Game Culture and Technology Lab is an interdisciplinary faculty from both the UC Irvine and UC San Diego campuses + partnership with artists and industries. Via Pasta and Vinegar

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"Computer Space provides a tour of some of the classic video arcade games in the Museum's collection. The exhibition includes information on the history of the games, and provides links to downloadable versions of some of the games discussed." indirectly via infocult

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Jeff Shantz, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the York University, submitted his paper NETWAR AND CYBERWAR IN THE KILLING FIELDS OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (Word-Document) to the memefest (festival of radical communication). Didn't look into it, but maybe interesting for someone here.

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"Editors Sidney I. Dobrin, Cathlena Martin, and Laurie Taylor seek proposals for a new collection of original articles that address the use and place of space and ecology in video games. This collection will examine video games in terms of the spaces they create and use, the metaphors of space on which they rely, and the ecologies that they create within those spaces. This collection will address the significant intersections in terms of how and why video games construct space and ecology as they do, and in terms of how those constructions shape conceptions of both space and ecology." via TerraNova

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"The Master's Course in Digital Games Research and Design is a course module series that uses the resources of several disciplines to address the digital game as a medium of high cultural importance. It aims to educate participants in academic game studies and in conceptual game design fundamentals, by exploiting their practical and theoretical connections." via TerraNova

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is a long-term ethnographic study of the cultures living and working in the hi-tech communities of Silicon Valley, now entering its fourteenth year. Beginning in 1991, Drs. Charles Darrah and J. A. English-Lueck, professors at San José State University, California, developed a collaborative research project that is investigating the Silicon Valley culture area. This region is a laboratory for research into high technology communities due to its robust and varied industrial base, the use of information technologies, organizational innovations, and its broad cultural diversity.

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The Social Computing Group, one of Microsoft's research projects does research and developes "software that contributes to compelling and effective social interactions, with a focus on user-centered design processes and rapid prototyping".

worth a look are the listed papers and publications on the scg wep-presence.

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Ethnobase is a web resource for ethnographic approaches to studying Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The site is based at the London School of Economics, Department of Sociology, and aims to network the growing ranks of ICT ethnographers, increasing communication and awareness of our work.

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Not really new nor really anthropological but still very interesting is the Online Community Toolkit. "Thinking about building or hosting an online community? Looking for specific tips, tools and ideas? Start here."

The Editor, Nancy White, also has a very nice weblog, "A place to capture and share links about online interaction, online community, distance learning"

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The 27 years old German Markus Giesler is not only North America's presumably youngest professor in marketing but also gained some experience as an 'Netnograf': UNISPIEGEL writes that "just like an anthropologist enters the Amazon jungle, Giesler enters the World Wide Web. He classifies the cyber consumers into tribes and researches into their rituals and religions. ... He has observed the Napster community which bootlegs music titles from each other's hard disk. Giesler mocks that they go after the slogan of 'liberty for information', an interpretation of Marx' and Engel's 'abolishment of property'. But instead of some profane internet thiefs he discovered a www-community (or congregation?) who wants to 'cleanse itself from the evil of music consuming culture' through their deeds".in GermanWie ein Ethnologe den Amazonasdschungel betritt Giesler das World Wide Web. Er unterteilt die Cyber-Konsumenten in Stämme und erforscht deren Rituale und Religionen. Als so genannter Netnograf hat er die Napster-Gemeinde beobachtet, die sich gegenseitig Musiktitel von den Festplatten raubkopiert. "Dabei gaben sie die Parole ›Freiheit der Information‹ aus - frei nach Marx' und Engels' Devise ›Abschaffung von Eigentum‹", spottet Giesler. Statt profaner Internet-Diebe entdeckte er eine www-Gemeinde, die sich durch ihr Tun von dem "Übel der Musikkonsumkultur reinigen" wollte.

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Clay Shirky has written an interesting piece over at many2many, called Moblogging from the front and the new Reformation: "Once the Church lost the ability to control the direct perception of scripture, thanks to the printing of (relatively) cheap bibles in languages other than Latin, their loss of political hegemony followed. This is what we are seeing now relative to the military's control of information. A year or so ago, someone in the DoD told me that the thing that would most affect the prosecution of the war in Iraq would be images of DAB's -- Dead American Bodies. The unplanned spread of photos of coffins, and now of torture victims, means that control of this part of the war is outside the military's hands." Read all ... via many2many

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