↑Lois Ann Scheidt has compiled an astounding 128-pages ↑bibliography on blogging [.pdf | 459KB], which is partially augmented with abstracts and links. And if you are already at it, check out her weblog, too: ↑Professional-Lurker: Comments by an academic in cyberspace. via entry at digitalgenres … Continue reading
With the decline of Kulturhistorie in German sociocultural anthropology diachronic approaches to culture and society somehow went out of fashion, sometimes even got ostracised, and synchronical approaches started to reign supremely—became tacitly paradigmatic, became fashion. Speaking in a bold and simple style. But I learned that there is no modern sociocultural anthropology without a historical component. In other words: There is hardly any sensible approach to society and culture which completely neglects the diachronic dimension. This is true for all kinds of cultures, e.g for cyberculture, and for academical cultures. The cultures of sociocultural anthropology—that is what anthropologists did and … Continue reading
The latest issue of Kommunikation@Gesellschaft is dedicated to ↑Exploring blogging: Social science approaches and perspectives of weblog-research [in German]. Since recently the online-journal Kommunikation@Gesellschaft is accompanied by the ↑k@g-Blog. via entry at zerzaust … Continue reading
After last year’s excellent Rules of play (↵Salen & Zimmerman 2004) now everybody recommends: KOSTER, RAPH. 2005. A theory of fun for game design. Scottsdale, Arizona: Paraglyph Press. For background information see the according ↑entry at game matters with extensive comments, and ↑Conversation with Raph Koster by Celia Pearce. And if we’re talking about ‘definitive’ books on computergames, here’s a hint: Chris Crawford’s classic ↑The art of computer game design is online already since 1997. Just to round it up, the ludologist ↑points to ↑The evolution of gaming: computers, consoles, and arcade, another take on game history. And then, academics … Continue reading
↵Machinima is not only about using resources available in the game which’s engine is used to ‘shoot’ and produce a movie. Like for game-mod[ification]s, for machinima all resources available are put to use. That means all kinds of visual and audio material to be found scattered all over the Internet and in meatspace. That means for example hiring voice-talent. Furthermore, again analogous to mods, machinima most of the time are collaborative efforts. That means online and offline peers and friends help out and contribute—be it by providing material, or by offering skills and workforce/time, or both. And, again like … Continue reading
↑The Movies, a new game by game-designer legend ↑Peter Molyneux of ↑Black & White fame has hit the shelves just recently. The game allows the player to take over the part of a Hollywood mogul, to design a movie studio, shape movie-stars’ careers, and finally produce and shoot movies. This ultimate results are of course ↵machinima—according to the strict sense of the latter’s definition. The release of The Movies has triggered an ↑article by Jürgen Schmieder [in German], published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) [the SZ is one of the more respected transregional daily newspapers in Germany; as ↑2R correctly … Continue reading
The Internet—the new global media, linking people transnationally, providing a public for the marginalised, fostering democracy—versus the internet—virtual irreality, detached from the real world, space for escape, leading to social isolation. From these extreme views research has moved to ethnographic analyses of what actually happens online. Especially young people around the world have adopted the internet as their medium, creating their own virtual spaces. The research project “↑The virtual second generation” [in German | parts in English] analyses how, why and with what consequences second generation Indians in Germany do this. via entry at ethno::log … Continue reading
↑Boingboing‘s Xeni Jardin profiles ↵world’s greatest, champion gamer Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel for the radio. ↑Listen to it. via entry at boingboing … Continue reading
The influence of literary fiction and movies is not to neglect when trying to understand cyberculture, the cultural appropriation of ICTs, or parts of that. Currently ↑The Guardian‘s ↑technology blog has a ↑top twenty list of geek novels, constrcuted by a vote open to all citizens of geekdom. An interesting thread of comments has developed, too. And if you still do not know what to present yourself for Christmas … via entry at infocult … Continue reading
↑Tony Salvador and ↑John Sherry, ↑triple-A members as well as researchers at Intel, have just recently published an article called ↑Taking the Internet to the people (↵Salvador & Sherry 2005), telling us about some of their findings after four years traveling the world to see how computers are used. See ↑Kerim Friedman‘s ↑fine entry on it at ↑Savage Minds, which thankfully points to the related weblog ↑worldchanging. initially via entry at ethno::log … Continue reading