 Network
and Netplay : Virtual Groups on the Internet by Fay
Sudweeks (Editor), Margaret L. McLaughlin (Editor), Rafaeli,
Sheizaf Rafaeli (Editor).
The vast, international web of computer networks that
is the Internet offers millions of users the opportunity to exchange
electronic mail, photographs, and sound clips; to search databases for
books, CDs, cars, and term papers; to participate in real-time audio-
and video-conferencing; and to shop for products both virtual and
physical. This huge conglomerate of links, hyperlinks, and virtual links
is not just a technology for linking computers--it is a medium for
communication.
The convergence of computer and communication
technologies creates a social convergence as well. People meet in chat
rooms and discussion groups to converse on everything from auto
mechanics to postmodern art. Networked groups form virtually and
on-the-fly, as common interests dictate. Like interpersonal
communication, the networks are participatory, their content made up by
their audience. Like mass-mediated communication, they involve large
audiences. But the networks are neither purely interpersonal nor purely
mass--they are a new phenomenon.
Network and Netplay addresses the mutual
influences between information technology and group formation and
development, to assess the impact of computer-mediated communications on
both work and play. Areas discussed include the growth and features of
the Internet, network norms and experiences, and the essential nature of
network communication. -- Ronald Rice
Contributors: Michael Berthold, Lee Li-Jen Chen,
Richard Coyne, Brenda Danet, Patrick Doyle, Brian R. Gaines, Barbara
Hayes-Roth, Steve Jones, Sandra Katzman, Edward Mabry, Richard MacKinnon,
Margaret McLaughlin, Sid Newton, Kerry Osborne, Sheizaf Rafaeli, Yehudit
Rosenbaum-Tamari, Lucia Ruedenberg, Christine Smith, Fay Sudweeks,
Alexander Voiskounsky, Diane Witmer.
About the
Author
Fay Sudweeks is Research Associate, Key Centre of Design
Computing, University of Sydney. Margaret L. McLaughlin is Professor of
Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of
Southern California. Sheizaf Rafaeli is Senior Lecturer and Head of the
Information Systems area, School of Business Administration, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
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