Edited by Aris Mousoutzanis & Daniel Riha New Media and the Politics of Online Communities Critical Issues Series Editors DrRobert Fisher DrDaniel Riha AdvisoryBoard DrAlejandroCervantes-Carson DrPeterMarioKreuter ProfessorMargaretChatterjee MartinMcGoldrick DrWayneCristaudo RevdStephenMorris MiraCrouch ProfessorJohnParry DrPhilFitzsimmons PaulReynolds ProfessorAsaKasher ProfessorPeterTwohig OwenKelly ProfessorSRamVemuri RevdDrKennethWilson,O.B.E ACriticalIssuesresearchandpublicationsproject. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ TheCyberHub ‘Cybercultures’ New Media and the Politics of Online Communities Edited by Aris Mousoutzanis & Daniel Riha Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford,UnitedKingdom © Inter-DisciplinaryPress 2010 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/ The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative,andwhichprovidesanexemplarforinter-disciplinaryandmulti- disciplinarypublishing. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedina retrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeanswithouttheprior permissionofInter-DisciplinaryPress. Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire.OX298HR,UnitedKingdom. +44(0)1993882087 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this bookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN:978-1-84888-032-0 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2010. First Edition. Tableof Contents Introduction ix ArisMousoutzanis PARTI ConceptsofCyberspaceandCyberculture ElectronicKairos 3 GaryThompson AuthenticityOnline:UsingWebnographyto 11 AddressPhenomenologicalConcerns LeightonEvans PARTII Cyberculture,NationalIdentityandDiaspora Stresses uponAnEmergentImaginedCommunity:  21 ResultsandInsightsfromtheEmiratesInternet Project HarrisBreslow&IlhemAllagui TheRoleofOnlineCommunitiesinSocial 33 NetworkingamongPolishMigrantsinthe UnitedKingdom RenataSeredynska-AbouEid EmergingCommunicationPracticesandImmigrant 41 AdolescentsintheirDevelopmentalProcess FedericadeCordova,EleonoraRiva& NicolettaVittadini PARTIII FanCulturesOnline TheDarkerSideofSlashFanfictionontheInternet 51 BritaHansen VirtualFriends:ExperiencesofanOnlineFan 59 Community HelenBarber&JaneCallaghan MusicBlogs,MusicScenes,Sub-CulturalCapital: 69 EmergingPracticesinMusicBlogs BeatriceJetto PARTIV CulturesofOnlineLearning E-Learning2.0asReciprocalLearning 79 PaoloLattanzio&RaffaeleMascella NewMediaLiteraciesofFutureMotherTongue 87 Teachers HanaMarešová&JaroslavSláma PARTV ChangingIdentitiesinCyberspace CloakroomCommunitiesandCyberspace:Towards 99 aConceptof‘Pseudo-Environmental’Niche JernejProdnik IdentityRepresentationsthroughMachinima 107 Creation TheodorosThomas&MarinaVihou ArtisticIdentitywithinCyberspace:Issuesgo 115 Global,InterdisciplinaryProjectsdoEvolve– APersonalView BelloBenischauer&ElisabethM.Eitelberger PARTVI TheFuturePlatforms MachinimationToolsandtheirImpactonCreativity 127 DanielRiha MediaConvergenceandtheFutureofOnline 137 Platforms FredrikGundelsweiler,ChristianFilk& BrunoStuder GamingPotentialofAugmentedReality 145 GasparPujolNicolau PARTVII ControversialIssuesinCyberlife Election2.0:HowtoUseCyberPlatformsto 155 WintheUSPresidentialElections-An InvestigationintotheChangingCommunication StrategiesofElectionCandidates SabineBaumann ClickHeretoProtest:ElectronicCivil   165 DisobedienceandtheFutureofSocial Mobilisation FideleVlavo CybertraumaandTechnoculturalShockin 173 ContemporaryMediaCulture ArisMousoutzanis PARTVIII ExternalisationandMediationofMemories IntegrationofDigitalMemorieswithinHand-Made 183 Objects CerysAlonso&ElizabethEdwards Once uponaParadigmShift:InteractiveStorytelling  191 inaNewMediaContext PatrickMcEntaggart PARTIX NewMediaandRepresentationsofthePast Mu-Blogging:YugoslavPop-MusicalArchives             201 Martin Pogačar NewMediaUseintheProductionofNational 209 IdentityandthePreservationofNationalHistory: TheDigitalEmiratesProject HarrisBreslow&HermanCoutinho PARTX TheoriesandConceptsinDigitisingIndividualand CommunityMemory DivergingStrategiesofRemembranceinTraditional 219 andWeb 2.0OnlineProjects HeikoZimmermann AlgorithmicMemory? MachinicVisionand 227 DatabaseCulture KatrinaSluis FluidMemoryontheWeb2.0 237 RaffaeleMascella&PaoloLattanzio Introduction Aris Mousoutzanis The papersinthisvolume reflectthe debatesthatprogressed during the 5th Global conference on Cybercultures, with Digital Memories: Exploring Critical Issues, held as a part of Cyber Hub activity in Salzburg, Austria in March 2010. The edited draft papers make up a snapshot for the actualpublishing. Whereasthepaperspresentedintheeventwereextremelydiversein subject matter, theoretical orientation, and methodological approach, a number of key common themes and issues were raised and discussed by differentspeakersand membersofthe audience. This year, perhapsthe most importanttopictobediscussedwasthequestionofidentityanditsinteraction with digital technologies, online platforms and, primarily, the new media. A large amount of cultural criticism has already been written on contemporary theoretical understandings of identity as a multi-faceted cultural construct constantly in a state of fluidity and change, subject to its interaction with ‘other’ individuals, communities, discourses and the wider ‘culture’ - which, in theoretical disciplines like those relied upon in this collaborative work, is often understood variously as ‘technoculture,’ ‘media culture,’ ‘cyberculture.’ Many of the papers included in this collection follow this approachastheyexaminetheeffectsoftheseculturesupondifferentaspects, constructionsandrepresentationsofidentity. Theso-called‘newmedia,’ontheother hand,arethe mainfocusof several papers included in this collection and, in certain cases, their main subject of inquiry, which often concentrates on the alleged ‘newness’ of the new media. Contributors such as Jernej Prodnik follow previous theoretical approaches that have questioned the extent to which the remediation of previous technologiesinto new media offersasradicallya break withearlier media forms as it is often suggested. Others, like Theodoros Thomas and Marina Vihou, explore the extent to which the new possibilities for online representations of identity provided by digital technologies - such as machinima platforms in their case - are productivelyexploited byusers; it is foundthatindividualsusethe ‘new’mediain‘old’waysandthatnewmedia willnotnecessarilyguaranteetheconstructionofnewidentities. Discussions like these are only an indication of the wider interest demonstrated in this collection in the interaction between new media and identity,infactinmostofitscategoriesoftenaddressedinculturalcriticism- genderandsexuality,ethnicity,andnationalidentity,whichnaturallywasthe onemostoftenbroughtupinacollectionofpapersfromaglobalconference. The very concept of a national identity has been increasingly questioned, challenged or even reaffirmed in a world that becomes increasingly