[WebCultures] Welcome!

[Rudolf Ammann]

Hi!

First of all, thanks to Michael Stevenson for setting up this mailing
list, and to Geert Lovink of the Institute of Network Cultures[1] in
Amsterdam for hosting it!

My interest in this list derives from the PhD work I completed last
year at University College London, UK. My thesis looks into the genre
formation of blogging, which I describe as a process that took place
over a number of years in the late nineties, among a heterogeneous
discourse network.

Having defended and submitted the thesis, I put it aside to let it
cool off for a while. I've returned to it now, and I'm building out a
few areas I hadn't previously found the time to explore.

For some background on the mailing list: a few months ago, Michael
organised a web history session titled 'Prefiguring Social Media' at
the Amsterdam conference on 'Social Media and the Transformation of
Public Space'.[2] Megan Ankerson, Anne Helmond, Michael and I
presented short papers there.

Prior to the conference, Megan, Anne, Michael and I exchanged quite a
few e-mails, which, to me, was an exhilarating and inspiring change
from the not-so-splendid isolation in which I had conducted my thesis
research.

Our papers were well received; not least, I felt, because we'd had an
chance to attune our work to each other. At the conference's closing
session of plenary speakers, Hallvard Moe of Bergen University,
Norway, especially commended our session and asserted that media
studies would benefit from more historically oriented work being
undertaken.

My hope for this list is not only that it might help more historically
oriented work being undertaken in media studies, but that it might
also create a friendly, supportive, and inspiring climate amongst
peers in which such work can thrive.

Best,

Rudolf

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Rudolf Ammann
Honorary Research Associate
UCL Department of Information Studies

<http://tawawa.org>

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[1] <http://networkcultures.org/>
[2] <http://asca.uva.nl/events/events/content/conferences/2014/06/social-media.html>