literature

official abstract:
Anthropology as a societally relevant science. Systematizing practice-oriented approaches This article attempts at a contribution to a systematic foundation of a practice-oriented branch of cultural anthropology. Three bodies of literature, which are normally discussed quite separately, are integrated here: firstly a broadly conceived practising anthropology, secondly development anthropology and thirdly several approaches of critical anthropology. The latter is more politically ambitioned and not explicitly use-oriented but of considerable importance for practical issues in cultural anthropology. Taking the example of development it is argued that practical issues are historically and theoretically related to genuine anthropological questions. Practice-oriented work can and did contribute considerably to the core issues of cultural anthropology. Furthermore it is shown that a strong link to academia is vital for any practical anthropology if it will remain really anthropology. Drawing on a systematization of five basic approaches to "anthropology put to use" the author proposes a practice-oriented cultural anthropology as an anthropology engaged in themes relevant to society. Its function would be an empirically founded ethnologizing and anthropologizing of discourses on society instead of a politization in the form of advocating specific goals or values. Approaches to practical anthropology should be grounded in clear statements about the core interests, theories and methods of cultural anthropology in general and its relations to other branches of anthropology. Here cultural anthropology is conceived as being embedded in a broad bioculturally oriented science of humanity. In order to stimulate discussion, the position of a committed cultural anthropology taken by the author is not only presented programmatically, but fleshed out in some detail and by way of examples.

keywords: 'practising anthropology', development anthropology, critical anthropology, practice and anthropology, cultural anthropology
status: read and excerpted

keywords: commodities
status: read

keywords: globalization
status: read

official introduction:
This paper will explore the concept of media practice related to the social uses of the new technologies of information and communication in everyday life, focusing on a specific cultural form such as videogames. Our proposal is that game experience is embedded in media practices, and that videogame pleasures introduce innovative changes in the way audiovisual products are produced and consumed. Play and games are relevant subjects of research in anthropology, and videogames are, no doubt, part of media anthropology studies. The few ethnographic accounts that we have reached about videogames from an anthropological perspective have mainly looked at social aspects surrounding the games: community formation, identity, gender and youth lifestyles, especially in online games. We acknowledge these studies, but our idea here is to construct an interdisciplinary wider view and to explore play as a key feature in new media models of consumption. For that purpose, we will try to develop a preliminary theoretical approach that would include pleasure and sensorial issues in media practices understanding. We depart from two starting points: On one hand, we consider videogames as a cultural form that hybridises audiovisual media culture with game logics. In that respect, we want to especially focus on console and PC games with a strong audiovisual representation component, no matter if the game is played off or online. On the other hand, we understand videogames as a set of practices related with consumption, leisure and peers sociability. Going further of these two assumptions, we want to develop a working hypothesis that might be useful for future empirical research, which consists in the statement that videogames introduce a "playful" subject position in our relation with audiovisual technologies, transforming the established “spectatorship” relation with audiovisual products to a more active engagement with images. This implies a model of image consumption characterised by a playful production, re-elaboration and remixing practices as a way of appropriating digital audiovisual technologies, which includes practices of sharing domestic and amateur content production through the Internet. An analysis of the subject position (Harre, 1979, 1990) inscribed in audiovisual technologies within a theory of practice framework (Schatzki, 1996) will allow us to examine game pleasures and media uses from an embodied and materially interwoven practices perspective, useful for a grounded understanding of the so called "new media" context.

keywords: computergames, flow
status: listened to and read

keywords: cybernetics
status: partially read

keywords: online-research, ethics
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keywords: mod, modification, modding, computergames, games industry
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, technology, practice
status: read

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official abstract:
Gregory Bateson's interdisciplinary work in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution and Epistemology was profoundly influenced by the ideas set forth in systems theory, communication theory, information theory and cybernetics. Bateson used the single term cybernetics in reference to an aggregate of the ideas that grew together shortly after World War II. For him, cybernetics, communication theory, information theory, and systems theory, together constituted a unified set of ideas. Many scholars and practitioners of the social/behavioral sciences, and the humanities, were first introduced to the cybernetic paradigm through Bateson's work. Yet, he seldom offered his audience more than a cursory reference to the key principles underlying his particular understanding of cybernetics. Thus, this essay incrementally and historically delineates the fundamental principles underlying the cybernetic paradigm as it was employed by Bateson.

keywords: cybernetics
status: partially read

keywords:
status: read

keywords: cyberspace, Barlowian cyberspace
status: read, excerpted

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keywords: sociocultural anthropology
status: read, partially excerpted

keywords: sociocultural anthropology
status: used on a daily basis

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, MUD, MMORPG, persistent state worlds
status:

official abstract:
This paper describes various pitfalls associated with the notion of real-world ownership of virtual property, taken from the perspective of a developer of virtual worlds. It makes no commentary on the positives of virtual property: rather, it assumes that the reader already regards the concept favourably or as inevitable, and is performing due diligence to discover the extent of any downside to it. Five pitfalls are summarized in total, of which one is philosophical, two are law-related and two are concerned with gameplay.

keywords: computergames, MMORPG, persistent state worlds, virtual worlds, property
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official abstract:
This article focuses on the conceptual issues faced by scholarly editors and textual studies specialists. Theoretical debate in this general field is still active as digital texts present special problems and magnify others. Older theory and methodology are hampered by unacknowledged, sometimes inappropriate cultural values and other limitations, and are not always useful in connection with digital texts. Nevertheless, the distinction between the abstract work and its concrete expression is influential both within and outside the field. In this approach, the concept of authenticity relates to the degree of change a work undergoes or the accuracy of the ‘instructions’ for its reconstitution. Whether the digital text is best thought of as immaterial or material is not as crucial as might first appear. The way a digital text is made visible is important, though potentially paradoxical. In order to be workable, the concept of authentication by instructions needs further technical assistance, like that provided by the Just-in-Time Markup System. But, despite its limitations, traditional textual scholarship still has much to offer textual studies in digital environments.

keywords: material, immaterial, digital texts
status: partially read, ↵excerpted

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, fieldwork, online games, computergames, MMORPG, persistent state worlds, virtual worlds,
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, globalization, glocalization, cultural appropriation, technology
status: read

keywords:
status: in my possession

keywords: virtual reality
status: read

keywords: cyberspace, cyberpunk, cyberculture
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keywords: cyberspace, cyberpunk, cyberculture
status: read

official abstract:
In writings on the open source software development model, it is often argued that it is successful as a result of the gift economy that embraces activities in online communities. However, the theoretical foundations for this argument are seldom discussed and empirically tested. Starting with the ‘classic’ theories of gift giving, we discuss how they need to be developed in order to explain giftgiving practices in digital domains. In this paper, we argue that the gift economy is important, not only because it creates openness, but also because it organizes relationships between people in a certain way. Open source software development relies on gift giving as a way of getting new ideas and prototypes out into circulation. This also implies that the giver gets power from giving away. This power is used as a way of guaranteeing the quality of the code. We relate this practice to how gifts, in the form of new scientific knowledge, are given to the research community, and how this is done through peer review processes.

keywords: gift culture, open source, peer review
status: in my possession

keywords: fiction, cyberpunk
status: read

official abstract:
Big budget, high commitment 3D MMORPG's have generated significant revenues and theoretical bounty. But these games still alienate most casual players. This article offers a promising future for multiplayer experience, especially casual experience, in the form of asynchronous multiplayer games, or games in which small or large numbers of players play a game in sequence rather than simultaneously.

keywords: asynchronous, MMOG, MMORPG, casual games, online games, multiplayer
status:

official abstract:
Massive multiplayer online gaming, first popularized in the entertainment world, is now finding growing interest in education and training environments. The military and business have noted the potential for simulation and gaming technology to develop higher order thinking skills; in particular, they see potential in such areas as problem solving, metacognition, and decision making. However, much of the research in this area lags behind the technological advances, focusing on user demographics, attention spans, and perceptual skills, instead of addressing the impact these games might have on player’s analysis, decision making, and reflection skills. In part, the current body of research represents the interests of the gaming industry, which is more focused on exploiting any new technology to satisfy the attitudes, preferences, and expectations of its users, rather than the interests of education and training. It also reflects the fact that this is an emerging area that suffers from limited research and strategic planning. The report reviews the relevant research literature and proposes 15 primary experiments.

keywords: computergames, MMORPG, multiplayer, training, education
status: in my possession

keywords: computergames, mods, modding, modders
status: in my possession

review: ↵Zurawski 2005
keywords: sociocultural anthropology, Internet, identity, conflict
status: read

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keywords: sociology, sport
status: read

keywords: cyberpunk
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keywords: virtual reality
status: read

official abstract:
The digital revolution has dramatically increased the ability of individuals and corporations to appropriate and profit from the cultural knowledge of indigenous peoples, which is largely unprotected by existing intellectual property law. In response, legal scholars, anthropologists, and native activists now propose new legal regimes designed to defend indigenous cultures by radically expanding the notion of copyright. Unfortunately, these proposals are often informed by romantic assumptions that ignore the broader crisis of intellectual property and the already imperiled status of the public domain. This essay offers a skeptical assessment of legal schemes to control cultural appropriation—in particular, proposals that indigenous peoples should be permitted to copyright ideas rather than their tangible expression and that such protections should exist in perpetuity. Also examined is the the pronounced tendency of intellectual property debate to preempt urgently needed reflection on the political viability of specialrights regimes in pluralist democracies and on the appropriateness of using copyright law to enforce respect for other cultures.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, culture, copyright, property
status: read

official abstract:
In the last decade, the idea that speaking of a culture inevitably suggests an inordinate measure of boundedness, homogeneity, coherence, and stability has gained considerable support, so that some cultural/social anthropologists even call for abandoning the concept. It is argued, however, that the unwelcome connotations are not inherent in the concept but rather in certain usages which have been less standardized than is assumed by the critics. The root of the confusion is the distribution of learned routines across individuals: while these routines are never perfectly shared, they are not randomly distributed either. Therefore, culture should be retained as a convenient term to designate the clusters of common concepts, emotions, and practices that arise when people interact regularly. Moreover, outside anthropology and academia the word is gaining popularity and increasingly understood in a roughly anthropological way. While often a reified notion is employed, retaining the concept--while clarifying that culture is not reproduced unproblematically, has its limits against the individual and the universal, and its not synonymous with ethnicity and identity--will preserve the common ground the concept has created within the discipline. Moreover, it will simplify communicating anthropological ideas to the general public, thus challenging mistaken assumptions.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, concept of culture, anthropological theory, cultural fundamentalism, anthropology in public debates
status: read

official abstract:
A number of indicators suggest that within the last decade, globalization has become a mainstream topic within anthropology. This article sketches the development leading to this state of affairs and summarizes the research findings of the pioneer phase. Subsequently, a number of topics for further inquiry are outlined. It is argued that the mapping of global cultural distributions and flows is still at an impressionistic stage and should be supplemented by systematic procedures. These will lead to a more differentiated assessment of global cultural homogenization, the possibility of which is dismissed rather light-handedly by many anthropologists. Likewise, cultural exchanges that circumvent "the West" have not yet received sufficient attention, and a cross-culturally valid notion of modernity may be of help in conceptualizing these. Furthermore, the resilience of kinship in globalization-affected societies and the question whether humanity is gaining or losing in the globalization process call for further investigation.

keywords: globalization, world system, modernity, cultural change
status:

review: ↵Valverde 2004
keywords: network
status:

official abstract:
This article investigates the historical development, the major theories and the ethnographic domains of an anthropology of cyberculture. In doing so, the authors use Arturo Escobar's influential paper on cyberanthropology, written in 1994, [↵Escobar 1994] and connect potential research questions posed in this text with research projects recently conducted at the Viennese Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. The authors conclude that the anthropology of cyberculture is not a new sub-discipline of socio-cultural anthropology, but a new field of inquiry with clear-cut domains and areas of ethnographic research.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cyberanthropology, cyberculture
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keywords:
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keywords: sociocultural anthropology, ethics
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keywords: sociology, ICT, economy, society, culture
status: partially read, partially excerpted

keywords: sociology, ICT, economy, society, culture
status: in my possession

keywords: sociology, Internet, history of technology
status: read, excerpted

keywords:
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keywords: computergames, MMORPG, persistent state worlds, economy
status:

keywords: computergames, MMORPG, persistent state worlds, economy
status: in my possession

official abstract:
This paper offers insight into the brief history of those artists whose work utilizes, incorporates or subverts the aesthetics and/or technology of video games. It questions why artwork that subverts consoles is seen less frequently than other emerging forms such as sampling, modifications (mods) and machine cinema (machinima). The paper concludes by offering an examination of obstacles which face artists creating console based subversion and points to these as the reasons why this emerging form is seen with less frequency than the others.

keywords: computergames, art, machinima, mods, modding, modders, modification, console-based subversion
status: in my possession

keywords:
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keywords: virtual reality
status: in my possession

keywords: computergames, aesthetics, art
status: in my possession

keywords:
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keywords: cyberculture
status: partially read

official abstract:
Many of the challenges presented by the information infrastructure are not readily amenable to legislative and other hierarchical solutions. They require gentler, community-based measures as an adjunct to, and even an alternative for, formal regulatory action. Communities in cyberspace need means of achieving cohesion and maintaining relationships, while avoiding unduly dysfunctional behaviour by community-members and outsiders. This paper's purpose is to investigate the means whereby such a 'cyberculture' can be brought about. It commences by considering formal and semi-formal authority in cyberspace. It then discusses the processes and structures of electronic communities, including a series of mini-case studies of community behaviour in some recent contexts. Examples are provided of existing and emergent mechanisms whereby civilised behaviour can be encouraged. Some inadequacies in existing technologies are identified, and an approach suggested whereby future products, services, protocols and architectures can better support culture in cyberspace.

keywords: cyberculture
status: partially read

official abstract:
There's a common presumption that the Internet has brought with it the promise of openness, democracy, the end of inequities in the distribution of information, and human self-fulfillment. Any such conclusion would be premature. The digital era has ambused and beguiled us all. Its first-order impacts are being assimilated, but its second-order implications are not. Powerful institutions perceive their interests to be severely threatened by the last decade of technological change and by the shape of the emergent 'information economy'. Elements of their fight back are identified, particularly extensions to legal protectionism, and the active development and application of technologies that protect data from prying eyes. Many of the features that have ensured a progressive balance between data protection and freedom of access to data have already been seriously eroded. The new balance that emerges from the current period of turmoil may be far less friendly to public access and more like a New Dark Ages.

keywords: freedom of information
status: partially read

keywords:
status: in my possession

official abstract:
Why have ethnographic accounts recently lost so much of their authority? Why were they ever believable? Who has the right to challenge an "objective" cultural description? Was Margaret Mead simply wrong about Samoa as has recently been claimed? Or was her image of an exotic land a partial truth reflecting the concerns of her time and a complex encounter with Samoans? Are not all ethnographies rhetorical performances determined by the need to tell an effective story? Can the claims of ideology and desire ever be fully reconciled with the needs of theory and observation?

These are some of the questions raised by Writing Culture, new essays by a group of experienced ethnographers, a literary critic, and a historian of anthropology. All the authors are known for advanced analytic work on ethnographic writing. Their preoccupation is both theoretical and practical: they see the writing of cultural accounts as a crucial form of knowledge—the troubled, experimental knowledge of a self in jeopardy among others.

These essays place ethnography at the center of a new intersection of social history, interpretive anthropology, travel writing, discourse theory, and textual criticism. They analyze classic examples of cultural description, from Goethe to Catlin to Malinowski, Evans-Pritchard, and Le Roy Ladurie, showing the persistence of allegorical patterns and rhetorical tropes. They assess recent exprimental trends and explore the functions of orality, ethnicity, and power in ethnographic composition.

Writing Culture argues that ethnography is in the midst of a political and epistemological crisis: Western writers no longer portray non-Western peoples with unchallenged authority; the process of cultural representation is now inescapably contingent, historical, and contestable. The essays in this volume help us imagine a fully dialectical ethnography acting powerfully in the postmodern world-system. They challenge all writers in the humanities and social sciences to rethink the poetics and politics of cultural invention.

keywords:
status: read

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keywords: anthropology, ethnicity
status: read & marked

official abstract:
This thesis represents the first comprehensive overview of a genre of Western popular music known as industrial. It asks the questions, ‘What is industrial music, who creates and listens to it and why: what does it mean to its producers and audience, and what do they believe in? How is the music mediated and disseminated? What does the music communicate, and how does it communicate this meaning?’ In exploring these questions, the thesis uses industrial to develop a methodological investigation into genre in general, asking what might be learned from a detailed interdisciplinary approach to the process of communication within the limits of a genre. Systematic methods involving a variety of approaches were undertaken. These methods included content analysis, hermeneutics, semiotics, an internet questionnaire, interviews, reception tests, a case study with Swedish industrial band Project-X, participation and participant observation in Canada and England from 1999 to 2002.

The results of the study show that, in reception tests, both fans of the music and those unfamiliar with the paramusical elements of the industrial genre have similar connotative responses. Nevertheless, the interpretation of those connotations differed, even to the point of being diametrical. The thesis uses the term ‘supplementary connotations’ for this additional level of meaning, suggesting that familiarity with a genre guides an audience towards a text's deeper meanings and values. The research shows that industrial has specific signifiers which help to situate the music in a distinctly dystopian setting. In exploring industrial, therefore, the thesis also introduces musical representations of dystopia and Hell; in particular, the use of mechanical motifs as a critique of rationalisation in the twentieth century. The thesis then suggests industrial music draws on this long tradition of apocalyptic notions to express in particular an alienation from, and critique of, late capitalism.

keywords: cyberpunk, aesthetics, dystopia, industrial music
status: partially read

official abstract:
This paper explores the similarities between industrial music and 'cyberpunk' science fiction literature. Besides the obvious instances where there are direct references to each other, there are further connections between music and literature that are explored here. Situating the two forms within the tradition of 20th century Western dystopias, the focus of the paper is on the similarity of themes (relationship to technology, control by a totalitarian elite, apocalyptic worlds, resistance groups), techniques (in language or structure), moods (the tones and attitudes), and imagery (through language or music) used to illustrate and enhance these themes.

keywords: cyberpunk, aesthetics, dystopia, industrial music
status: in my possession

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keywords: computergames, game design, game development
status: partially read

keywords:
status: read & marked

keywords: play
status: in my possession

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review: ↵Kelly 2003: 734-739.
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keywords:
status: read

keywords: computergames, max payne
status: in my possession
[The text is available online for registered members at ↑Gamasutra]

keywords: cyberpunk
status: read

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keywords: computergames, MMORPG, persistent state worlds, property
status: read

review: ↑by Danny Yee

keywords: open source, software
status:

official plot summary:
By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep. . . They even built humans.

Emigrees to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in.

Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results.

review: ↑by Jason Koornick, ↑by Steven Wu
keywords: fiction, cyberpunk
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, economic anthropology, economy
status: read, excerpted

official abstract:
This article is an ethnographic study of Persian-language weblogs (blogs), focusing on a divisive argument among Iranian bloggers that came to be known as the "vulgarity debate." Sparked by a controversial blogger who ridiculed assertions that Islam was compatible with human rights, the debate revolved around the claim that biogging had a "vulgar spirit" that made it easy for everything from standards of writing to principles of logical reasoning to be undermined. My study focuses primarily on the linguistic side of the controversy: I analyze blogging as an emergent speech genre and identify the structural features and social interactions that make this genre seem "vulgar." I also examine the controversy as a confrontation between bloggers with unequal access to cultural capital and a struggle over "intellectualist" hegemony. in the conclusion, I use the construct of "deep play" to weave together multiple layers of structure, explanation, and meaning in the debate.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, Iran, weblogs, computer-mediated communication, speech genres, social status
status: in my possession

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, methodology, bibliography
status: in my possession

keywords:
status: in my possession

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, representation, multimedia, hypermedia
status: read

keywords:
status: in my possession

keywords: computergames, game studies, narratology, ludology, virtual game worlds
status: in my possession

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, methodology, fieldnotes
status: partially read

keywords:
status: read ;-)

official abstract:
The title 'Playful Play with Games' refers to the possibility of creative involvement with games by altering their structure in a playful way. The focus of this paper is on modifying the first person shooter game Unreal Tournament as a learning process. Modifying the game means to become a creator or writer in addition to a reader and player, but nonetheless with a playful attitude and a good understanding of the game at hand. Understanding the game involves an understanding of the different levels of meaning of the game. Three levels of meaning produced in and around games can be distinguished: Meaningful play, meaning beyond play, and creatively added meaning. Five examples from courses to media management, architecture, and media art students as well as a group of activists illustrate the design of courses that are based on level editing.

keywords: computergames, first-person shooter, mods, modding, modders, modification, level editing, meaningful play, learning, design, art
status: in my possession

official description:
Anthropology ought to have changed the world. What went wrong? Engaging Anthropology takes an unflinching look at why the discipline has not gained the popularity and respect it deserves in the twenty-first century. From identity to multicultural society, new technologies to work, globalization to marginalization, anthropology has a vital contribution to make. While showcasing the intellectual power of discipline, Eriksen takes the anthropological community to task for its unwillingness to engage more proactively with the media in a wide range of current debates, from immigrant issues to biotechnology. If anthropology matters as a key tool with which to understand modern society beyond the ivory towers of academia, why are so few anthropologists willing to come forward in times of national or global crisis? Eriksen argues that anthropology needs to rediscover the art of narrative and abandon arid analysis and, more provocatively, anthropologists need to lose their fear of plunging into the vexed issues modern societies present.

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keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cyberspace, Internet
status: read multiple times, marked & excerpted

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cyberspace, Internet
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official abstract:
This paper presents the outline of an anthropological political ecology that fully acknowledges the constructedness of nature while suggesting steps to weave together the cultural and the biological on constructivist grounds. From tropical rain forests to advanced biotechnology laboratories, the resources for inventing natures and cultures are unevenly distributed. The paper proposes an antiessentialist framework for investigating the manifold forms that the natural takes in today’s world. This proposal builds on current trends in ecological anthropology, political ecology, and social and cultural studies of science and technology. The resulting framework identifies and conceptualizes three distinct but interrelated nature regimes—organic, capitalist, and techno—and sketches their characteristics, their articulations, and their contradictions. The political implications of the analysis are discussed in terms of the strategies of hybrid natures that most social groups seem to be faced with as they encounter, and try to stem, particular manifestations of the environmental crisis.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cyberspace, Internet
status: partially read

official description:
Explorers and ethnographers in Africa during the period of colonial expansion are usually assumed to have been guided by rational aims such as the desire for scientific knowledge, fame, or financial gain. This book, the culmination of many years of research on nineteenth-century exploration in Central Africa, provides a new view of those early European explorers and their encounters with Africans. Out of Our Minds shows explorers were far from rational—often meeting their hosts in extraordinary states influenced by opiates, alcohol, sex, fever, fatigue, and violence. Johannes Fabian presents fascinating and little-known source material, and points to its implications for our understanding of the beginnings of modern colonization. At the same time, he makes an important contribution to current debates about the intellectual origins and nature of anthropological inquiry.

Drawing on travel accounts—most of them Belgian and German—published between 1878 and the start of World War I, Fabian describes encounters between European travelers and the Africans they met. He argues that the loss of control experienced by these early travelers actually served to enhance cross-cultural understanding, allowing the foreigners to make sense of strange facts and customs. Fabian's provocative findings contribute to a critique of narrowly scientific or rationalistic visions of ethnography, illuminating the relationship between travel and intercultural understanding, as well as between imperialism and ethnographic knowledge.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, Africa, exploration
status: read

official abstract (part):
With the advent of the Internet, language-centered anthropology—understood here as anthropology that conceives of research as communicative and mediated above all by language—faces a new situation. The conditions of recourse to ethnographic texts, the documents of fieldwork that are among our primary sources, have changed (or could change) radically. Traditional genres of anthropological writing (such as the scientific paper, the monograph, or the historical account) place limits on the uses of ethnographic texts (and even more so of audiovisual records); the new possibility we have of depositing these documents on web sites makes them present in ways that are bound to affect ethnographic writing.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cyberspace, Internet
status: partially read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, interactivity
status: read

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official abstract:
Despite the decentralized and unorganized nature of the web, we show that the web self-organizes such that communities of highly related pages can be efficiently identified based purely on connectivity. This discovery allows the identification of communities independent of, and unbiased by, the specific words used by authors. Applications include improved search engines, content filtering, and objective analysis of relationships within and between communities on the web.

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status: in my possession

official abstract:

review:
keywords: computergames, ideology
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status: partially read

keywords: computergames, violence
status: partially read

additional link: ↑newmediastudies.com
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keywords: fiction, cyberpunk
status: read, excerpted

keywords: cyberpunk, cultural appropriation
status: read, excerpted

keywords: cyberspace, cyberpunk, cultural appropriation
status: read, excerpted

keywords: fiction, cyberpunk
status: read, excerpted

keywords: fiction, steampunk
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keywords: computergames, violence, reality, virtuality, simulation
status: partially read

keywords: computergames, play
status: in my possession

official abstract:
Although videogames have only been in existence for a little over forty years, the influence they have had on popular culture has been extensive. Because technology has developed so fast, forty years has been long enough for nostalgia to develop, and with this a need for institutions to preserve and display videogames. Throughout the world a few pioneering institutions have done just this, and have created exhibitions, or even established a permanent museum to interpret and preserve videogames to an expanding segment of the public. By means of a case study approach, two of these organizations were examined and observed in order to create a categorical list of issues that these museums and exhibitions have faced. This study is a broad based research, opening doors for further research. Conclusively, this study includes a list of issues and subsequent questions in areas such as funding, exhibition design, education, visitor studies, competition, objective setting, and preservation.

keywords: computergames, history of technology
status: in my possession

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keywords: sociology, open source
status: in my possession

keywords: computergames, violence
status: read

keywords: open source, history of technology
status: partially read

keywords: computergames, movies, violence
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keywords: computergames, violence, weapons
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keywords: computergames, TPS, max payne
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keywords: sociocultural anthropology, globalization, glocalization, cultural adoption, technology
status: in my possession

official abstract:
Materielle Kultur hat in den letzten Jahren in zahlreichen kulturwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen an Bedeutung gewonnen. Nicht nur nach dem Objekt und seiner materiellen Form wird gefragt, sondern auch nach seinem Kontext. Die Einführung zeigt diese neuen Trends auf und erläutert die gemeinsamen Grundlagen in Bezug auf den Forschungsgegenstand und die Methoden.

Die Wahrnehmung unserer materiellen Umwelt, der Umgang mit den alltäglichen Dingen und ihre Bedeutungen sind Themen, die wenig mit der alten Tradition des Studiums materieller Kultur in der Ethnologie gemein haben. Die wissenschaftliche Behandlung dieser Themen sowie zahlreiche neue und umfassende Fallstudien haben in den letzten Jahrzehnten zu einem Boom der material culture studies geführt, der unter anderem in Ethnologie, Europäischer Ethnologie, Cultural Studies, Soziologie, Geschichte, Kunstgeschichte und Archäologie festzustellen ist.

Materielle Kultur fragt diesem neuen Paradigma zufolge nicht mehr nur nach dem Objekt und seiner materiellen Form selbst, sondern auch nach seinen Kontexten, die sich als ein wichtiger Schlüssel zur Erforschung des Alltags erweisen. Dabei ist es von zentraler Bedeutung, neben der ethnographischen Dokumentation Zugänge aus anderen Fächern für die Ethnologie und für das interdisziplinäre Studium materieller Kultur überhaupt nutzbar zu machen.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, material culture, appropriation
status: partially read

keywords:
status: in my possession

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keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cyberspace, Internet
status: read

keywords: computergames, history of technology
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keywords: sociocultural anthropology, economic anthropology, economy
status: read, excerpted

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official abstract:
Despite proposals by Kroeber and others that society and culture represent a distinct level of reality, the prevailing opinion has been that they are abstractions from the behavior of individuals. Recently that position, methodological individualism, has been challenged on several fronts. Especially with the incorporation of artificial intelligence into many aspects of social life, it is no longer feasible to consider the ultimate unit of social action to be the human individual. Bolstered with a case study of the consequences of automation for the legal profession, the argument here is that agency should be redefined in a more expansive and dynamic manner that includes but is not limited to the individual.

keywords:
status:

keywords:
status: read

keywords: ethnography, work, knowledge
status:

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, emic, etic
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, globalization, glocalization, cultural appropriation
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, globalization, glocalization, cultural appropriation
status: partially read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, Internet
status: read

keywords:
status:

official abstract:
Cybernetics is the science that studies the abstract principles of organization in complex systems. It is concerned not so much with what systems consist of, but how they function. Cybernetics focuses on how systems use information, models, and control actions to steer towards and maintain their goals, while counteracting various disturbances. Being inherently transdisciplinary, cybernetic reasoning can be applied to understand, model and design systems of any kind: physical, technological, biological, ecological, psychological, social, or any combination of those. Second-order cybernetics in particular studies the role of the (human) observer in the construction of models of systems and other observers.

keywords: cybernetics
status: read, marked, and excerpted

keywords: online ethnography
status: read and marked, partially excerpted

keywords:
status: read, marked, and excerpted

keywords:
status: excerpted

official abstract: ↑synopsis at wikipedia

review: ↑by David Pearce
keywords: fiction, cyberpunk
status: read

official description:
The Japanese term for mobile phone, keitai (roughly translated as "something you carry with you"), evokes not technical capability or freedom of movement but intimacy and portability, defining a personal accessory that allows constant social connection. Japan's enthusiastic engagement with mobile technology has become—along with anime, manga, and sushi—part of its trendsetting popular culture. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian, the first book-length English-language treatment of mobile communication use in Japan, covers the transformation of keitai from business tool to personal device for communication and play.

keywords: Japan, mobile devices
status:

official abstract:
This dissertation is a study of social interaction in virtual worlds and virtual world design. A virtual world is a synchronous, multi-user system that offers a persistent spatial environment for iconically represented participants. Together, these form an example of social interaction design. I have applied an arena perspective on my object of study, meaning that I focus on these sociotechnical systems as places.

I have investigated the persistent qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds. What I have found is that virtual worlds are as real as the physical world. They are filled with real people interacting with each other evoking real emotions and leading to real consequences. There are no fixed boundaries between the virtual and physical arenas that make up a participant's lifeworld.

I have found that participants in virtual worlds are not anonymous and bodiless actors on a level playing field. Participants construct everything needed to create social structures such as identities and status symbols. The qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds cannot be measured against physical interaction. Doing so conceals the qualities of virtual interaction. Through the concepts of levity and proximity, I offer an alternative measure that better captures the unique properties of the medium. Levity is related to the use of avatars and the displacement into a virtual context and manifests itself as a kind of lightness in the way participants approach the interaction. Proximity is my term for the transformation of social distances that takes place in virtual worlds. While participants perceive that they are in the same place despite being physically separated, the technology can also create barriers separating participants from their physical surroundings. The gap between the participant and her avatar is also of social significance.

As a theoretical foundation for design, I have used Michael Heim’s writings and practices as a base for a phenomenologically grounded approach, which provides an alternative to the dominating perspectives of architecture and engineering. Based on an explorative design project and the earlier mentioned findings regarding social interaction, I have formulated a model for virtual world design called interacture. This model takes the interaction between participants as the fundamental building material and the starting point of the design process. From there, layers of function and structure are added, all the time balancing the design between fantasy and realism.

I have explored the possibilities of using ethnographic studies as the foundation for a participant centered design approach. I have aimed for an inside view of my object of study both as an ethnographer and as a designer. One outcome of this approach is that I have come to understand virtual worlds not just as places but also as processes where the experience of participating can change drastically over time as the participant reaches new stages in the process.

In conclusion, the method of integrating ethnography with design and the understanding of social interaction as the fundamental building material is woven into a general approach to the study and design of socio-technical systems called social interaction design.

keywords: interaction design, virtual worlds, massively multiplayer online games, Internet studies, computer mediated communication, virtual reality, virtual ethnography, human-computer interaction, interacture, social interaction design
status: in my possession

keywords: games, play, computergames
status: read

keywords: psychology
status: read

official abstract:
An exploratory survey was undertaken about the appeal of playing video games at a Local Area Network (↵LAN) event where personal computers are linked in order to play both face-to-face and online. First, we wanted to know who the visitors of a LAN event were, because there is hardly any research available about this class of gamers. Second, we wanted to know why they participated in a LAN event. The survey showed that LAN gamers were almost exclusively male, with a mean age of 19.5 years. They devoted about 2.6 hours each day to gaming. They were motivated by social contact and a need to know more about games. The competition motive was third in the total sample. A subgroup of heavy gamers obtained a higher score on competition. This article emphasizes the importance of the social context of gaming and interprets its results as a nuance of the stereotype of the solitary, adolescent gamer.

keywords: computergames, LAN, multiplayer, gender differences, interactive media, motives
status: read

keywords:
status: read

keywords: computergames, violence
status: read

keywords:
status: read

keywords: cybernetics
status: read & marked

official description:
A video game is half-real: we play by real rules while imagining a fictional world. We win or lose the game in the real world but we slay a dragon (for example) only in the world of the game. In this thought-provoking study, Jesper Juul examines the constantly evolving tension between rules and fiction in video games. Discussing games from Pong to The Legend of Zelda, from chess to Grand Theft Auto, he shows how video games are both a departure from and a development of traditional non-electronic games. The book combines perspectives from such fields as literary and film theory, computer science, psychology, economic game theory, and game studies, to outline a theory of what video games are, how they work with the player, how they have developed historically, and why they are fun to play.

Locating video games in a history of games that goes back to Ancient Egypt, Juul argues that there is a basic affinity between games and computers. Just as the printing press and the cinema have promoted and enabled new kinds of storytelling, computers work as enablers of games, letting us play old games in new ways and allowing for new kinds of games that would not have been possible before computers. Juul presents a classic game model, which describes the traditional construction of games and points to possible future developments. He examines how rules provide challenges, learning, and enjoyment for players, and how a game cues the player into imagining its fictional world. Juul's lively style and eclectic deployment of sources will make Half-Real of interest to media, literature, and game scholars as well as to game professionals and gamers.

keywords: computergames, ludology
status: in my possession

keywords:
status: read & marked

keywords:
status: read

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status: read & marked

keywords:
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official abstract:
This article investigates the social, technical, and legal affiliations among "geeks" (hackers, lawyers, activists, and IT entrepreneurs) on the Internet. The mode of association specific to this group is that of a "recursive public sphere" constituted by a shared imaginary of the technical and legal conditions of possibility for their own association. On the basis of fieldwork conducted in the United States, Europe, and India, I argue that geeks imagine their social existence and relations as much through technical practices (hacking, networking, and code writing) as through discursive argument (rights, identities, and relations). In addition, they consider a "right to tinker" a form of free speech that takes the form of creating, implementing, modifying, or using specific kinds of software (especially Free Software) rather than verbal discourse.

keywords:
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official abstract:
As the title suggests, the feminist reception of Lara Croft as a game character has been ambivalent to say the least. The question itself presupposes an either/or answer, thereby neatly expressing the polarities around which most popular media and academic discussions of Lara Croft tend to revolve. It is a question that is often reduced to trying to decide whether she is a positive role model for young girls or just that perfect combination of eye and thumb candy for the boys. It is also increasingly difficult to distinguish between Lara Croft the character in Tomb Raider and Lara Croft the ubiquitous virtual commodity used to sell products as diverse as the hardware to play the game itself, Lucozade or Seat cars. What follows then is an analysis of the efficacy and limitations of existing feminist frameworks through which anunderstanding of the kinds of gendered pleasures offered by Lara Croft as games character and cultural icon can be reached. I will begin by analyzing Lara primarily as an object of representation—a visual spectacle—and then move on, considering the ways in which the act of playing Tomb Raider as Lara disrupts the relationship between spectator and "spectacle."

keywords: cultural studies, computergames, feminism
status: read

official abstract:
Walk through the doors of ↑id Software and meet the close-knit group of extraordinary designers behind the computer game that is being hailed as possibly the greatest ever made. Through exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes photos, and never-before-seen game art, you will discover what it takes to pull off an achievement of this magnitude. From initial conception to completed game comprised a four-year journey filled with hard work, setbacks, breakthroughs, and ultimate success. The team at id describe in their own words the inspirations and ideas behind the making of ↵DOOM 3.

keywords: Doom 3, first-person shooter
status: read

keywords: movies, horror
status: read

keywords: writing
status: read

keywords:
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official introduction:
According to Andrew Feenberg, we are living in an era that is increasingly defined by social conflicts centred on technology. This is so, not only in the narrow sense that individuals and groups are fighting for access to or control over technological, as distinct from natural resources. It is true in the more interesting sense that social actors contest the design and production of technology in the first place. What Feenberg calls the 'design critique' of technology has been operationalised by human beings with an interest in the form, purpose and social function of technical artefacts. This paper uses critical theory and ideas from some classical thinkers on political right to gain insight to the underlying politics of information technology design. Traditionally, critical theory has been suspicious of technology. Reservations about the role of experts in particular and their ability to skew social development in the direction of an oppressive instrumentalism, or an overweening systems sphere, unites all the Twentieth century critical theorists. In the computer age, it seems, the problem of expertise can be tackled. We can opt for 'easy to use' technology that will subvert the hold of experts over technology by facilitating control by ordinary, non-expert individuals. Alternatively, we can change human beings so that they become more technically adept. The former has been the dominant strategy and this has seen a subtle reinsertion of power into the politics of design, with the user friendly interface as a strategy. We need to do both—make technology accessible and make people more adept at using it—if we want to create the technological basis for a more rational way of life.

keywords: critical theory, technology, artefacts
status: partially read, ↵excerpted

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cultural appropriation, casemodding
status: read

official abstract:
The proliferation of combat themed online games like Quake, Asheron’s Call, WarCraft, EverQuest and Counterstike have cast a growing shadow across the consensual hallucination of the online gaming community. Our research employed qualitative and quantitative research tools to explore the social play experiences and attitudes of 700 on-line gamers. Our objective was to describe the dimensions of "agonic sociality" that have made multiplayer action adventure games into one of the fastest growing yet most troubling online communities in cyberspace by comparing the experiences of those who play EverQuest or Counterstrike. The respondents included many devoted gamers, one quarter of whom reported playing more than 25 hours each week and 87% of whom agree that people become addicted to the games. In terms of their preferred social experiences these gamers fell into four archetypes; the warrior, the narrator, the strategist, and the interactor. Nearly half the respondents report that they have been in conflict with family or friends over their online gaming, yet continue to play. We concluded that the attractions of this highly popular genre lay in the complex blending of social affiliation, role play, strategy simulation and combat that gamers experienced on line.

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, online gaming
status: partially read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, trickster, mythology, reality, constructivism, phenomenology, play, satire, history
status: written by myself

keywords: cyberspace, real, virtual, constructivism
status: written by myself

official abstract:
Along with the unleashing of new media, hitting the streets almost globally in an accelerating pace, new fields for anthropology unfolded. In particular services based on the Internet-infrastructure gave rise to a new phenomenon of interest: online communities. The latters' spaces of interaction and 'habitats' are constituted by mediating technologies. This paper strives to communicate two points. Firstly the issue of the complementary utilization of a wealth of channels of interaction, both asynchronous, synchronous, and even parallel, sometimes dubbed multitasking. The essential questions within this argument are asking for the particular qualities of these channels as perceived by the practitioners, and for the latters' management and use of them. Secondly the fact that the community's terrain is not restricted to an infrastructure at a given time, and its social cohesion does not ultimately depend upon the maintenance and existence of particular loci of interaction. The community can only be grasped in terms of a social body, as it can neither be localized in topograpical space, nor pinpointed to particular conceptual spaces induced by information and communication technologies (ICTs). "My tribe" is nomadizing within cyberspace. The paper is empirically based upon fieldwork which started in early 2002 and is still going on, particularly in the shape of 'thick participation' (↵Spittler 2001) within a transnational technoludic online community of practice. By means of selected examples it will be shown that anthropological methods and concepts are perfectly suited to not only grasp the shape and structure of online communities, but also to get access to, and ultimately gain understanding of the social and cultural practices surrounding new media.

keywords: computergames, mods, modding, modders, online community, sociocultural appropriation
status: written by myself

keywords:
status: read

keywords: online communities, gift economy
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, computergames, MMORPG, persistent state worlds
status: read

keywords: computergames, game design, game development
status:

official abstract:
Something significant is happening at the turn of the millenium—the transition of mankind into a new anthropological space, which the French Philosopher Pierre Lévy refers to as the "Space of Knowledge". As a consequence of the exponential growth of the Internet and the WorldWideWeb in the sense of a new global communication tool, for the first time in human history the collective participation in the imagination and knowledge of our entire species is made possible. This new virtual space, "Cyberspace", is increasingly occupied by human intelligences from all around the world, and has become the focus of a new anthropological discipline, called "CyberAnthropology". This paper discusses certain aspects of the rapidly growing "Cyberculture" in the context of the four anthropological spaces, and proposes to correlate the new virtual realities with the old worlds of religious/spiritual imagination and experiences.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cyberanthropology, cyberculture, cyberspace
status:

keywords: virtual reality
status: in my possession

official abstract: ↑long abstract in English

keywords: computergames, ludology, narratology
status: in my possession

official abstract:
The following paper is part of a larger analytical study of various contexts of computer games. Here, I elaborate on the method on which I base my study of the semiotic process constituted by playing a computer game. This method is derived from a critique of earlier approaches to the field from the perspective of literary and media studies. While most of these approaches employ a twolevel model with undeniable roots in structuralist narratology, the model suggested here is based on the constructivist concept of viability. This presupposes a change of perspective from "naïve objectivity" to informed subjectivity.

keywords: computergames, literary studies, cybernetic system, semiotics, aesthetics
status: in my possession

official abstract:
How can cheating in computer games be approached theoretically? As of yet, theorists have shunned the subject of cheats, maybe because of its elusive nature. Furthermore, cheats have a tendency to destabilize carefully balanced theories. If, for example, one regards digital games as cybertextual objects, as some theorists do, it becomes immediately obvious that cheats offer a convenient way of decreasing the effort it takes to traverse the text. Therefore, a theoretical approach to cheating must take the context of games into account. Games should be regarded not only as texts, in which cheats can be used to skip certain passages, a practice known as tmesis, but also as media that foster new forms of symbolic interaction between individuals, and as cybernetic systems, in which cheating performs a sort of 're-entry' of the environment into the system itself. Thus, by borrowing concepts from literary studies, media studies and systems theory, we should be able to gain new insights into a largely neglected part of gaming culture.

keywords: computergames, cheating, gaming culture
status: in my possession

keywords: computergames, mods, modding, modders, modification
status: read

official abstract:
Cyberspace invites the rethinking of the concepts culture and location. But it also demands a re-examination of the idea of 'the field' in virtual-or what is also called cyber-ethnography. This article focuses on one way of locating the field in cyberspace by exploring the concept of home as it is conceptualized by the ethnographer and imagined and negotiated by those with whom she works. The article suggests a critical way of approaching belonging on-line, and examines the epistemological position of anthropology at home when applied to cyberspace. On a theoretical level, this article brings together the growing field of cyber-studies and critical feminist and post-colonial perspectives.

keywords:
status: in my possession

official abstract:
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: ↑John Carmack and ↑John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart.

Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.

keywords: computergames, first-person shooter, history of technology, gaming culture
status: read and marked

keywords: computergames, mods, modding, modders, modification
status: read

keywords: computergames, art
status: read

review: ↵Rau 2004
keywords: computergames, hardware, history of technology
status:

keywords: virtual reality
status: read

"Request [by J. D. Lasica]: At this early stage, feel free to link to this blog's main page, but I'm asking that you not excerpt material from the book for an entry on your own blog. This is an experiment in trust. Most authors who use the Web place their draft chapters behind a firewall. At a later date, we'll post a considerable amount of material from the book on this site—as well as a great deal of material not included in the book—at which time we'll open it up to the blog community. But for now, this site is set up only for collaborative editing and nothing else."

Manuscript available online:
http://www.darknet.com/ [blog]
http://www.socialtext.net/darknet/index.cgi [wiki]

keywords: computergames, MMORPG, persistent state worlds, law
status: read

keywords:
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keywords: sociocultural anthropology, play, chess
status: read

official abstract:

keywords: computergames, history of technology
status:

keywords: computer, notebook, laptop, hardware, history of technology
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, open source
status: partially read

official abstract:
Developers of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) are often referred to as a community or as a scene. But so far this seems mostly just a rough expression. This paper takes a closer look at FLOSS developers and their projects to find out how they work, what holds them together and how they interact. Community and social movement seem not to apply as descriptors. Looking at norms, values, structures, and conflict resolution, a hacker subculture appears which is compartmentalised into differently organised projects. By testing empirical findings against various theoretical approaches, ideas for further research are identified.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, open source
status: partially read

keywords: Internet, history of technology
status: read, excerpted

keywords: fiction, fantastic, literary theory
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, technology
status: read, excerpted

review: ↵Brezina 1983
keywords: sociology, sport
status:

keywords: law, culture, copyright, intellectual property
status: read & marked

keywords: history of technology, computer
status: read

keywords:
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keywords:
status: read & marked

official abstract:
The book describes important events from more than four decades of history of the computer and video games. On that basis it approaches the nature of games. It described the developed genres, the differences and similarities between computer and video games, the interactions with literature and film, the different traditions of storytelling in games and the status of the authors. In the end the economic, social and cultural meaning of games is discussed.

review: ↵Rau 2004
keywords: computergames, history of technology
status: read and marked

official abstract:
This review considers the following questions: Why is the city undertheorized in anthropology? Why is an anthropological voice rarely heard in the urban studies and urban policy discourses. Anthropological literature published since 1989 is reviewed, with an emphasis on contributions to urban theory and the locating of anthropological studies within the broader context of urban studies. The city is found not to be absent in anthropological theory, but it has had no major theoretical impact. The images of the ethnic city, divided city, deindustrialized city, and global city have been most influential, as has research in the areas of racism, migration, poststructural studies and critiques of architecture and urban planning. The literature continues to focus on the links between the experience of individuals and sociopolitical and economic processes as well as on the cultural meaning of the urban environment. The newest areas of inquiry include the study of urban space and time, metropolitan knowledge, and ethnoaesthetics.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, urban anthropology
status: partially read

keywords: computergames, gaming culture, machinima, performance, creativity, artistic expression
status: read

official abstract:
Machinima is the making of animated movies in real time through the use of computer game technology. The projects that launched machinima embedded gameplay in practices of performance, spectatorship, subversion, modification, and community. This article is concerned primarily with the earliest machinima projects. In this phase, DOOM and especially Quake movie makers created practices of game performance and high-performance technology that yielded a new medium for linear storytelling and artistic expression. My aim is not to answer the question, "are games art?", but to suggest that game-based performance practices will influence work in artistic and narrative media.

keywords: computergames, machinima, Doom, Quake, speedrunning, mods, modding, modders
status: read, excerpted, and completely digested

keywords: material culture, things, objects, artefacts
status:

official abstract:
This article offers a new concept of cyberculture based on an analysis of structures of cybercultural narrations. The author sums up previous concepts of cyberculture and offers an account of the distinction between early and current cyberculture. Thereafter he focuses solely on early cyberculture and offers its definition and historical periodization. The thesis deals with early cyberculture as a wide social and cultural movement closely linked to advanced information and communication technologies (ICT), their emergence and development and their cultural colonization.

keywords: media studies, cyberculture
status: read & marked

official abstract:
This bibliographic review is a first attempt at collecting together a body of literature relevant to the study of intercultural communication in cyberspace. It explores and summarizes themes and arguments in current literature relating to 'the culture(s) of the Internet', 'the language of cyberspace', 'intercultural communication on the Internet',' identity and community in cyberspace', 'culture and education in cyberspace' and 'the impact of the Internet on culture(s)'. The survey offers
- an overview of current research and theoretical contributions identified in each area
- an extensive annotated bibliography that includes abstracts or summaries of each contribution
It also identifies the most pressing issues in the field as well as gaps in current knowledge and understanding.

keywords: Internet, cyberspace, cultures, transcultural, transnational
status:

keywords: material culture, technology
status:

official abstract:
The Internet is a heterogeneous network of millions of computers that is continuously evolving. The interaction among people around the world on the Internet has led to the formation of communities. Technical communities are groups who share a common interest in a technology. The literature on technology communities lacks a conceptual understanding of the roles of various players in the online community. An understanding of the different roles the members of the community assume at different phases, and the impact of the roles on knowledge management is crucial to manage and sustain such online technical communities.

This study based on an ethnographic analysis of two technical communities, identifies seven distinct roles: core organiser, experts, problem poser, implementer, integrator, institutionaliser, and philosopher. The impact of each of the roles on knowledge management activities is discussed.

keywords: technology communities, online communities, roles, knowledge generation
status: read

official abstract:
This review discusses anthropological research that analyzes the practices through which individuals and groups produce music, video, film, visual arts, and theater, and the ideological and institutional frameworks within which these processes occur. Viewing these media and popular culture forms as arenas in which social actors struggle over social meanings and as visible evidence of social processes and social relations, this research addresses the social, political, and aesthetic dimensions of these productions. The review considers the ways these studies treat the material and discursive practices of cultural producers as complex, often contradictory, sites of social reproduction and as potential sites of social transformation. It also considers the ways this research responds to the challenges associated with conducting fieldwork and producing ethnography in and about a global economy and "media-saturated" world.

keywords: media, popular culture, cultural politics, cultural production, representation
status: in my possession

keywords:
status: read

official abstract:
This paper describes the findings of the ethnographical research concentrating on multiplayer games. The overall goal is to study the interaction in these networked multimedia environments. The focus is in finding out how the player teams interact and whether the current games provide enough possibilities for team interaction, either inside the game world or supported by real world communication. The research methods used are qualitative. The end-users were interviewed using open-ended and semi-structured interviews and the game playing sessions were observed. The main objective is to acquire general understanding of team interactions in the context of the research. The preliminary analysis indicate that, according to the players, the support for team interaction in action games is adequate. However, the players tend to communicate outside the game system. Furthermore, the players tend overcome the limitations of the systems by inventing various imaginative ways to communicate, co-ordinate and co-operate. This indicates that there is a need for additional interaction support. Especially the more serious team-oriented tasks seem to require seamless multi-modal interactions to guarantee the success of the team.

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, interaction
status: read

official abstract:
In order to promote richer interaction within Networked Virtual Environment applications, the ambiguous and highly subjective meanings assigned to the word "interaction" require explicit description. The aim of this work is to use ethnographical and constructivist approaches applied to multi-player 3D games domain in order to create a tentative taxonomy and corresponding hierarchical model of interaction in the context of Networked Virtual Environments. The results can be considered as the first step of research towards understanding and innovatively applying the concept of rich interaction. The primary contribution of the models and findings to the people working in areas of human-computer interaction, virtual environments, digital media, and human behaviour is a set of boundaries that direct the discussion and work to the aspects requiring further research.

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, virtual environment, behaviour, action, taxonomy, simulation
status: read

keywords: socicultural anthropology, ethnography, literary criticism
status: read & marked

keywords:
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keywords: communication science, ethnography, cyberspace, Internet, virtuality
status:

keywords: anthropology, cybernetics, virtuality
status: read & marked

keywords:
status: in my possession

official abstract:
This paper analyzes the role of Internet Discussion Groups (IDGs) in informal academic communication. It examines the claims in the literature that there are general benefits of academic mailing lists and newsgroups for researchers. Different hypotheses relating to potential contact and information benefits are tested with data of a random sample of English and Dutch university researchers within the humanities, the social and natural sciences. The outcomes support hypotheses about a few information effects and, more often, contact benefits of IDGs. Researchers build up weak contacts that make their research more visible and that make them more aware of other researchers’ work. These weak contacts are useful for the reception of new research papers. As a result, IDGs provide access to social capital. However, contrary to what is stated in the literature, the data shows no evidence for expectations about equalizing effects on the general structure of academic communication. IDGs do not reduce inequalities in the opportunities to use informal communication channels.

keywords: academic communication, Internet discussion group, social capital
status: in my possession

keywords: comics, graphic novels, art
status:

keywords:
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keywords:
status: in my possession

keywords:
status: read

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official abstract:
Various spatial metaphors related to cyberspace suffer from two major de. ciencies. First, they do not take into account that cyberspace is not a preexistent territory,but an entity that emerges in the process of its development. Second, cyberspace is not a metric space, so that most of the ready-made constructs, like the topologic spaces, cannot be of much use. An interpretation of Blake's works helps one to understand that cyberspace is not a purely spatial entity; it also involves time, but not in the sense of Einstein's special relativity theory. The cyber space-time continuum is not a void waiting to be .controlled, but an aggregation of places (sites) that, similarly to Blake's plates, are multimedia architectures resulting from the blend of space and time.

keywords: Blake, cyberspace, multimedia, vortex, World 3
status: in my possession

official abstract:
This review contends that the study of consumption and commodities represents a major transformation in the discipline of anthropology. It documents this metamorphosis by examining how the debate on gifts and commodities transcended its original formulation as good versus evil. It then examines the recent growth and maturity of material culture studies and nascent developments that may give rise to a political economy of consumption. It notes, however, that there is still a paucity of ethnographic research specifically devoted to these topics. The review concludes by arguing that the study of consumption and commodities is particularly close to traditiones established in the study of kinship and it may come to replace kinship as the core of anthropology, even though the two topics often have been viewed as antithetical.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, material culture, artefacts, things, political economy, housing, clothing, food
status: in my possession

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, ethnography, cyberspace, Internet
status:

keywords: sociocultural anthropology
status:

official abstract:
This paper explores some of the areas of intersection between videogames and both digital and non-digital art practice. By looking at examples of art practice drawn from videogames, it outlines some categories and so provides an overview of this area, placing it within the wider context of contemporary and historical art practice. The paper explores the tendency for much of this work to have elements of subversion or "détournement", whilst also identifying areas of tension in the appropriation of videogames as material for art practice

keywords: computergames, videogames, art, digital art, appropriation, subversion, patch, mod, mods, modders, modding, modification, machinima
status: read

keywords:
status: read & marked

official abstract:
This article examines the process of expressing oneself in cyberspace through the metaphor of 'voice', by drawing a similarity between the process of speaking and the presentation of the self in cyberspace. The metaphor of voice allows the examination of expressions in cyberspace in a dialogic manner and demonstrates a unique voice that can be produced with the technology of cyberspace. This is a voice that is heteroglossic and hyperconnected, and in the case of the marginalized, this voice has the potential of producing a call that the dominant has a moral obligation to acknowledge. Consequently, the metaphor of voice in cyberspace problematizes the relation between the marginal and the dominant by initiating a crisis of acknowledgment on the part of the dominant. Ultimately, this approach allows for the re-examination and re-invention of the notion of cyber communities and their role in the public sphere. These issues are developed by using Indian diasporic websites as evidence to support the arguments.

keywords: diaspora, immigration, Internet, marginalization, voice, world wide web
status: in my possession

official abstract:
Underground innovation communities, such as hackers and computer game modifiers have formed a unique type of information sharing community. As the nature of their communitions evolved to take advantage of new technologies like computer Bulletin Boards and the Internet, the social structure of these communities evolved as well. Understanding how these communities are internally socially divided into innovative "Elites" and follower "Kiddies" can shed important light on these influential, if sometimes destructive, underground electronic communities.

keywords: computergames, mods, modders, modding, modding communities, hackers, phreakers, elites, kiddies, computer crime, underground communities, user innovation
status: read

official abstract:
Many complicated, proprietary systems attract a community of underground innovators who explore and alter them—and not always in ways that manufacturers appreciate. These individuals have little regard for the business models that companies have carefully devised to profit from those systems. Instead, they are driven by utility, curiosity and occasionally even anger, bypassing technical and legal safeguards in their drive to explore. Called by different names—hackers, phreakers, crackers and modders, among them—these underground innovators have complex and often antagonistic relationships with the companies whose products they modify. Indeed, in many cases the underground innovation triggers a war between the community and the company. But if handled properly, it also can lead to cooperation between the two parties, potentially resulting in new business models and novel products. To achieve that, though, companies first need to understand how underground communities operate.

Underground groups typically contain two distinct classes: elites and kiddies. "Elite" is a term reserved for those who truly innovate—the wizards who understand the inner workings of a proprietary system and are able to make it do things never intended by its developers. "Kiddie" is short for "script kiddie," signifying someone who does not truly understand a system but merely uses tools created by the elites to exploit the system in some way. Most companies make the mistake of treating elites and kiddies the same way, often alienating those who might make positive contributions. A more effective approach is to nurture the constructive elites, rewarding and even supplying them with tools to encourage their efforts, all while deploying more aggressive means to thwart the destructive kiddies.

keywords: computergames, mods, modders, modding, modding communities, hackers, phreakers, elites, kiddies, computer crime, underground communities, user innovation
status:

↑official abstract:
In his book, Christian STEGBAUER disputes the conventional wisdom concerning the disappearance of social frontiers and, therefore, structures, via computer-mediated communication. Theoretically well founded and analytically convincing, he takes the magic away from popular myths concerning disappearing structures. He shows new (and old) frontiers and, therefore, structures, in Internet-based discussion forums. STEGBAUER underpins his hypothesis by using network analysis. In all mailing lists he identifies comparatively stable centre-periphery and limited-period sub-group structures, which apply to selected themes.

keywords: sociology, computer-mediated communication, new media, network analysis, Internet-based communication forum, principles of structure
status: in my possession

official abstract:
This paper will focus on the inter-relationships between media, technology and culture as demonstrated by the online multiplayer FPS scene, and will make explicit the degree to which game texts and associated technology facilitate culture and the formation of community, and how in turn such social structures inflect and determine the development of computer games, related Internet technologies and subsequent models for software development and distribution. Beyond the idea of "participatory media", I argue that multiplayer FPS games have become "co-creative media"; neither developers nor players can be solely responsible for production of the final assemblage regarded as "the game", it requires the input of both.

keywords: computergames, online games, multiplayer, first-person shooter, gaming culture, co-creative media, mod scene, mods, modders, modding, Quake, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, game development
status: read

official abstract:
As a new and emerging research area, computer games demand the development of new theoretical frameworks for research and analysis. In addition to the specific requirements of a new medium, the advent and rapidly rising popularity of multiplayer computer gaming creates further challenges for researchers when the text under analysis forms a locus for human interaction—structuring and mediating communication between large numbers of people, and spawning social practices and identifications within a cultural economy extending beyond the game itself. While multiplayer gaming practices develop within existing social, cultural, technological and economic structures, they are also producing significant shifts within these structures.

Here I will be discussing the gaming practices surrounding multiplayer, first-person shooter (FPS) computer games such as Quake III Arena [&crarrID Software 1999] and Half-Life Counter-Strike [↵Minh Le & Cliffe 2000]. Since the mid-1990s, a large and remarkably cohesive online community has developed around these games, involving hundreds of thousands of players, with up to 100,000 FPS gamers actively playing online at any one time (http://www.gamespy.com/stats, Mar 5, 2003). In addition to actual gameplay, the FPS community engages in practices of game development, criticism, commentary, debate, information exchange, file-sharing and social organisation. Online access to open-source game development tools, the provision of venues for distribution and publicity of player-generated game content and modifications, the use of the online community in game testing, and increased communication between game development companies and players are currently shifting the boundaries between the traditional roles of media producers and consumers and changing the ways in which these games are made. Study of the practices surrounding multiplayer FPS games can provide insight into new and emerging models of media production, consumption and distribution, play, community formation and challenges to existing structures of social and economic power.

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, game culture, gaming communities
status:

keywords:
status: in my possession

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, MMORPG, persistent state worlds, flow
status: in my possession

official abstract:
This paper briefly discusses the theories of flow by Csikzentmihalyi and seduction by Baudrillard in relation to player experience in multi-user games. It tests the theories lossely against player statements related to th epleasures of multi-player games. The aim of the article is to tentatively explore two seemingly opposing theories which have both been used to explain the attraction of gaming, and to uncover wether they are mutually exclusive, ready for peaceful cohabitation or if they really say the same thing.

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, flow, seduction, MUD, players
status: in my possession

keywords: blogs, weblogs, personal knowledge publication
status: in my possession

keywords: Internet, www, html, http, history of technology, philosophy of technology
status: read, partially excerpted

keywords:
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↑official abstract:
Computerspiele, die mit anderen über das Internet gespielt werden, rufen regelmäßig Aufregung bei Familien und Erziehern hervor. Dabei stellen sich zwei Fragen: Jugendliche werden von der Attraktivität der virtuellen Welten angezogen und verbringen ihre Freizeit in der Interaktion mit dem Rechner, und nunmehr—via Internet—mit anderen Mitspielern in künstlichen Welten. Bringt dies nicht zum einen eine Isolation der Individuen mit sich, die verlernen, mit ihren Nächsten umzugehen beziehungsweise eine Virtualisierung des anderen, die es einem erlaubt, ihn wie eine Person im Spiel zu behandeln? Zum anderen: Öffnet die Gewaltförmigkeit einiger dieser Spiele nicht Tür und Tor für das Überschwappen gewalttätiger Verhaltensweisen in das 'Real Life'? Eine Erkenntnis aus Studien zu diesem Thema lautet, dass Heranwachsende generell zwischen der Fiktion des Spiels und der Realität des Alltags unterscheiden. Die Gewalt bleibt für die kurze Zeit der Konfrontation in die Grenzen des virtuellen Spielfeldes eingerahmt. Eine Reise durch dieses Universum lässt—am Rande des Spieles—sogar wieder originäre Formen der Geselligkeit entstehen: Treffen mit Freunden, Organisierung in Clans und Zusammenkünfte, um Wettkämpfe abzuhalten.

keywords: computergames, violence
status: read & marked

official abstract:
This paper investigates the information needs of anthropologists to inform the design of a portal, ↑AnthroSource. AnthroSource will digitize the publications of the ↑American Anthropological Association and provide services for anthropologists and others who use anthropological materials.

keywords:
status: read

keywords: Internet, history of technology
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official abstract:
The aim of this paper is to mainly look at the current trends regarding co-created content for First Person Shooter games. The question what constitutes a mod and if there is a need for a definition of mods seems neglected by many authors who simply use the term 'mod' for a wide array of user-created game texts. The agency of gamers and the power they can wield when they are collaborative results in implications in relation to the game industry and the content and themes of user-created game modifications. Analysis of the Unreal Universe show game developers and game publishers tapping into the open-source ethos of mod communities and appropriating and institutionalising the mod community. The Battlefield franchise shows the creative energy of modders using original themes in a creative fashion but also the implications of using existing Intellectual Property.

keywords: computergames, first-person shooter, mods, modding, modders, Unreal universe, Battlefield franchise
status: in my possession

official abstract:
Trained as a philosopher, I am nevertheless increasingly drawn toward the science and engineering of information technology in my work on its ethical, social, and political dimensions. I trace this interest back to a research project on computer systems’ bias with Batya Friedman ("Bias in Computer Systems," ACM Trans. Information Systems, July 1996, pp. 340-346). A compelling and mysterious idea emerged from this project: Computer and information systems can embody values. I found this idea so compelling that it has all but hijacked the path of my work since then, forcing me to grapple with devilishly complex technological details. Its mystery lies in seeing values as part of technology, a perspective not usually adopted by scholars and researchers who study the social, ethical, and political aspects of information technology.

keywords: computer, values
status: in my possession

keywords: ethics and information technology, hacking/cracking, free software, intellectual property, Internet, Linux, open source, political protest
status:

official abstract:
This is my Masters thesis on the culture of the Usenet newsgroups. It was written way back in 1993–94 (before the widespread use of the web) at Curtin University of Technology and is an interesting look at the origins of Net culture. In a nutshell, the thesis is an anthropological look at the culture of the Internet and Usenet. I was interested in whether or not the Net could be thought of as a society and, if so, what would be revealed if it was anthropologically studied in much the same ways that mainstream societies are.

research questions:
1. Do the users of the Internet and Usenet global computer networks form a society with its own distinct culture?
And, if so, ...
2. What are the key aspects of the culture of the Internet and Usenet global computer networks?
3. (a) What elements of this culture (if any) have an empowering or supportive effect on new users of the networks? (b) What elements of this culture (if any) have a discouraging or negative effect on new users of the networks? (c) What measures can be taken to enhance or overcome these empowering and discouraging elements of the culture with the intent of easing the process of enculturation for new users (particularly with regard to those new users within the tertiary education scene)?

keywords:
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official abstract:
The study of social worlds built by people on computer networks challenges the classical dimensions of sociological research. CMC scholars are prompted to exploit the possibilities offered by new, powerful, and flexible analytic tools for inexpensively collecting, organizing, and exploring digital data. Such tools could be used within a Weberian perspective, to aid in systematic examination of logs and messages taken from the actual life of a virtual community. A proposal can then be made for a longitudinal strategy of research which systematically compares specific aspects of virtual communities over different periods of time and different socio-geographical contexts. The article summarizes a case study on an Italian computer conference, and concludes with a short outline of the new graphical CMC environments and their consequences for the rise of a multimedia cyber-anthropology.

keywords: cyberanthropology, online communities, online research, methodology
status: read, partially excerpted

keywords: weblogs, blogs, personal knowledge publication, open content, open research
status: read and excerpted

official abstract:
As videogame scholarship takes hold in the academy, attracting the attention of researchers and critics from a variety of disciplines, a frequently asked and salient question is, "What existing theoretical frameworks are appropriate for this nascent field?" This short essay argues that Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch's article, "Television as a Cultural Forum," provides a useful starting point for conceptualizing the social meaningfulness of online, multiplayer gaming. Skins, mods, fan sites, and in-game communication channels emerge as a cultural network by which players can speak through, and about, their communal play.

keywords: forum, fans, online, multiplayer, mods, modding, modders, modification, skins, television
status: read

official abstract:
For the past decade, virtual reality has been the domain of an elite group of researchers. Artists who wished to explore the medium were forced to form creative alliances with Universities, private research centers such as Interval Research, art centers in Europe and Canada, such as Ars Electronica in Austria and the Banff Centre in Canada, and even the military. But the advent of rapid acceleration in the computer game industry has virtually overnight opened up the artistic potential of real time 3D to a wider array of creators. Personal computer and console hardware can now take on the graphics processing muscle power formerly relegated to high-end supercomputers, and game companies have begun to make their game engines available to a gamers "Modding," "skinning," and "patching" have become popular pastimes for game hackers, but they have also made real time 3D graphics available to a new generation of digital art-makers. These artists are operating independently or in small collectives to create bold new visions for what real time 3D can be as both an artistic medium and a form of popular culture. Much like the early days of video art, this often edgy work is subverting the corporate and mass culture framework of gaming and taking real time 3D to new dimensions. This panel presents a group of emerging artists at the leading edge of the game art movement, each of whom will present recent work and discuss his or her work methodology.

keywords: mod, mods, modding, modders, hacker art
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keywords: sociocultural anthropology, otherness, difference, anthropology in context
status: partially read

keywords: open source, software
status: read

keywords: computergames, game content, violence, law
status: read

keywords: activity systems, technological change, sociotechnical systems, ritual, artifacts
status: read

official abstract:
This article examines the technological construction of political power, as well as resistance to political power, by means of an "ideal-typical" model called technological drama. In technological regularization, a design constituency creates artifacts whose features reveal an intention to shape the distribution of wealth, power, or status in society. The design constituency also creates myths, social contexts, and rituals to legitimate its intention and constitute the artifact's political impact. In reply, the people adversely affected by regularization engage in myth-, context-, or artifact-altering strategies that represent an accommodation to the system (technological adjustment) or a conscious attempt to change it (technological reconstitution). A technological drama, in short, is a specifically technological form of political discourse. A key point is that throughout all three processes, political "intentions," no less than the facticity and hardness of the technology's "impact," are themselves constituted and constructed in reciprocal and discursive interaction with technological activities. Technology is not politics pursued by other means; it is politics constructed by technological means.

keywords: technology, appropriation
status: read

official abstract:
Computerspiele bestimmen die Lage auf Millionen privater Bildschirme. Seit einem Vierteljahrhundert sind sie keine Angelegenheit von Labors, Militärberatern oder Subkulturen mehr, sondern erzeugen und erhalten populäre Medienverbünde, deren Umsätze diejenigen Hollywoods in den Schatten stellen. Pädagogen zeigen sich allerorts besorgt, die Kulturwissenschaften allmählich interessiert, und es gibt die ersten Computerspiel-Museen.

Doch niemand hat bisher die einfachste aller Fragen gestellt: Warum gibt es Computerspiele? Denn Computerspiele (wie wir sie kennen) kamen unbestellt und sind schon darum alles andere als eine Selbstverständlichkeit. Was jedoch ist das für ein merkwürdiges Datum und wo ist der Ort, an dem völlig heterogene Gerätschaften, Körper und Symboliken (lange vorbereitet und dennoch plötzlich) zu einem Spiel gänzlich neuer Art zusammenfinden? Was für ein Wissen ist es, das Techniken, Institutionen und Maschinen durchquert und sich zu bestimmen anschickt, was die Spiele des Menschen heute sind?

keywords: computergames, history of technology
status: partially read

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official abstract:
The combination of low-cost access to increasingly powerful computing and networking capabilities combined with a deregulated Internet has facilitated the rapid development of a new social phenomena, that of the online community. The potential for near universal Internet access and the ability to communicate at costs lower than ever before in human existence has facilitated the development of online communities which work to fulfill two basic human desires, first, to reach out and connect to other human beings and secondly to obtain knowledge.
This paper examines the concept and practice of online communities: first, by establishing an understanding of their historical and technological roots; and then by developing a threedimensional taxonomy through which the properties of the communities can be examined. Case study examples are utilized to illustrate the community types within the taxonomy.

keywords: Internet, online communites, networks, cyberspace, world wide web
status: in my possession

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, economy
status: read

official book description:
For many, videogames are still viewed as a minor form of entertainment, shallow at best, harmful at worst. In this groundbreaking book, Steven Poole draws on movies, painting, history, and literature to analyze what he calls the "inner life" of videogames. Traveling to Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Cannes, he interviews leading figures in the industry, including Jeremy Smith, head of Core Design (home of Lara Croft) and Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari. Tracing their history in order to predict where they are headed, he argues that videogames are a revolutionary force in popular culture. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, videogames are where movies were at the dawn of the twentieth. With increasing investments of talent, capital, and technological creativity, they will become an art form in their own right.

keywords: computergames
status: in my possession

official abstract:
One of the key properties of the digital game genre is the proliferation of player-produced content and artifacts. The reworking of original game materials is an integral part of game culture that can not be ignored in the study of these games. this thesis explores player-production as a mode of authorship resulting from the agency of the game player. Agency—as attributed, contextualized power to affect meaningful change&mdahs;is a common subject of analysis in interactive media research. This thesis argies that authorship in the digital game environment lies at the interection of designer/player agencies. At the level of player-created game artifacts, the player's agency exzends beyond an instantiation of the designer's agency to the authorship of a new artifact. These artifacts, in turn, become vessels of the player's agency, and play a key role in the social validation of their role as authors.

This work reflects a reality that digital games are malleable, loosely bounded, and socially validated and defined. Rhetorical criticism is used as a methodology for examining player-produced artifacts: demonstrating how the exchange and interpretation of meaning in this environment represents player agency and authorship, and how these meanings are dramatized through player-production. The artifacts reveal specific themes that speak to the construction of agency, including the opposition or extension of the primary author, and the legitimacy, ownership and access players assume as part of the role of player-producer. These player works demonstrate a common underlying structure which both reflects the community at large and the individual social realities of the players: that of player agency via authorship.

This relationship between the game designer and player provides a new framework from which to examine the production and exchange of meaning in digital games. This framework suggests further inquiry both inward, into the game experience, and outward, into explorations of mass culture. It also puts forth rhetorical criticism as a methodology in game research, and provides an important documentation of emegring modes of player-production.

keywords: computergames, mods, modders, modifications, agency
status: in my possession

official abstract:
One of the more interesting and distinct aspects of digital games is the proliferation of player produced artifacts. The reworking of original game materials is an integral part of game culture that cannot be ignored in the study of these games. This paper explores player authorship in digital games through the rhetoric of select peace-themed game modifications.

keywords: computergames, mods, modding, modders, modification, participatory culture, protest, player-author, authorship, agency
status: read

official abstract:
One of the more interesting and distinct aspects of the digital game genre is the proliferation of player-produced content and artifacts. The reworking of original game materials is an integral part of game culture that can not be ignored in the study of these games. This paper explores playerproduction as a mode of authorship reflecting the agency of the game player.

keywords: computergames, mods, modding, modders, modification, participatory culture, protest, player-author, authorship, agency
status: read

official abstract:
In the closing weeks of 2002, video games were featured in various popular American news publications and media outlets such as Wired, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek and Time Magazine. It is becoming increasingly apparent that video games are no longer child’s play, but rather that they are poised to become a major entertainment form for the twenty-first century. Social analysts and media scholars must begin to formulate an understanding of this emerging mass-consumer phenomenon because it will increasingly impact social and economic structures of post-industrial societies. Part of the tremendous value generated by the American video-game industry is tied into broad global economic shifts that have created a space where services and ephemeral products, such as software, can be created and cheaply distributed. The predominance of 'high-tech' production, the rise of the Internet, and the cultural capital associated with computerization all have contributed to the rise of hobbyist software developers that currently tinker with commercial video games and freely add to them increasing levels of sophistication. This paper sees videogame programmer hobbyists as a source of some of the significant value that the video-game industry generates, and understands the role of the programmer hobbyists through the lens of theories on post-industrial work. My analysis situates the work of hobbyists on the Internet within the context of post- Fordism and explores some of the motivations for this unwaged work. In the sections that follow, I will analyse the potential value of the work hobbyist do as well as analyse its transition to paid work as some commercial software developers experiment with incorporating these fan bases into the game design process.

keywords: computergames, unwaged work, mods, modders, modifications, hackers
status:

official abstract:
In 1901 divers working off the island of Antikythera found the remains of a clocklike mechanism 2,000 years old. The mechanism now appears to have been a device calculating the motions of stars and planets

keywords: computer, hardware, history of technology
status: read

keywords: computer, hardware, history of technology
status: read

official abstract:
Spectacular growth in information and communication technologies (ICTs), and specifically the Internet, has the potential to offer a new generation of tools for rural development. The Internet, with its huge quantities and variety of content, is increasingly becoming an effective delivery and exchange system for information and knowledge, continuing education and learning. However, rural ICT requires special efforts to create appropriate models for those who can neither afford the Internet access nor have the language capacity to understand the content.
New information and communication technologies represent perhaps the greatest tool to date for self-education and value-addition to an individual or community's own efforts for development, yet poor rural communities do not have the necessary awareness, skills or facilities to contribute to their own development using ICTs. The majority and those with the least resources in South Asia are being left out of the benefits of these new technologies and more importantly, rural areas do even have a foothold in the revolution that ICTs are ushering in.
Parallel to other increasing forms of inequity, there is an evident gap, widening at an exponential rate, between those with access to media and ICTs as productive tools and those without. Closing what has become known as 'the digital divide' is particularly important precisely because digital ICTs cut across and add value to all fields of development and offer applications to bridge the spectrum of inequities of which the 'digital divide' is only an extension or a symptom.
The communication scenario along with the political context in the island nation of Sri Lanka is very much similar to most its South Asian neighbours. The metropolis and regional centres are witnessing rapid expansions in telecom and media sectors while telephones, electricity and clean drinking water are luxuries for many in the countryside. The absence of relevant experience is major barrier for rural ICT usage. One example that offers some useful insight and successful elements for a model is Kothmale Community Radio and Internet in central Sri Lanka.

keywords:
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, computer, methodology
status:

back flap:
Täglich gehen wir mit Technik um. Besonders in der Arbeitswelt sind nur wenige Situationen denkbar, die ohne den Einsatz komplexer Technologien auskommen. Die Technografie untersucht die besondere Bedeutung von Technik in Arbeits- und Alltagsleben und die Interaktion zwischen Apparaten und Menschen. Der Band führt in diese Methode ein und stellt Anwendungsfelder vor, unter anderem aus den Bereichen Schnellbahn, Schiffsnavigation, Flugverkehr, Internet, Börse, Operationssaal und Call-Center.

keywords: sociology, ethnography, technology
status: partially read

keywords: book reviews
status: read

reviews: ↑review by Danny Yee.
keywords: open source, software
status:

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, visual anthropology, writing culture
status: read

keywords: virtual reality, culture
status: read

keywords:
status: read

keywords: computer, hardware, history of technology
status: read

review: ↵Maresch 2004
keywords: cybernetics, anthropology
status:

keywords:
status: in my possession

keywords:
status: read

keywords: copyright, intellectual property, p2p, creativity
status: in my possession

keywords:
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official abstract:
It is shown that Escher Staircases, i.e. cycles of four nodes in a graph with reciprocal links, form a basic structural element on the World Wide Web.

keywords: world wide web, hyper reference
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official abstract: ↑at Douglas Rushkoff's site

keywords: Internet, cyberpunk, cyberculture, subculture
status: partially read

official abstract:

keywords:
status: not yet published

review: ↵Järvinen 2004
keywords: games, computergames, play
status: partially read

keywords: copyright, intellectual property, p2p
status:

keywords: Internet
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, media
status: read, excerpted

reviews: ↵Kelly 1991, ↵Allison 1992, ↵Katz 1992, ↵Mitchell 1992, ↵Creighton 1993, ↵Linhart 1993, ↵Stein 1998
keywords: sociology, Japan, youth, subculture, flow, play
status:

official abstract:
Empirical studies of four distinct free and open source software development communities find at least five common types of development processes. These communities, particularly the computer game community, provide examples of common practices.

keywords: open source, computergames, mods, modding, modders
status: in my possession

keywords: mythology, archetypes, graphic novels
status:

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, thick description, methodology
status: read & marked

keywords: computergmaes, mod, modding, modders, hacker art
status: read

review: ↵Aunger 2003
keywords: sociocultural anthropology, technology
status:

keywords: open source
status:

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, networks
status: in my possession

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, Internet
status: read

official abstract:
There has been a recent increase in the number of game environments or engines that allow users to customize their gaming experiences by building and expanding game behavior. This article describes the use of modifying, or modding, existing games as a means to learn computer science, mathematics, physics, and aesthetic principles. We describe two exploratory case studies of game modding in classroom settings to illustrate skills learned by students as a result of modding existing games. We also discuss the benefits of learning computer sciences skills (e.g., 3D graphics/mathematics, event-based programming, software engineering, etc.) through large design projects and how game design motivates students to acquire and apply these skills. We describe our use of multiple game modding environments in our classes. In addition, we describe how different engines can be used to focus students on the acquisition of particular skills and concepts.

keywords: computergames, mods, modders, modding, learning
status: in my possession

keywords: media studies, cyberculture
status: read

official abstract:
This paper examines the practices and activities of videogame fans online. In scrutinising a variety of player-produced texts including walkthroughs, fanart, theorising and FAQs, the authors seek not only to highlight the creativity and vibrancy of the participatory culture of videogame fandom but also to examine the ways in which discussion and the production of such texts are used by players to generate and communicate their identity within the community of otaku and modify the terms of engagement with the game. In this way, the authors seek to interrogate player-produced texts as examples of the involvement and activity of players in the construction of videogames’ meaning and as a means of problematising discussions of the pleasures of gameplay.

keywords: computergames, fandom, walkthrough, videogame culture
status: in my possession

official abstract:
The phenomenon of persuasive and ideological videogames. Games as a means of propaganda in political campaigns (case study: U.S. presidential election). Recent historical events in videogames seen through political perspective (case study: battle over Fallujah, The Palestinian Intifada). Games entering the political real-space (case study: recruitment and self-presentation tools for the U.S. Army and Lebanese Hezbollah movement).

keywords: computergames, politics, ideology, Islam
status: read

official abstract:
The interview with Radwan Kasmiya, an executive manager of the company ↑Afkar Media, a Syrian studio producing political and other videogames. The interview was made in the company office in Damascus in May 2005, just before their release of a new videogame dealing with Palestinian Intifada '↑Tahta al-Hisar' (↑Under Siege).

keywords: computergames, politics, ideology, Islam, Syria
status: read

official abstract:
The article examines political videogames produced by the Syrian company ↑Afkar Media in Damascus, mainly their recent game ↑Tahta al-Hisar (↑Under Siege) and puts them in a broader context of persuasive and serious games. It deals with the representation of the Other and Foreign in videogames, construction of the Arab and Islamic heroes and ongoing digital emancipation of the Near East.

keywords: computergames, politics, ideology, Islam, Syria
status: read

official abstract:
The paper examines the phenomenon of dispensing legal opinions by Islamic scholars via the Internet websites. It analyses the strategies which the sites use for establishing themselves as the sources of authority and their interpretative methods. Emphasis is given on jurisprudence for Muslim minorities living in the Western legal systems.

keywords: cyberspace, jurisprudence, Islam
status: read

official abstract:
This paper presents the ways in which Muslims and Arabs are represented in mainstream European and American digital games. It analyzes how games—particularly of the action genre-construct the Arab or Muslim 'Other'. Within these games, one finds the diverse ethnic and religious identities of the Islamic world reconstructed into a series of flat social typologies, often presented within the framework of hostility and terrorism. The second part of the paper deals with selected digital games created in the Middle East, whose authors are knowingly working with the topic of self-representation. Recent digital games originating in the Middle East can be perceived as examples of an ongoing digital emancipation taking place through the distribution of media images and their corresponding meanings. A key part of this ongoing digital emancipation involves the construction of Arab and Islamic heroes, a process accomplished by exploiting distinctive narrative structures and references to Islamic cultural heritage.

keywords: computergames, Islamic computergames, representation, Islam, Arabs, Muslims, racial stereotypes
status: read

official abstract:
Local perception filters exploit the limitations of human perception to reduce the effects of network latency in multiplayer computer games. Because they allow temporal distortions in the rendered view, they can be modified to realize the bullet time effect, where a player can get more reaction time by slowing down the surrounding game world. In this paper, we examine the concepts behind local perception filters and extend them to cover artificially increased delays. The presented methods are implemented in a testbench program, which is used to study the usability and limitations of the approach.

additional link: ↑MaxMazeDemonstrator [download link there! | .zip | 80KB]
keywords: computergames, networking, multiplayer, latency, bullet time, virtual environments
status:

official abstract:
Local perception filters exploit the limitations of human perception to reduce the effects of network latency in multiplayer computer games. Because they allow temporal distortions in the rendered view, they can be modified to realize the bullet time effect, where a player can get more reaction time by slowing down the surrounding game world. In this paper, we examine the concepts behind local perception filters and extend them to cover artificially increased delays. The presented methods are implemented in a testbench program, which is used to study the usability and limitations of the approach.

additional link: ↑MaxMazeDemonstrator [download link there! | .zip | 80KB]
keywords: computergames, networking, multiplayer, latency, bullet time, virtual environments
status:

official abstract:
A few years ago there wasn’t much to talk about. Now, however, computer game research is booming resulting in common terminology, competing paradigms and serious discussion on the subjects of games and gaming. This article attempts to provide an introduction to the field of computer game research.

keywords: computergames, game research, ludology
status: read

keywords:
status: read

keywords: computergames, mods, modding
status: read

official abstract:
This paper suggests that the digital games industry products are not limited to games-related hardware and software or the related spin-off industry products. Further, consumers "labour" with games is transformed into a product that is sold to advertisers and sponsors. In case of gamer-made modifications, this commodification of leisure is taken into extreme. It is obvious that the cultivation of unpaid modder labour necessitates different methods than the traditional forms of labour. It is suggested that mod competitions are used as a strategy of control over the hobbyist developers. Through competitions modders become interpellated as important members of the industry and simultaneously end up surprisingly comfortably harnessed. Finally, the paper suggests that the competitions that offer an attractive means to monitor the mod scene, paradoxically also work against industry's advantages by revealing the laborious nature of computer game development to the hobbyists.

keywords: computergames, mods, modders, modding, mod competitions, game industry, political economy, free labour
status: read

official abstract:
In order to understand what a game is and how to design good games, we need to understand the players as well as the act and the experience of playing. However, the players are not typically very much involved in game design processes, especially in their early stages. To develop and evaluate methods of player research and ways to integrate them into game design processes, we conducted a study with self-documentation sets. To bring playful elements into design of games the tasks were presented in the form of a game. The game box included several different tasks designed to encourage participants to reflect on their relation to games and gaming from various and also unexpected viewpoints. In this paper we focus on the methodological issues, but also present findings on some of the tasks in order to demonstrate what kind of results can be obtained using this kind of approach.

keywords: computergames, mods, modding, modders, player-centred design, play in design, self-documentation sets, cultural probes
status: in my possession

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, economic anthropology, economy
status:

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, economic anthropology, economy
status: read, excerpted

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, political anthropology
status:

official abstract:
Participant Observation in anthropology has been severly criticised for many reasons. Despite this criticism it is still regarded as a basic method for anthropology and remains widely practised, especially in PhD research. Participant Observation as a true-to-life and little systematized method has advantages in situations where language based research (especially interviews), systematic observation and strictly theory-guided research reach their limits.
For the further development of Participant Observation we should try less to eradicate its inherent weaknesses, but rather use and strengthen its strong points. This radicalised form of observation is called thick participation in this paper. It implies apprenticeship and practice, natural conversation and observation, lived experience and sensuous research. Because this powerful method is time consuming it is less threatened by its critics than by bureaucratic grant restriction.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, participant observation, fieldwork, methodology
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, globalization, glocalization, cultural adoption, cultural appropriation
status: read

keywords: culture, ethnography, language, nation-state, representation
status: in my possession

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, ethnography, methodology, interview
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, methodology, participant observation
status: read

keywords: computergames
status: read

keywords: sociology, online communities
status: introduction read
review: ↵Morner 2002

keywords:
status: read

keywords: fiction, cyberpunk
status: read

keywords: Internet, cyberspace, hacker, law
status: read

keywords: cyberpunk, fiction
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, Internet, methodology
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, popular culture
status: partially read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cyberanthropology, Internet, methodology
status:

official abstract:
In vielen Medienforschungen, die sich um die zentrale Frage des Verhältnisses von Medienangeboten und Medienrezeptionen drehen, spielen interaktionstheoretische Konzepte eine zentrale Rolle: Sie erfassen sowohl die vielfältigen Aktivitäten von Mediennutzern als auch Abstimmungsleistungen der Massenkommunikation. Allerdings müssen diese breiten und unscharfen Interaktionskonzepte in Auseinandersetzung mit soziologischen Interaktionstheorien aufgearbeitet und präzisiert werden, um entscheiden zu können, in welchen Bereichen der Medienkommunikation sinnvollerweise von Interaktion gesprochen werden kann. Dabei wird deutlich, daß nur ungenügend unterschieden wird, wie Personen mit Medienangeboten umgehen und wie Medienangebote auf Personen Bezug nehmen. Mit der soziologischen Systemtheorie können diese Aspekte den Prozessen der Mediensozialisation einerseits und der Inklusion durch Massenkommunikation andererseits zugeordnet werden. Auf dieser Grundlage können neue theoretische und empirische Erkundungen konzipiert werden, welche eine notwendige Ergänzung der bislang etablierten Medienrezeptions- und Mediensozialisationsforschungen bilden. Im Zentrum dieser Erkundungen stehen Prozesse der Inklusion, wie sie in Massenkommunikationen (vor allem des Leitmediums Fernsehen) zu beobachten sind. Dieser neue Baustein einer allgemeinen sozialwissenschaftlichen Medientheorie zeigt, wie die Massenkommunikation selbst ein Bild ihrer Adressaten entwickeln und sich so auf ein anonymes Publikum einstellen kann.

keywords: media
status: in my possession

keywords: archaeology, history of technology
status:

official abstract:
Few research projects have inquired into Lanning, the practice where gamers play multiplayer games with and against each other, usually over purpose built local area networks (↵LAN), or Lans (the exceptions are Swalwell, 2003; Jansz [see ↵Jansz & Martens 2005]). Lan gaming is not only an important precursor to newer forms of networked gaming; it is also an evolving form of gaming in its own right. This paper reports on research into the history and development of several Lan gaming groups in Australasia. It addresses the development of Lans and their changes over time, through reporting on conversations with Lan organizers.

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, LAN, organisation, experimentation, re- and de-territorialization, fun
status: in my possession

official abstract:
As we outline a movement beyond the apparent creative stagnation in the videogames industry we envision possible transformations, beyond the gridlock a producer-consumer dichotomy, that propose to mobilize players as creative actors in a holistic experience. We propose to recognize the authoring roles players develop in their relation to the industry and the gaming community, that configure an emancipation from the current producer-consumer dichotomy. Building on this conjecture we review possible meanings of a player as author perspective and conjecture modalities of authorship and participation. We close by outlining some of the design challenges for an infrastructure to support those roles.

keywords: computergames, mods, modding, modders, modification, player as author, player roles, game development, emancipatory paradigm
status: in my possession

official abstract:
This paper explores the ways the commercialization of multiuser environments is posing particular challenges to user autonomy and authorship. With ever broadening definitions of intellectual property rights the status of cultural and symbolic artifacts as products of collaborative efforts becomes increasingly problematized. In the case of virtual environments—such as massive multiplayer online role-play games—where users develop identities, bodies (avatars) and communities the stakes are quite high. This analysis draws on several case studies to raise questions about the status of culture and authorship in these games.

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, MMORPG, persistent state worlds, property, avatars, Internet, virtual environments, games
status: in my possession

keywords:
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review: ↵Lem 1974
keywords: fiction, fantastic
status: read

keywords:
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official abstract:
You've all heard it before—mobile gaming will be huge because everybody has a mobile phone. However, how can mass-market mobile phones ever compete with handheld game decks such as the Sony PSP and Nintendo Gameboy? These companies have industry know-how, strong gaming brands and large market shares, good marketing engines, interfaces optimized for gaming, better graphics, no device compatibility issues, and business models without major regional differences and several operators to deal with. Perhaps they should not compete at all. Mobile phone game developers should take advantage of the special characteristics of the device in developing, marketing and distributing new types of games. These characteristics are related to the social nature of the device, e.g. it has an address book that contains your acquaintances and acts as a mediator of messages, it is a portable and shareable picture album, and you can even use it for talking. This combined with the openness of the platforms makes it customizable and moddable in ways not possible with handheld game decks. Also, the network connectiveness of phones combined with extensive coverage of phone networks simply cannot be found in any other portable computer. How can these features be leveraged in creating new forms of mobile entertainment?

Drawing from related phenomena including PC game modding, mobile imaging, Geocaching, Habbo Hotel, and Live-Action Role Play (LARP), we offer fresh perspectives and ideas to professional game developers by presenting research findings in mobile gaming and mobile gaming communities. For example, the cross-media and crossplatform nature of LARP, Geocaching, and Habbo Hotel indicates that the combination of mobile phones and games has the potential to be richer and more immersive experiences. On the other hand, examples like PC modding, mobile photo competitions, as well as LARP and Geocaching, show that with appropriate tools users will come up with innovative game content and even novel game concepts. Thirdly, because the phone is a personal device through which the owner can be identified (i.e., phone number), it has key benefits in billing models, personalization, and trust (e.g., buying virtual furniture in Habbo Hotel).

keywords: computergames, mobile games, mobile phones, mods, modding, modders
status: in my possession

keywords:
status: read

keywords: socicultural anthropology, ethnography, literary criticism
status: read & marked

keywords: socicultural anthropology, body, cyborg
status: read

official book description:
Unprecedented access behind Half-Life and Half-Life 2 | A forward by Valve founder Gabe Newell | Hundreds of art, design, preproduction, and other art pieces crammed into the book | Over a dozen key members of Valve's staff interviewed | Officially approved by Valve | | Behind City 17 and other locations | The development of the Source engine | A rogue's gallery of beasts, characters, and monstrosities | Key weapons development revelations | | A tour of many of the game's locations, from inception to completion | Filled with art, screens, and anecdotes from the Valve team

keywords: computergames, Half-Life 2, first-person shooter
status: read

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, network
status: read

keywords:
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keywords:
status: read

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keywords: computergames
status: partially read

keywords: online communities
status: read

review: ↵Valverde 2004
keywords:
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official abstract:
Die folgende Arbeit untersucht, warum Open-Source-Prinzipien im Bereich der SpieleSoftware bislang nur sehr wenig eingesetzt werden und wie sich dies ¨andern kann. Hierfür werden zunächst die Grundlagen beider Gebiete dargestellt. Es wird gezeigt, dass die größte Schwierigkeit bei der Anwendung von Open Source auf Spiele darin besteht, dass Spiele weniger Software und mehr Filmen gleichen. Anhand von sechs Beispielen wird demonstriert, wie dennoch Open-Source-Prinzipien zur Umsetzung gelangen können und wie die Beispiele von dieser Offenheit profitieren konnten. Gesondert wird auf das neu entstandene Gebiet der Online-Spiele eingegangen, welches besondere Chancen für eine Umsetzung als Open Source bietet. Abschließend wird untersucht, welche Lizenzen und welche Finanzierungsmodelle in der Spieleentwicklung angewendet werden können, so dass das resultierende Spiel möglichst offen ist, ohne dabei die Wirtschaftlichkeit aus den Augen zu verlieren.

keywords: computergames, open source
status: partially read

keywords: virtual reality
status: read

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official abstract:
The appropriation of Western visual media technology by indigenous peoples around the world, particularly in Australia, North America, and the Amazon Basin, has drawn the attention of anthropologists impressed with how such people have utilized visual self-representation as a mode of empowerment, political assertion, and cultural revival in the face of Western cultural and economic imperialism. In this paper I maintain, however that there are different relationships between signs, concepts, and sociality in different cultures and that visual media have embedded within them their own Western ontology of these semiotic relations. Anthropologists have by and large not sufficiently problematized their own participation in this modern ontology of representation, and they assume that it is the same framework as that operating in the representational practices of the indigenous peoples on which they focus their attention. I situate a critique of Western visual representation within the progress of marxist theory in the 20th century. I go on to suggest that a dialectical approach to this phenomenon preserves the anthropological perspective on non-Western ritual, art, and representation that was bequeathed to us by Victor Turner and is still an essential component of the "anthropological lens."

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, visual representation
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official abstract:
What are the exact aspects of the videogame medium, the precise features or combinations of features that lend themselves to expressing ideas and meaning? To chart this out, I begin with an American legal case that serves as a foundation for the basic issues involved and then move on to show how this relates to some of the broader attitudes the world of videogame discourse. Based on this, I break down the expressive strategies of videogames into three aspects—non-playable sequences, rule-based systems, and the relationship between the two—which I then illustrate with examples proving that videogames can indeed be an expressive medium.

keywords: computergames, art, expression, first amendment, speech, communication, ideology, meaning, interactivity, agency, videogaming community, cut-scene, dialogue-scene, opinion summary
status: read

keywords: online communities
status: read

review: ↵Lavenda 2003
keywords: sociocultural anthropology, play, games, chess
status:

official abstract:
This article compares traditional offline flirting with cyber-flirting. We begin by providing a definition of offline flirting, which we follow up with our own elaboration of cyber-flirting. The article then draws from psychoanalytic theory, in particular Winnicott's object-relations theory, to propose that cyber-flirting can be a form of play. While this is not an empirical study, we do attempt to present a theoretical framework for the conception of cyberspace. In presenting this framework, we draw from past qualitative and quantitative studies on Internet relationships. We emphasize the problems with past researchers' obsessive attention to the absence of the body online, and suggest that new theorizing on Internet relationships needs to consider how the body is re-constructed. We propose that cyberspace can be what Winnicott would describe as a 'potential space' for play, and this particularly applies to online spaces such as MUDs, MOOs and chat rooms. In addition, we suggest that cyber-flirting may promote psychological growth, but it may also become a destructive and exploitative behaviour directed towards 'others'. We conclude by pointing out the therapeutic implications of considering cyber-flirting as a form of play. It is intended that this article may assist our conceptualization of this underresearched area of cyber-interactions.

keywords: cyber-flirting, Internet and relationships, play, potential space, psychodynamic theory, Winnicott
status: in my possession

keywords: cybernetics
status: read

keywords: cybernetics
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keywords: cybernetics
status: read

keywords: computergames
status: read

keywords: open source, floss
status:

↑official abstract:
Information and communication technologies based on the Internet have enabled the emergence of new sorts of communities and communicative practicesphenomena worthy of the attention of anthropological researchers. Despite early assessments of the revolutionary nature of the Internet and the enormous transformations it would bring about, the changes have been less dramatic and more embedded in existing practices and power relations of everyday life. This review explores researchers' questions, approaches, and insights within anthropology and some relevant related fields, and it seeks to identify promising new directions for study. The general conclusion is that the technologies comprising the Internet, and all the text and media that exist within it, are in themselves cultural products. Anthropology is thus well suited to the further investigation of these new, and not so new, phenomena.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, Internet, media, computer-mediated communication, cyberspace, information, online communities technology
status: read

keywords: globalization
status: read

official abstract
Traditional ethnographies have been based on the ideas of locality. But with the rise of globalisation processes this concept has been increasingly questioned on a theoretical level. In the last decade, US-American anthropologists called for multi-sited ethnographies. However, the practical implications for research with such a shift have not been broadly discussed yet. Now, with the internet and different kinds of virtual interaction patterns, ethnographic work faces a new challenge. This paper argues that it is necessary to focus on the implications of fieldwork in virtual settings for ethnographic practice.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, cyberanthropology, Internet, methodology, ethnography, multi-sited ethnography, virtual reality ethnography
status: read

keywords: computergames
status: in my possession

keywords: computergames
status: read

official abstract:
'Visual Anthropology' is having something of a renaissance within certain sections of the contemporary anthropological community. Increasing numbers of UK undergraduate and MA anthropology courses have titles like 'Anthropology and Representation', and frequently combine an interest in the visual products of anthropologists with media studies and the anthropology of art. The recent workshop 'Mediating Modernities' hosted by the Department of Anthropology at University College London saw anthropologists debating what strategies the discipline should adopt to cope with an increasingly mediated world. But, although the term is used regularly, what is currently meant by combining the two words 'visual' and 'anthropology' remains far from clear. Anthropology and the visual can be articulated in a variety of ways, and through a diverse range of processes, and what follows is a consideration of som of these articulations—inspired, and provoked, by recent attempts to redefine visual anthropology as a sub-discipline.

keywords: sociocultural anthropology, visual anthropology
status: in my possession

keywords: computergames, multiplayer, FPS, counter strike
status:

official abstract:
Researchers have argued that video games have great utility for learning. Games promote experiential learning and can be used to facilitate active learning. This paper examines the potential of video games in education. In particular, it examines the benefits of game modding compared to playing and/or creating games. However, video game classes have been primarily attended by male students. This paper looks further into the gender issue regarding the use of video game modding in education. This is demonstrated through a course developed by the authors on game design. The main goal of the course was to introduce middle school and high school female students to IT and assist them in acquiring five basic IT skills. During the course, survey data was collected from participating students. Results from the surveys as well as analysis of student projects and anecdotal evidence suggest that using video game modding is successful in increasing self-efficacy and motivation as well as teaching female students basic IT skills.

keywords: computergames, mods, modders, modding, learning
status: in my possession