Dear AoIR-ists, At CATaC'06, Patrizia Schettino presented the work of her and her colleagues Lorenzo Cantoni, Francesca Fanni, Isabella Rega, and Stefano Tardini ("Localization of Blended Courses in Salvador de Bahia" - in F. Sudweeks, H. Hrachovec, C. Ess (eds.), Fifth international conference on cultural attitudes towards technology and communication 2006. Perth: Murdoch University, p. 202-216.) Ms. Schettino and colleagues describe here the work of Valentina Johanna Baumgartner: 2003. Diploma Thesis: A Practical Set of Cultural Dimensions for Global User-interface Analysis and Design. University of Vienna. I find the description of Ms. Baumgartner's work fascinating - she developed a matrix of 29 culturally-related dimensions by conjoining Hall, Hofstede, and several others, and surveyed both web designers and web communication experts. Both a copy of her survey questionnaire and the diplom-arbeit (in German) can be easily retrieved from the web. (The upshot: Hall's distinction between high context and low context communication, along with "technological development" - roughly, a measure of cultural exposure to and attitudes towards technology, derived from D. A. Victor, ranging from hostile to embracing - are most important, followed by Hofstede's axis of uncertainty avoidance and Hofstede-related axes of time perception (related to long-term orientation) and authority conception (related to power distance).) My question: does anyone know of any current or planned research using this questionnaire and/or matrix of cultural dimensions? It looks very promising to me - especially as it moves us well beyond Hofstede and Hall to much more fine-grained analyses of culture online, ones that would be much better at articulating regional and local, not just national differences. But what do I know? (don't answer that, please). In all seriousness, I'd very much appreciate it if anyone has knowledge about this that they can share - either on-list or offlist. thanks in advance, and happy weekend ... - charles ess Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies <http://www.drury.edu/gp21> 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 Information Ethics Fellow, 2006-07, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, UW-Milwaukee Co-chair, CATaC conferences <www.catacconference.org> Vice-President, Association of Internet Researchers <www.aoir.org> Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes <http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php> Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23