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An Ethnography of a Computer Society
Author(s): Michael S. Rosenberg
Tags: Mar, 1992
Abstract: In modern society, the role computers play in our lives cannot be underemphasized. With computer technology growing by leaps and bounds, with access to computers being opened up to an even larger segment of the population, and with more and more people becoming familiar and more comfortable with computers, it is no wonder that entire social systems based on and through computers have developed and spread throughout the world. This phenomena can take many forms, one of which is the Multi-User Dungeon (MUD). Within this paper, I try to show the reader the culture that has developed within the "virtual world" of a MUD, the people behind the culture, and its relationship to real life.
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Ethnographic Fieldwork on the Internet
Author(s): Jennifer A Clodius
Tags: Dec, 1994
Abstract: We would like to introduce Jen Clodius, a graduate student in Anthropology at the U of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation research focuses on community formation on the Internet. She is examining how these communities of interest form when there are no geographic boundaries. Clodius has been involved for 4 years in an inter-collegiate course teaching anthropology on the Internet.
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Spoof Spam Lurk and Lag - the Aesthetics of Text based Virtual Realities
Author(s): Lee-Ellen Marvin
Tags: Dec, 1994
Abstract: This paper explores communication in six text-based virtual realities through four items of jargon: spoof, spam, lurk, and lag. Research was conducted using the ethnographic tools of participant-observation and close analysis of actual interactions of MOOs (Multiple-user Object Oriented environments). Examples of how these terms are used in real-time interaction were analyzed for what they communicate about the aesthetics of interaction. Close examination suggests that these articulated aesthetics serve as rules for proper behavior, markers of experience and belonging, metaphor for poetic expression and resources for play and challenge within the community.
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Ethnography of a Virtual Society
Author(s): John Masterson
Tags: Oct, 1995
Abstract: The limited scope of this paper has been to provide the reader with a broad ethnographic overview of the culture of one MUD, Ancient Anguish, while demonstrating that many of the central themes addressed are broadly applicable to the several hundred other virtual worlds available to anyone with a computer and a modem (a number that is constantly rising).
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