[Air-l] culture in Encyl of HCI

[Barry Wellman]

Dear AOIRniks,

Charles Ess asked about the place of Culture in the new Encyl of HCI. Of
course to answer that question would be to start an extended debate about
what "Culture" is -- a matter I've avoided since my theory exams in the
mid-60s. (Re exams: more fun to give 'em than to receive 'em). Are we
talking about Shakespeare on line, or culture in the way that
anthropologists and sociologists do, the latter often distinguishing from
social structure? [Note: I will not answer any questions on the matter:
see Re exams sentence.]

Anyways, I digress. I have asked the publishers and editor of the Ency to
answer, as they know the beast better than me. However, a browse of the
entries shows me lotsa culture stuff, depending on how you slice it:

Recommender and Reputation Systems (wot's yr fave movie?); Cognitive
Walthru; Constraint Satisfaction; Ethics; Ethnography;  Ontology;
Soci-technical ...; value Sensitive Design; Digital Divide;  Privacy;
Spamming; Hackers; Peer-to-Peer; Anthro; AI, Law; PoliSci, SocPsych; Soc;
Language Generation; Semantic Web; Social Implications; Chatrooms;
Children;  Collaboratories; CSCW; Cybersex; Cyborgs; Education; Gender;
Worldwide Diffusion; Human-Robt Interaction (HRI?); Movies; Sociable
Media; SOftware Cultures; Work: Workforce, MUDS; Culture-Based-Capture
Systems; and of course, Internet in Everyday Life; and the many pages on
movies, songs, fiction, non-fiction, and shows having to do with HCI (RUR
to I Robot).

In short, culture pervades the 2 volumes, without there being a special
entry on "Culture". I rather like it this way, for reasons noted in the
1st para. YMMV
 Barry
 _____________________________________________________________________

  Barry Wellman         Professor of Sociology        NetLab Director
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman

  Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162
	     To network is to live; to live is to network
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