On March 11-12, 2006, Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society will host a symposium to explore the development and expansion of the metaphor of “cultural environmentalism” over the course of ten busy years for intellectual property law. We’ve… Continue Reading
International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers Brisbane, Australia: 28-30 September 2006 Proposals by: 07 February 2006 (see conference website) The Internet works as an arena of convergence. Physically dispersed and marginalized people (re)find themselves online for… Continue Reading
28 June – 1 July 2006: University of Tartu, Estonia http://www.catacconference.org Conference theme: Neither Global Village nor Homogenizing Commodification: Diverse Cultural, Ethnic, Gender and Economic Environments The 1990s’ hopes for an “electronic global village” have largely been shunted aside by… Continue Reading
I’m going to be appearing live on Nick Lawrence’s radio programme on BBC Radio Norfolk tonight just after 7pm GMT (that’s 2pm EST). He’ll be asking me about the growing importance of online communities in our lives, internet activism and… Continue Reading
I’m sitting here at 2am reading and thinking about the work of Robert Putnam who is giving one of those inspirational internal lunchtime lectures at work tomorrow. Robert Putnam is a Harvard professor and author of Bowling Alone, a book… Continue Reading
According to a University College London review of 24 patient studies, patient participation in online discussions can have health benefits. BBC News Online reports that the researchers looked at "people’s use of interactive computer websites and programmes, which contained information… Continue Reading
Anyone who manages or participates in online communities will have observed "bad" behaviour at one time or another. John Davis at Microsoft Research has published an eight page report, The Experience of ‘Bad’ Behavior in Online Social Spaces: A survey… Continue Reading
A recent study by economists Günter Hitsch, Ali Hortacsu (both at Univ of Chicago) and Dan Ariely (MIT) looked at self-reported information in dating profiles to see what affect they had upon the number of emails users received from potential… Continue Reading
Extreme Democracy, edited by Jon Lebkowsky and Mitch Ratcliffe Extreme democracy, taking a cue from the recent evolution of software development towards a practice known as "extreme programming," anticipates a politics based on lowered friction in communication that increases the… Continue Reading
Only in America, where many people drive around in SUV’s packed to the bull bars with DVD players, playstations and other entertainment technologies would you get a university project about roadcasting: Roadcasting is a system that allows anyone to have… Continue Reading