Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine
Masthead /
ISSN 1076-027X / Volume 2, Number 1 / January 1, 1995 / Page 1
CMC '95: Previews, Predictions, Prognostications
Editor's Page
-
COVER STORY
-
The Nerd in the Noosphere
-
The Internet Liberation Front, the Lawnmower Man, monadology, neurobiology,
and Tai Chi...Michael Heim pulls it all together metaphysically on this
journey with stopovers in the global village and the Omega Point. Can a
French Jesuit paleontologist and the Baron who invented differential
calculus find common ground in a virtual community? Heim thinks so.
- PROGNOSTICATIONS
-
Cybercasting About Cyberspace
-
The very concept behind this special issue of CMC Magazine
troubles Laura Gurak, who
warns of the development of an explicit technological determinism that
underlies the prognostication process. Gurak believes any questions we ask
about the future of CMC are actually reflections of what we should be asking
about society as a whole; she outlines what she considers to be the prime
assumptions being made about CMC, highlighting those which deserve careful
scrutiny.
-
Transitions in Studying Computer-Mediated Communication
-
The burgeoning presence of on-line activity throughout society--fostered by new CMC
technologies--has changed approaches to studying CMC since the field's
beginnings in the 1970's. John December explores new issues that researchers
should attend to, and offers his predictions for how scholarship, technology,
and society will continue to change during the coming year.
-
Can We Keep Community Networks Running?
-
Although civic computer networks provide valuable services to local
communities, these grassroots efforts are facing a myriad of threats to their
existence, such as unstable funding, increased competition, and limited
technical resources. Steve Cisler looks at the challenges that community
networks are facing, and he offers suggestions for keeping them running in the
face of these obstacles.
- THE CMC WRITER'S BLOC: A VIEW FROM THE ACADEMY
-
What's Dis'Course About? Arguing CMC into the Writing Classroom
-
Purdue's Bill Hart-Davidson takes the CMC argument to a specific battlefront:
that which was once called "Freshman Composition." What happens when writing
no longer equals print? Instructors are forced to reconsider what they're
teaching and why they're teaching it in the first place. Hart-Davidson asks,
and begins to answer, the question that faces all writing teachers who favor
CMC: How can we argue our case more effectively than we have been?
-
MUDS in Education: New Environments, New Pedagogies
-
The use of multi-user domains in the writing classroom can benefit both
teacher and student; according to Louisville's Tari Fanderclai, MUDs even
provide students with opportunities for "incidental," self-motivated learning.
But the insistence of many academicians on utilizing MUDspace to perpetuate
traditional notions of classroom education has Fanderclai worried about the
future of educational MUDding.
- TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS
-
The View from Singapore: Re-Imagining the Wild, Wild Web
-
From halfway around the world, international electronic commerce professional
Thomas I.M. Ho never felt far from home, thanks to the World-Wide Web. His
take on the bullish and bearish features of the national information
infrastructure and the commercial potential of the Internet suggests an
exciting, if not entirely rosy future.
-
Reconceptualizing the Virtual: Bringing CMC Back into this Reality
-
We need to re-think the concept of "virtuality" itself, according to
Greg Siering, particularly when we're considering MUDspace. The rapid
growth of educational and professional MUDs is raising a "real" problem
--the "real life" priorities of businesses and the academy. Siering calls for
a reconceptualization of MUDs as "communicative environments," among other
necessary changes.
- IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES...?
-
It's Fun to Have Fun But You Have to Know How!
or, How Cavorting on the Net Will Save the Academy
-
Rebecca Rickly, Eric Crump and others tackle the tough issue of why
folks in the academy resent the sense of play that seems intrinsic to
cyberspace. Follow their Borgesean, hypertextual frolic as they argue for more
fun in the halls of academe.
-
Do Computers Matter?
-
Are computers any more important now for the average person than they were 30
years ago? Does the explosion in sales of multimedia PCs signal that the
digital revolution--so long predicted for the middle-class household--has
finally arrived? Peter Jerram takes a look at the sort of cultural
revolution(s) that the PC is bringing to those households.
- THE LAST LINK
-
Of Ivory Towers and Infobahns
-
Metaphor, metaphor, who's got the metaphor? In our haste to name the
tools that allow for computer-mediated communication, are we forgetting
the effect the naming process itself can have? Mick Doherty and Kevin Hunt
swap a series of letters arguing the point.
Letters to the editor always welcome:
mailto:john@december.com
Index /
CMC Studies Center