[WebCultures] Welcome!

[Michael Stevenson]

On Aug 30, 2014, at 3:35 PM, MC Cambre <mcambre at ualberta.ca> wrote:

>  I would like to thank Rudolf Ammann for his frank introduction. I too have recently emerged from the not-so-splendid isolation of thesis work and am currently in the strange isolation of contract teaching. I look forward to sharing and building collegiality in the spirit of this list.

It would be great if this listserv becomes a force against not-so-splendid isolations. Because the disciplines represented here are still young and growing quickly, a lot of us are busy with graduate work or have recently finished (obviously, there are people here who have been studying new media for much longer as well). I don’t want to presume anything about Carolina’s or Rudolf’s experience, but the isolation of phd work is perhaps exacerbated by a fragmentation, i.e. the fact that, despite the efforts of existing new media conferences, journals and organizations, the rate of growth and the power laws of attention mean it is still very hard to get an overview of all the interesting work that’s being done. I’ll never forget that it was Justin Hall [1] who introduced me to Jenny Cool’s thesis [2] while I was working on my thesis. This was actually just one of a few experiences where the object of study was helping to organize the field of web history, which is neat but maybe points to an area we can improve on.

With that in mind, I hope we’ll see more of these introductions. And since some people might be shy, another idea is to pick out someone whose work you think is a nice fit for this list and ask them a few questions, e.g. like the mini-interview I did Friday with my old office-mate Niels Kerssens [3]. 

I will try to get a few more people to break the ice, but that limits us to my interests and my circle. So please consider getting involved by doing one of these quick Q&As. You could approach someone you know personally, or perhaps browse the subscribers list [4] for a name you recognize. 

Happy posting,
Michael
….
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Hall; http://links.net
[2] http://www.cool.org/portfolio/publications.html
[3] In case you missed it: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/webcultures_listcultures.org/2014-August/000010.html
[4] You can view subscribed email addresses by logging in on the info page: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/webcultures_listcultures.org If you don’t want other members to see your email address on the subscribers list, you need to login where it says “Unsubscribe or edit options” and then change the setting labeled “conceal yourself from subscriber list"