Virtual Communities

A collection of resources about

33 items

biblioghraphy

Research on Social Network Sites

http://www.danah.org/SNSResearch.html

Bibliografia on line sui Social Network.

biblioghraphy

EFF "MOO_MUD_IRC" Archive

http://w2.eff.org/Net_culture/MOO_MUD_IRC/

EFF "MOO_MUD_IRC" Archive. Last Updated Thu Mar 13 10:42:54 PDT 2003

biblioghraphy

Bibliography on Chat Comunications

http://www.chat-bibliography.de/

Beisswenger Michael

Germania

The subject of this bibliography are contributions on Computer-Mediated Communication, that deal with communication in webchats and IRC (partially also MUDs and MOOs) under the perspective of linguistics, communication research and/or social sciences.

books

Electronic Tribes. The Virtual Worlds of Geeks, Gamers, Shamans, and Scammers

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/adaele.html

2008

Tyrone L. Adams and Stephen A. Smith

Whether people want to play games and download music, engage in social networking and professional collaboration, or view pornography and incite terror, the Internet provides myriad opportunities for people who share common interests to find each other. The contributors to this book argue that these self-selected online groups are best understood as tribes, with many of the same ramifications, both positive and negative, that tribalism has in the non-cyber world.

books

The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier

http://www.well.com/user/hlr/vcbook/index.html

1993

Rheingold Howard

USA

Note to readers: I can see that thousands of people are reading or at least looking at each chapter of this book every month. Excellent! I put these words out here for the Net without charge because I want to get as much good information distributed as possible right now about the nature of computer communications. But I am also competing with myself. HarperCollins' paperback edition pays me about a dollar a book. So if you like what you read online, go out and buy a copy of the ink-and-dead-trees edition and give it to someone who needs to read this. Thanks! Your support will help me spend more time cooking up cool stuff to post here.

books

My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World

http://www.juliandibbell.com/mytinylife/index.html

1999

Dibbel Julian

Part memoir and part ethnography, My Tiny Life is about the social life of the online, text-based virtual world LambdaMOO and my own brief encounter with it. Andrew Leonard, in Salon, called it “the best book yet on the meaning of online life.” (Henry Holt, 1999)

researcher

Suler John

http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html

Rider University, USA

Professore di psicologia all'Università del Texas conduce ricerche sugli ambienti di discussione in tempo reale basati sugli avatar. La sua ricerca si trova nella sua pagina web "THE PSICOLOGY OF CYBERSPACE".

researcher

Rheingold Howard

http://www.rheingold.com/howard/

Rheingold Howard

USA

Nato in Arizona, Rheingold (http://www.rheingold.com) ha cinquant'anni, e ha studiato psicologia della conoscenza al Reed College e alla State University of New York. Da sempre interessato al potere della mente umana, si è successivamente specializzato nell'esplorazione dello spazio laddove la mente incontra la tecnologia, analizzando l'uso dei computer considerati come amplificatori della mente. E' di questo periodo il libro Tools for Thought (1984) che rappresenta un esercizio di futurismo retrospettivo, come lo definisce lui stesso, e, scritto nei primi anni '80 tenta di prefigurare come sarà la seconda metà degli anni '90. Il libro è disponibile anche in rete (http://www.rheingold.com/texts/) Dal 1985 partecipa ad un sistema di conferenze on line, uno scambio tra persone all'interno di una comunità virtuale, sui temi più disparati: tecnologie, società, cultura, libri, futuro. Questo lo fa riflettere sul ruolo che assume Internet, che Rheingold descrive come un nuovo spazio comune di convivialità che è frutto di una società in trasformazione e che sostituisce i tradzionali luoghi di incontro. In rete chiunque può manifestare le proprie opinioni, dar voce ai propri pensieri, senza subire alcuna discriminazione, sia essa dovuta a classe sociale, a genere, o razza. Internet, sottolinea, crea un senso di comunità virtuale tra coloro che si esprimono attraverso la rete. Questa esperienza dà vita a numerosi scritti sulle implicazioni culturali e politiche del nuovo strumento di comunicazione. Virtual Reality e il successivo The Virtual Community (http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/index.html) hanno molto successo a livello internazionale e sono tradotti in diverse lingue, tra cui in italiano (pubblicati rispettivamente da Baskerville e da Sperling e Kupfer). Rheingold è stato redattore della rivista The Whole Earth Review, e redattore capo (http://www.well.net/mwec) di The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog. E' stato tra i fondatori nel 1994, e direttore esecutivo di HotWired (http://www.hotwired.com/), la pubblicazione in rete lanciata da Wired magazine. E' stato anche tra i fondatori di Electric Minds (http://www.minds.com), un website che il Time Magazine giudica tra i migliori 10 dell'anno 1996. E' allo stesso tempo osservatore e progettatore di nuove tecnologie, ed è stato definito un pioniere, un critico ed un prefiguratore dell'impatto delle tecnologie. Spesso invitato a parlare alla radio e alla televisione, Rheingold partecipa a conferenze internazionali, ed ha parlato dell'impatto sociale ed economico delle nuove tecnologie in diverse città del mondo tra cui San Francisco, Atlanta, Bangkok, Cambridge, Tokyo, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, London. In numerose riviste ha pubblicato articoli e saggi sulla rete, su tecnologie e istruzione, su democrazia e tecnologia.

researcher

Dall'Aquila Paolo

http://www.paolodellaquila.it/

Italia

Il sito illustra i lavori, gli studi e vari saggi di Paolo Dell'Aquila. Partner di NetTribe.it, PaoloDell'Aquila.it raccoglie i lavori relativi soprattutto al mutamento epocale dato dall'avvento della società postmoderna, fondata sui consumi. Esso anticipa anche alcuni studi sulle comunità virtuali, che vengono compiutamente esposti in NetTribe.

paper

Dawn of the Organised Networks

http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue5/lovink_rossiter.html

2005

Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter

At first glance the concept of "organised networks" appears oxymoronic. In technical terms, all networks are organised. There are founders, administrators, moderators and active members who all take up roles. Think also back to the early work on cybernetics and the "second order" cybernetics of Bateson and others. Networks consist of mobile relations whose arrangement at any particular time is shaped by the "constitutive outside" of feedback or noise…

paper

The Role of Fantasy in the Construction of the On-line Other: a selection of interviews and participant observations from cyberspace

http://www.socio.demon.co.uk/fantasy.html

1996

Hamman Robin B.

UK

last accessed 8/31/99 ( non attivo)

paper

Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities

http://w2.eff.org/Net_culture/MOO_MUD_IRC/curtis_mudding.article

1992

Curtis Pavel

USA

A MUD (Multi-User Dungeon or, sometimes, Multi-User Dimension) is a network-accessible, multi-participant, user-extensible virtual reality whose user interface is entirely textual. Participants (usually called players) have the appearance of being situated in an artificially-constructed place that also contains those other players who are connected at the same time. Players can communicate easily with each other in real time.

paper

The Money Crunch

http://www.accessfoundation.org/PDF/Lietaer_Bernard_Money_Crunch_No_Cartoons.ppt

2004

We are at the beginning of a substantial “Money Crunch”, where money scarcity will result in a general squeeze in funding support for education, social services, elderly care, etc.

paper

Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/lange.html

2007

YouTube is a public video-sharing website where people can experience varying degrees of engagement with videos, ranging from casual viewing to sharing videos in order to maintain social relationships. Based on a one-year ethnographic project, this article analyzes how YouTube participants developed and maintained social networks by manipulating physical and interpretive access to their videos. The analysis reveals how circulating and sharing videos reflects different social relationships among youth. It also identifies varying degrees of "publicness" in video sharing. Some participants exhibited "publicly private" behavior, in which video makers' identities were revealed, but content was relatively private because it was not widely accessed. In contrast, "privately public" behavior involved sharing widely accessible content with many viewers, while limiting access to detailed information about video producers' identities.

paper

ENCOURAGING CYBERCULTURE

http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/II/EncoCyberCulture.html

1997

Clarke Roger

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.

paper

A Rape in Cyberspace

http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle.html

1993

Dibbell Julian

They say he raped them that night. They say he did it with a cunning little doll, fashioned in their image and imbued with the power to make them do whatever he desired. They say that by manipulating the doll he forced them to have sex with him, and with each other, and to do horrible, brutal things to their own bodies. And though I wasn't there that night, I think I can assure you that what they say is true, because it all happened right in the living room -- right there amid the well-stocked bookcases and the sofas and the fireplace -- of a house I came later to think of as my second home.

paper

Understanding micropolis and compunity

http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/catac98/pdf/02_jones.pdf

1998

Jones Steve

USA

This article begins with an analysis of virtuality and virtual culture as forms of social flow and build toward an analysis of the elements of micropolis, fractalized metropolis, as the setting for postmodern (sub)urban life.

paper

Virtuality and Its Discontents. Searching for Community in Cyberspace

http://hevra.haifa.ac.il/~soc/lecturers/talmud/files/547.htm

1995

Turkle Sherry

Adapted from Life on the Screen by Sherry Turkle. Copyright 1995 by Sherry Turkle. Reprinted by permission of Simon and Schuster, Inc.

paper

Community Computer Networks: Building Electronic Greenbelts

http://bcn.boulder.co.us/community/resources/greenbelts.txt

1993

Cisler Steve

What are community networks? What sorts of information and services can you find on these systems? What groups are starting and running community networks? How costly are the systems, and what are the sources of funding? This essay will discuss a number of current models for community networks, examine what impact they can have on the environment in which they grow, and make a few wild guesses about the future of such networks given the changes in computing and telecommunications technologies.

paper

Comportamenti e relazioni tra i membri di comunità virtuali: il caso delle scienze sociali

http://www.fondazionecasadioriani.it/modules.php?name=MR&op=body&id=137

2001

Guigoni Alessandra

italia

Dal punto di vista tecnologico Internet è una rete di reti che utilizza protocolli in comune per collegare migliaia di reti in tutto il mondo, ma dal punto di vista dell’arena socioculturale Internet costituisce anche un terreno di ricerca sociale praticamente illimitato per i cosiddetti etnografi del cyberspazio, paragonabile al "Nuovo Mondo" per l’estensione delle terre ancora inesplorate e per la novità dei suoi paesaggi antropici, come furono appunto le Americhe per cronisti viaggiatori al seguito dei Conquistadores…

paper

Social Forums and their Margins:Networking Logics and the Cultural Politics of Autonomous Space

http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-2/5-2juris.pdf

2005

he World Social Forum (WSF) emerged in the wake of a global wave of protest against capitalism characterized, in part, by the expression of broader political ideals through network-based organizational forms. The WSF was thus conceived as an “open space” for exchanging ideas, resources, and information; promoting initiatives; and generating concrete alternatives. At the same time, many grassroots activists have criticized the forums for being organized in a top-down fashion, including political parties despite their formal prohibition, and favoring prominent intellectuals.

paper

The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

1999

Kollock Peter

The Internet is filled with junk and jerks. It is commonplace for inhabitant of the Internet to complain bitterly about the lack of cooperation, decorum, and useful information. The signal-to-noise ratio, it is said, is bad and getting worse.

paper

Comunicare la rete

http://www.e-cremona.it/modules.php?op=modload&name=Documentazione&file=index&func=object&id=316

1997

Mariani Giordano

Lo stage svolto da Giordano Mariani su come "Comunicare la Rete Civica di Cremona".

paper

Ethnography and Hermeneutics in Cybercultural Research Accessing IRC Virtual Communities

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol7/issue2/nocera.html

2002

Abdelnour Nocera José L.

This article suggests a qualitative methodological framework and a holistic-historicistic epistemological perspective that balances the sociopsychological and cultural dimensions of IRC Virtual Communities. CMC cultural research should not be focused on intercultural collision phenomena alone, but also on cultural construction from inside the Net. An ethnographic strategy discovering cybercultures together with Gadamer's hermeneutics for the interpretation of systems of meanings are the proposed tools for understanding "virtual" life and cultural production within the Net.

paper

Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?

http://www.well.com/user/hlr/texts/VCcivil.html

1995

Fernback Jan & Brad Thompson

Community is an important aspect of life for most people. Cooley (1983) says that all normal humans have a natural affinity for community. He suggests that the primary factor inhibiting the formation of communities, no matter what their scale, is that they are difficult to organize. Extending the moral ideals inherent in nearly all individuals to the notion of community requires a system or institutional framework. The development and maintenance of such institutions sap the energy of the members of the would-be community and confuse the moral ideals inherent in the notion of community with the project of the institution itself. Thus enervated, the people lose their focus on the moral order they were trying to achieve.

paper

Increasing contribution in online communities

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~jweisz/papers/F03/cscw.pdf

2003

Barry P.,Dekel U., Moraveji N., Weisz J.

Increasing contribution in online communities using alternative displays of community activity levels. Our goal is to increase contributions to an online community by making information about the level of activity in the community salient to its members. We specifically focus on the LiveJournal web log community, where a user’s community is defined by their personal list of friends, and contributions are made by either posting new content to one’s own journal, or by commenting on existing journal entries.

paper

Social Information Processing in MUDs: The Development of Friendships in Virtual Worlds

http://www.behavior.net/JOB/v1n1/utz.html

2000

Utz Sonja

With the rapid growth of the Internet, new communication forms have emerged. This study examines how friendships are developed in a special kind of virtual world: multi-user-dungeons (MUDs). According to the Social Information Processing perspective (Walther, 1992) people learn to verbalize online that which is nonverbal offline, with increasing time. The use of verbal paralanguage should be an important factor in the development of impressions. Sociability, as a general trait, and skepticism towards computer-mediated communication (CMC), as a situation-specific attitude, could also influence this process. One hundred and three MUD users completed a questionnaire concerning their online friendships, MUD use, attitude about MUDding, use of paralanguage, sociability, and skepticism toward CMC. Seventy-seven percent of the MUDders reported relationships with others. Results supported the Social Information Processing perspective: Sociability had little influence, whereas skepticism towards CMC was an important predictor.

paper

FROM TO : NICKNAMES, PLAY, AND IDENTITY ON INTERNET RELAY CHAT

http://free.art.pl/fotografie/FROM_Bonehead_TO_cLoNehEAd/

1995

Bechar-Israeli, Haya

paper

Identity Workshop: Emergent Social And Psychological Phenomena In Text-Based Virtual Reality

ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/people/asb/papers/identity-workshop.rtf

1992

Bruckman, Amy S.

paper

Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

2007

danah boyd and Nicole Ellison

Social network sites (SNSs) are increasingly attracting the attention of academic and industry researchers intrigued by their affordances and reach. This special theme section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together scholarship on these emergent phenomena. In this introductory article, we describe features of SNSs and propose a comprehensive definition. We then present one perspective on the history of such sites, discussing key changes and developments. After briefly summarizing existing scholarship concerning SNSs, we discuss the articles in this special section and conclude with considerations for future research.

paper

Making Friends in Cyberspace

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol1/issue4/parks.html

1996

Parks Malcolm R.

USA

From its birth as a way of linking a few university and defense laboratories in the late 1960s, the Internet has grown into a global network connecting between 30 and 40 million people (Elmer-Dewitt, 1995). Social linkages in the form of E-mail and discussion groups appeared in the first days of the Internet and have grown explosively ever since. Today there are over 5,000 Internet discussion groups (Hahn & Stout, 1994).

thesis

Cultural Formations in Text-Based Virtual Realities

http://www.aluluei.com/cult-form.htm

1994

Cultural Studies Program Department of English, University of Melbourne - Beginning with an understanding of virtual reality as an imaginative experience and thus a cultural construct rather than a technical construction, this thesis discusses cultural and social issues raised by interaction on 'MUDs', which are text-based virtual reality systems run on the international computer network known as the Internet...

thesis

AMICI DI UNO SCHERMO: RUOLO DELLE RELAZIONI SIGNIFICATIVE NELLE CHAT LINE

http://www.cybercultura.it/pdf/2003_tesi_castrovilli.pdf

2003

Castrovilli, Lino

Tesi di laurea in Psicologia della Comunicazione: chat e relazioni profonde

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