Getting to know you

[Marla Coffey]

Greetings, everyone! Looks like it's time to update my intro to this thread. When I first posted it, we had just passed the 100 member mark. As of today we have welcomed 535, and many more to come.

Even if you've been here for a while, it's not too late to introduce yourself. By getting to know one another we can truly collaborate in a transdisciplinary environment. None of us can cross disciplines alone, but together we all can!

In the thread below I'll tell you a little bit about me and I hope to learn more about you. What brought you to TCFIR? What is the focus of the work you are doing right now? And if you are comfortable sharing, what interests and hobbies capture your attention when you aren't working?

Thanks for taking a minute to introduce yourself--I'm looking forward to meeting you!

Best regards,

Marla

[Denise M. Carter]

Hi Marla,

I was about number 96 I think - I can remember back in the year ‘dot’ looking through the windows of UMIST at what I think was the MU5 and being absolutely fascinated!

Dad always said I was the nosiest kid ever – and I’m still nosy – guess at the bottom that’s what helps make a ‘good’ researcher. Being an avid sci-fi fan helps too – my first ever encounter was Robert Heinlein’s ‘Tunnel in the Sky’ and I still have that copy in a purple jacket.

I’m a social anthropologist and when I did my PhD – an ethnography of a Virtual Community – we were only just beginning to get our heads round the sociality of the internet - now we have fully embraced it and I am still fascinated.
My research nowadays centres on the risks and opportunities for children and young people of using internet and communications technologies. I’m working on an EU project called SimSafety that is developing an MMOG based on a Sim variant

Oh – and I have a greenhouse that rescues my sanity...

Denise

[Marla Coffey]

Nice to meet you, Denise!

I love nosy people...especially when they use their powers for good instead of evil like you are doing. There is so much to learn from people who refuse to stop learning!

I'm curious because I have a background in English and not computer science, could you explain what a "MMOG based on a Sim variant" means? (See--I'm learning from someone who refuses to stop learning :)

And tell us more about your greenhouse. I have to admit that I'm jealous. In the summertime my flowers force me to slow down and decompress a little. I get my best thinking done when my hands are dirty, so I miss that in the winter. What's growing in that greenhouse right now?

Marla

[Denise M. Carter]

Hi Maria - basically a multi user online game based on the open source version of second life!

My greenhouse is a little scraggy at the moment - I've had a good crop of cucmbers but there is now just one left - almost the only green thing at the end of an 8 foot long plant that has seen better days! The tomatoes are still coming and healthy but the peppers have finished and the aubergines have nearly gone. Soon I'll be cleaning out for winter but this year I'm going to try some winter crops - last winter I grew potatoes in pots - not too successfully!!

Out in the garden I have a wide selection of hostas and lilies - they need separating and moving soon. I think you are so right about slowing down and decompressing - somehow pottering gives me balance

Denise

[Shannon Kennan]

Hi all,

I am a PhD candidate in Mass Comm at Penn State. I've spent my career till now working in the fields of psychology and education as a teacher, student affairs administrator, and counselor.

I am now planning to study that place where technology, psychology, and education convene from a couple of perspectives. First, my assistantship is within the distance learning arm of Penn State, specifically looking at issues involving faculty development, new technologies, and online teaching competencies. Second, I am directing my research within the PhD program towards problematic internet use, ethical and moral decision-making, emotions, and mental health/illness issues within the media.

[Andy Fugard]

Hi all,

Originally I'm from Northern Ireland. I have a background in computer science and psychology, and wrote my PhD at Edinburgh University on how individual differences in autistic traits relate to reasoning style. Now I work as a postdoc in Salzburg, Austria, on an interdisciplinary (psychologists, mathematicians, philosophers...) project investigating uncertain reasoning. I also teach a course entitled "Embracing individual differences in thinking and reasoning" for psychology undergraduates.

What I love most about the Internet: the variety of tools for many different kinds of communication which dramatically increase the chances of learning Fun Things and meeting people who are like minded but also others who can challenge one's views. Also good about the net: search engines and electronic journals.

Cheers,

Andy

[Marla Coffey]

Nice to meet you, Andy!

So what's the best thing about Austria?

Marla

[Robert Zenhausern]

Your dissertation sounds fascinating. Is it or a summary available? I am a retired professor of psych with a research program in neuropsych that stresses individual difference as it applies to thinking and also learning disability. I am interested in developing a Database of Consciousness filled with introspective data like: When a song runs through your head, are you singing or listening? Do you image better with your eyes open or closed? It is me doing the singing and I do not have visual imagery at all.

[Marla Coffey]

Robert, this would make a great discussion all by itself.

As for me--I am listening not singing, and imaging with eyes wide open.

What does this mean? :)

Marla

[karla]

navigating around this site

very short intro to me
:) :) (: (:
my area of research is the virtual world of Second Life
presently studying for my Master of Research (MRes) Utopian Studies
at university of plymouth uk

definition of utopia from Thomas Moore's Utopia = no place
what could be more of a 'no, non, or not place' than a virtual world

my life has embraced the situationist stance of breaking down the barriers of work and play

having home educated my five children - i now study role play sims within Second Life,

learning without an institution

studying rules, developing a character, improvised free form roleplay, co-operating with other group members

unlike video games with the mission and outcomes set out, roleplay sims, with freeform roleplay means that you never know where the adventure will take you

imagination is key to utopian thinking, the creators of role play sims have a dream place in mind and create it, as with alternative communities and co-operatives i have worked with. Rules are made that show the desires of how the initiators would like the dress code, weapons, combat meter, etc to he adherred to.

as the group or goups grow, changes have to be made, if the players or goup members do not like how the sim is going or run, then they leave, sometimes on mass,

some sims actively involve players in the decision making, Does this - along with being who or what ever you wish to be in a virtual world limited as it says only by your imagination - change how you act in the real world, or do more and more people immerse themselves ever deeper in cyberspace, to work, socialise, play, date?

the enabling of creativity that computers and now second life, bring into our lives, has kept me truly immersed in cyberspace, my utopian garden made of data and pixels,,,has taught me basic scripting, animating and object creation, those with skills always happy to help out and share knowledge...
taking photo's of the wonderous creativity i see as i explore the thousands of sims..
now to highlight as what i see as the creativity that can ensue from such immersion, i am making a sl film to bring my thesis to life

also
as part of a personal campaign to incorporate multidiverse presentations that enable those of us with learning differences to fully participate and utilise our skills (i'm dyslexic or neuro diverse as i prefer)

my faculty is cultural theory in the arts at university of plymouth

my degree from exeter university BA (hons) Philosophy with Media
introduced me to cyberspace
other interests besides comparing actual real life intentional communities with second life intentional communities and the 'human all to human' aspects that seem to present so much difficulty in reaching the utopian ideals of co-operation, mutual aid, concensus decision making.

real life background
community education
alternative co-operative worker
see www.catalystcollective part of the radical routes network of co-operatives
www.radicalroutes (initiating director of both)
workshop creator/facilitator

presently setting myself up as a storymaker and teller
stories for all ages based on my second life role play characters and adventures
stimulating imagination
creative writing exercises
group created endings
my web page is under construction

would like to network with other researchers and interested parties re virtual worlds
looking for journal articles conferences
academic books are mostly outdated by the time they come out with a view to how fast technology is

oh and last but not least
living simply so others may simply live

i buy 99% of all my goods from charity shops - food from the local farm shop - made the political choice to give up driving for 10 years to use public transport with all my children - take responsibility for my actions and plant seeds for others to do the same
i grow fruit bushes and salad in my garden along with many herbs - i compost with my open compost and my wormery :)

my dream at the moment :)
be given a whole sim in second life to build my own version of an alternative educational playground
:) :)

[Marla Coffey]

Karla, thanks for sharing. It sounds like you have a very creative life. :)

I especially like your spin on neuro diversity. I'm neuro diverse myself although not dyslexic, and I like seeing the whole 'disability' thing framed in a positive light. Having to create my own accommodations along the way can be incredibly frustrating but it also gives me strengths that I might not have otherwise. Thanks for giving me a new word to replace some of the old ones. :)

Best regards,

Marla

[Maria Luisa Malerba]

Hi everybody,
My name's Maria Luisa (Luisa for friends), I am Italian, I'm 27 years old and I have a Master'd Degree in Communication and Multimedia at the University of Bari. I wrote my thesis on Prof. de Kerckhove and his thinking and I joined the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology in 2007 to deepen my interests in the Internet field. In a month I'll start a PhD at the UOC in Barcelona. My interests deal with the use of new technologies applied to the field of Glottodidactics. In future I'd like to teach Italian to foreigners.
I love languages and I study English, Spanish, Catalan and Russian. In future I want to study French, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic (there's time...).
I also like networking and the Internet in all its forms. I feel this is a no-return time in the history of humanity and I'm eager to live in the times of the digital revolution!
I have a backgound in Humanities (basically I studied ancient Greek, Latin, Philosophy and Literature at school) and I need to improve my technical knowledge and know how. I am grateful to prof. de Kerckhove because, when he explains our epoch and the changements we are living, he usually begins with the past and the alphabet in the ancient Greece, following McLuhan's lessons. I think that when you make connections with our past you can better reveal and discover the present. Now I know that having studied "dead languages" like Greek and Latin does make sense.

.

[Marla Coffey]

Hi, Maria Luisa,

I value your interest in connecting with the past in order to better understand the present. I wonder what you think about this--My first response is that the development of our cultures and communities shape what we value, and what we value is what we seek most on the Internet. If something we value isn't there, we actively try to develop it. Thus our past clarifies our present and shapes our future. Does that make sense?

I'd love to know how your knowledge of languages integrates with your understanding and use of the Internet. How do all those pieces fall together? :)

Best regards,

Marla