Cyberpl@y: Communicating Online

Description

The Internet is changing the way we communicate. As a 'cross' between letter-writing and conversation, email has altered traditional letter-writing conventions. Websites and chat rooms have made visual aspects of written communication of greater importance, arguably, than ever before. New communication codes continue to evolve with unprecedented speed. This book explores playfulness and artfulness in digital writing and communication and anwers penetrating questions about this new medium. Under what conditions do old letter-writing norms continue to be important, even in email? Digital greetings are changing the way we celebrate special occasions and public holidays, but will they take the place of paper postcards and greeting cards? The author also looks at how new art forms, such as virtual theatre, ASCII art, and digital folk art on IRC, are flourishing, and how many people collect and display digital fonts on handsome Websites, or even design their own. Intended as a 'time capsule' documenting developments online in the mid- to late 1990s, when the Internet became a mass medium, this book treats the computer as an expressive instrument fostering new forms of creativity and popular culture. See also - http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msdanet/cyberpl@y

Brenda Danet is Professor Emerita of Sociology and Communication and Danny Arnold Chair Emerita in Communication, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

'This is a highly original book with wide appeal on a hot topic A splendid book. It will speak to both a scholarly and a general audience and will cut across fields - communication, visual culture, electronic communication, multi-media design, and cultural studies. It is original in its scope and conception. It is astonishingly rich in terms of visual material, ethnographic accounting, historical references, and analytic concerns. The writing is clear and lively.' Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University 'This work provides cogent evidence that the scholarly study of cyberlife has now come of age. Writing with humor and elan, Danet demonstrates that e-life has changed the way we write, the way we think and how we live.' Gary Alan Fine, Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University 'Cyberpl@y does a masterful job of illustrating the deeply meaningful nature of text-based communication online. Through insightful analysis of a variety of forms of online expression, Danet is able to shed new light on new media of communication. It is a book of both historical value, as it examines all too often overlooked subjects (such as ASCII art, fontography, online greetings) in studies of the Internet and the computer. Danet's book greatly pushes forward our understanding of orality and literacy in the digital age.' Steve Jones, University of Illinois 'Brenda Danet applies a unique combination of expertise and skills in sociolinguistics, literature, folklore and aesthetics in this pioneering, empirical study of playfulness in digital communication.' Elihu Katz, University of Pennsylvania and Hebrew University of Jerusalem 'This wonderful new book provides enough surprises to amuse, and amaze Semiotics has never looked so exciting.' Monthly Book Reviews of the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies 'A fascinating series of case studies Danet encapsulates a transitional moment in computer-mediated communication; Cyberpl@y draws on and summarizes a wealth of information, being unafraid to offer informed speculation.' New Media and Society 'It is an important book that all readers interested in the playful convergence of communication and art on the Internet should read.' Symbolic Interaction 'Among the large number of books that aspire to interpret the unwritten rules of communnication online, this text stands out for the quality of its empirical research and for its examination of the historical roots of the signs and signifiers constantly exchanged on the Net.' neural.it 'Brenda Dannet's Cyberpl@y grapples with what might seem, to a cynical observer, like an impossible paradox - writing a solidly academic book about fun. Rather than hauling out the usual suspect in investigations into new media ( the question of identity), Danet heads straight for two less obvious topics. These are, Firstly, communication and, secondly, playfulness,with all its unsettled association with productivity, laws, 'the real' and liberty. Cyberpl@y is one of the first books to scrutinize digital greetings card, personal email correspondance...,the world of font collectors, ASC11 art and the spontaneity of IRC (Internet Relay Chat).' Sociology 'This book is all about the fun part of online communication, and although Brenda Danet is completely serious in her analysis and theoretical framework, the book is itself fun to read.' Journal of American Folklore 'This book raises thought-provoking questions about the ways in which communications are changing the ways we think.' The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 'A pioneering work.' Discourse Society