C.h.a.p.t.e.r 2: ReSearch


What follows are suggestions for How to research the various themes--Virtual Societies and Identities--discussed and exemplified on the Net and the WWW.

(If you should need additional help with using the search engines referred to below, then turn to Appendix A in CR2 and to the Appendices on line. And if you should have any questions or suggestions, simply drop me a note at VVitanza@aol.com and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.)



Go to Ch. 2:    Recommended Links    Bibliographies/Webographies  




Notice: When you click on the AltaVista, 'virtual communities' link it will open a new browser window. You should be able to work with both windows open, reducing the size of one or both. Try it! You will be amazed at how efficently you will be able to hop from one to the next.


In chapter 1, we used HotBot, so now let's turn to AltaVista and see what we can find on virtual communities and virtual identities.

Looking for the very general term "virtual communities", I find some rather interesting prospects:


1. Dialog on Virtual Communities Overview

Feed Dialog on Virtual Communities. Question 1. Howard Rheingold (8/16) William Mitchell (8/25) Mark Slouka (8/16) Howard Rheingold (8/22) Mark Slouka... http://www.feedmag.com/95.08dialog_outline.html - size 2K - 17-Dec-95 - English - Translate

2. The Best Virtual Communities

The Best Virtual Communities. presented by CompuGraph International. United States Communities. Scenes of Vermont - http://www.pbpub.com/vermont/ Fresno... http://www.compugraph.com/vircom.html - size 2K - 26-May-97 - English - Translate

3. Virtual Communities, Incorporated

nbsp; Welcome to Virtual Communities, Incorporated's Home Site. VCI is an Internet creation firm specializing in building community... http://www.vcommunities.com/ - size 1K - 16-Jun-97 - English - Translate 4. Virtual Communities

Virtual Communities on the Internet. Columbia Basin Virtual Community Project : CBVCP. STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. GO BACK to our web page!! http://revolution.3-cities.com/~dgibson/projct19.html - size 412 bytes - 8-Jun-96 - English - Translate

5. Virtual Communities

Virtual Communities for Environmental Education. A general query and call to all netizens. Great Idea for content and programs for networked learners.... http://coehp.idbsu.edu/globe-id/virtual-community.html - size 19K - 27-Jan-96 - English - Translate

6. SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT BUILDING VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

Some Thoughts About Building Virtual Communities. Institutions, long involved in building "communities" on campus, will see themselves actively building... http://home.navisoft.com/edg/communities.htm - size 11K - 30-May-96 - English - Translate

7. The ImagiNation Network to create 'Virtual Communities'

Kevin Compton - AT&T Consumer Products 408-452-3966 (office) 408-353-3883 (home)
Mike Zeaman - AT&T Consumer Products 201-581-3938 (office) 908-277-1105...
http://www.att.com/press/0793/930728.cpa.html - size 5K - 6-Aug-97 - English - Translate

8. Radical Marketing: VIRTUAL MARKETING TO VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

Radical Marketing: Virtual Marketing To Virtual Communities. Dec. 9-11, 1997, Los Angeles, Calif. Register Here. Critical Information. developing new... http://www.missouri.edu/~ndnwww/conferences/nmnm/97-12/index.html - size 3K - 5-Aug-97 - English - Translate

9. InterChange on Virtual Communities (Pt.II)

InterChange Transcript on Virtual Communities(Pt. II) To return to the Part Two page, click here. Kevin Tiernan: On the WWW we can see pictures of the... http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wbutler/IC126PII.html - size 18K - 28-Aug-97 - English - Translate


And the additional list of hits are interesting also. Let's take a look at the first one, which appears to be a roundtable discussion. When I click on the link, I am sent to a rather dull list, but with some interesting names on it such as

    Howard Rheingold,
    Mark Slouka,
    Stacy Horn, and
    William Mitchell.

When I click on the first question, I am sent to Feed Magazine's major page with the beginning of the actual dialogue, "Public Life in Electropolis: Part One on Feed's 'Dialogue on Virtual Communities'."

Now, check out the other eight sites and see what you find. Remember, the phrase "virtual communities" can and will be taken to mean many different things. You will find some rather humorous sites.

Notice: When you click on the AltaVista, 'virtual identities' link it will open a new browser window.
Let's search now for "virtual + identities". Remember that since this is a global, not a specific or refined, search, you will get thousands of hits, many of which will not be what you need or want:

1. spacescapes - Virtual Identities

ISEA, International Society for Electronic Art http://www.sat.qc.ca/isea/intersociety/sym/archives/isea94/pr409.html - size 876 bytes - 20-Sep-97 - English - Translate

2. Virtual Identities

Who Do You Love -- Frog Prince or Virtual Toad? Identity Reinvention On The Internet. by Chris Pullen. It is 11:14 p.m. on a Thursday. Sitting in front of. http://www.publicnews.com/issues/732/cover.html - size 17K - 4-Sep-97 - English - Translate

3. spacescapes - Virtual Identities

Virtual Identities - Inhabiting Cyberspace. Kari A. Hintikka. http://www.uiah.fi/bookshop/isea_proc/spacescapes/09.html - size 207 bytes - 14-Mar-96

4. www\cyberconf\papers\becker

Barbara Becker. Virtual Identities: the Imaginary Self. Barbara Becker GMD St. Augustin
Germany Virtual Identities: the Imaginary Self1. Barbara Becker...
http://televr.fou.telenor.no/cyberconf/papers/becker.html - size 38K - 10-Jul-97 - English - Translate

5. SOCGRAD: jun97 by date

SOCGRAD: jun97 by date. Most recent messages. Messages sorted by: [ thread ][ subject ][ author ] Other mail archives. Starting: Sun 01 Jun 1997 -... http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/socgrad/jun97/date.html - size 33K - 9-Sep-97 - English - Translate

6. Mail&Guardian: Cybershock in the Cape

Cybershocked in Cape Town. SERIES of "Internet Culture" public events from this Saturday, aims introduce a bewildered Cape Town public to such mysteries... http://www.mg.co.za/mg/pc/96may/8may-internetpop.html - size 5K - 8-May-96 - English - Translate

7. Avatars and Costuming

Ioannis Paniaras. Virtual Identities and User Interaction. Media Lab UIAH. University of Art & Design Helsinki Finland. Avatars and costuming in cyber... http://www.uiah.fi/~paniaras/E2A.html - size 11K - 8-Jun-97 - English - Translate

8. Voice of the Shuttle: Cyberculture Page

VOICE OF THE SHUTTLE:CYBERCULTURE PAGE. (see also Technology of Writing, Science, Technology, and Culture, and Media Studies: Media Theory & History).. http://saguaro.f.chiba-u.ac.jp/vosMirror/cyber.html - size 73K - 23-Jun-97 - English - Translate

9. Student Seminar Two - Problematic Boundaries - Identity

Student Seminar Two - Problematic Boundaries - Identity. Welcome to AltaVista Forum document sharing. Documents. Title.... http://forum.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/cybersociety/dispatch.cgi/cyberdoc3/showFolder/100001/author - size 6K - 6-Oct-97 - English - Translate

Number 7 looks interesting: "Avatars and Costuming in Cyber Communities" <http://www.uiah.fi/~paniaras/E2A.html>, which is an article that will supplment your readings in this chapter. It's well worth a read.


You could continue this kind of searching by way of a variety of search engines specifically in relation to Rheingold's, Turkle's, and Slouka's books. For example, both Rheingold and Turkle write about the importance of the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic). What more can you find out about the WELL by way of researching the WWW? Is there an east coast WELL, or something comparable? Or is this kind of virtual community only a west-coast experience?

The first thing that you could do is simply search for the WELL, but that would give you so mannnnnny hits, right?

Another way is to make use of the options provided at AltaVista. You will notice that you are given two primary options: search and refine. The latter options is 'Boolean logic made simple' for you. As a learning experiment, go to AltaVista and look for the WELL by globally searching and then by using the option refine. You will notice immediately that the options are rather meaningless in relation to your understanding of the topic:

    7% You, know, your, think, don, want, well, tell, yourself

    5% Yeah, gonna, wanna, ain, huh, gotta, doin

    5% Mulder, scully, smiled, grinned, nodded, sighed, dana, stared....

Therefore, you will have research for the WELL by adding other terms such as 'San Francisco' and 'virtual community'. With these try a refined search and you will get better results:

    21% Newscast, anchor, sot, roanoke, super, nat, writer, tape

    21% Rheingold, virtual, homesteading, community, cyberspace, howard

    21% Pst, pdt, signed

    19% Lectronic, frontier, electronic, censor

    16% Edt, usa, tuesday, december, march, Sunday

    13% Posted, cyberteens, guyz, keypal, hey, yall, hello

    12% Kapor, barlow, coevolution, hackers

    11% Phiber, phrack, summercon, urvile, puzzlement, phreaks, optik, kyrie, phreak

    10% Francisco, conferencing, san, february, well

    9% Looking, hair, eyes

    9% Melanie, morn, mornin

    8% Cyberqueer, francecom, pressler, rhob, censorship, dumbed, gorton, lhob, indecency

    7% Telecomputing, vtw, hollings

    7% Swm, male, discreet, submissive, openminded, mwm, goodlooking, female

    7% Wassup, whassup, representin, sistas

    7% Sunned, illus, edgeworn, spine, soiled, chipped, ffep, edgewear, foxed

    6% Sundevil, crackdown, cpsr, hacker

    6% Eff, protest, liberties, frontiers

    5% Philippines, kumusta, quezon, manila, makati, talaga

    5% Shares, stock, securities

Now the trick is to "require" or "exclude" each of the categories available for this search. (Remember: What you are doing is refining, narrowing down a search.) So do just this kind of yea-ing and nay-ing and see what you come up with!

If you use HotBot and if you want to find, let's say, something comparable to the WELL but in New York, you will have to choose the Boolean phrase 'option' and then use Boolean combinations such as WELL + history + New York? Or Virtual Communities + New York - WELL - California - CA; or select "more search options" and type in the yeas and nays called for. In using Boolean logic, you are limited only my your imagination, but more specifically by using it efficiently and intuitively, which you will develop in time, you WILL eventually find what you want :-)! All this requires patience. In time, this process will improve.


Once again, the Search Engines:
HotBot || AltaVista || HotBot || Yahoo ||


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