicine, engineering, and design. It covers all aspects of HCI: *applications (games, digital libraries, telecommuting) *approaches (beta testing, ontologies) *breakthroughs (ENIAC computer, Hollerith punch card) *challenges (digital divide, hackers, privacy, spamming, viruses) *components (Braille, fonts, spell checker) *disciplines and HCI (artificial intelligence, law, sociology) *implications (including 2 I co-authored on internet and society; diffusion of the Internet) *interfaces (adaptive interfaces, smart homes, virtual reality) *methods (browsers, data mining, hypertext and hypermedia) Many of the articles are short essays. They're accompanied by sidebars (pride of authorship again: my "40-years of computing timeline' and my "HCI love story"), illustrations, glossaries, a master bibliography, and a popular culture database of more than 300 movies, television programs, documentaries, stage productions, novels, science fiction, and even music. (Note, I screwed up the last line in one movie entry: tell me which and you get a coffee at the next conference.) Contributors include editor William Sims Bainbridge, deputy director of the National Science Foundation's Division of Information and Intelligent Systems, and 175 other experts including Dharma Agrawal, John M. Carroll, Jack Dongarra, Michael Goodchild, José-Marie Griffiths, Judith Klavans, Judith S. Olson, Gary M. Olson, Gary Starkweather, and Barry Wellman. Online: www.berkshirehci.com. Berkshire Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. 2 vols. William Sims Bainbridge, ed. Berkshire Publishing Group. September 2004. 1,000 pages. ISBN 0-9743091-2-5. $295. Prepublicaton price: US$250 until 30 November. Well, if you can't afford it, tell your library. It's really good. Please note: I did get a free set for writing my pieces, but this is an unpaid notice for a really nice piece of work.
Hi Barry et al, Thanks very much indeed for the heads-up on the publication and your helpful summary! I'll pester my librarian to order it, no question. Let me also ask the following question for the sake of clarification. Two Finnish colleagues included in their presentation at CATaC'04 a survey of how "culture" is taken up in HCI literature, summarized as follows (the parentheticals are their comments and suggestions): 1. Culture is taken for granted. (There is no exhaustive definition for culture, so we have to choose our definition.) 2. Culture is not defined explicitly. (We should always state clearly our suppositions of culture (or the suppositions of the theories and models we are using) and recognise their effects on our study.) 3. Culture is limited to national cultures. (It is good to remember that culture does not exist at national level only. At least we should avoid assuming that there is one national culture for every country.) 4. Cultures are seen as coherent wholes. (We should give up the idea that cultures are isolated wholes or that we could draw strict borders between them.) 5. Culture is seen in the role of maintenance. (Culture is capable of both resistance and transformation.) (Kampurri, Minna and Markku Tukainen. 2004. Culture in Human-Computer Interaction Studies: A survey of ideas and definitions. In F. Sudweeks and C. Ess (eds.), Proceedings: Cultural Attitudes Towards Communication and Technology 2004, 43-57. Murdoch, Western Australia: Murdoch University.) I didn't immediately see in your a reference to these aspects of culture and HCI, so let me simply ask - [and just to be absolutely clear: this is intended as a collegial question for the sake of information, _not_ a challenge or a criticism (the latter impossible since I've not seen the volumes I'm asking about - smile!)] - Since you've seen the volumes, can you tell me/us how far they include entries, etc., that (a) address issues of culture and HCI along these lines and thus (b) may require a revision of these summary points? Thanks in advance, and cheers - Charles Ess Fall '04: Fulbright Senior Scholar Universität Trier Fachbereich II Fakultäten der Medienwissenschaft, Sinologie Universitätsring 15 54296 Trier (Germany) Office phone: (49) (0)651-201-3744 Sekretariat: (49) (0)651-201-3203 Fax: (49) (0)651-201-3741 Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University 900 N. Benton Ave. Voice: 417-873-7230 Springfield, MO 65802 USA FAX: 417-873-7435 Home page: http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/ Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23
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Barry Wellman -
Charles Ess