World of Warcraft rapidly became the most popular online world game on the planet, amassing 11.5 million subscribers---officially making it an online community of gamers that had more inhabitants than
An information ecology is a system of people, practices, technologies and values in a local environment. Like their biological counterparts, information ecologies are diverse, continually evolving and
Essays apply activity theory, a psychological theory with a naturalistic emphasis that came to fruition in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, to problems of human-computer interaction. Sections on activit
A Small Matter of Programming asks why it has been so difficult for end users to command programming power and explores the problems of end-user-driven application development that must be solved to a
Activity theory holds that the human mind is the product of our interaction with people and artifacts in the context of everyday activity. Acting with Technology makes the case for activity theory as
Activity theory holds that the human mind is the product of our interaction with people and artifacts in the context of everyday activity. Acting with Technology makes the case for activity theory as
The common rhetoric about technology falls into two extreme categories: uncriticalacceptance or blanket rejection. Claiming a middle ground, Bonnie Nardi and Vicki O'Day call forresponsible, informed
The computerization of the economy -- and everyday life -- has transformed the division of labor between humans and machines, shifting many people to work that is hidden,
Ask a person on the street whether new technologies bring about important social change and you are likely to hear a resounding "yes." But the answer is less definitive amongst academics who study tec
Ask a person on the street whether new technologies bring about important social change and you are likely to hear a resounding "yes." But the answer is less definitive amongst academics who study tec
Play communities existed long before massively multiplayer online games; they have ranged-from bridge clubs to Civil War reenactments. With the emergence of digital networks, however, new varieties af
In Communities of Play, game researcher and designer Celia Pearce explores emergent fan cultures in networked digital worlds - actions by players that do not coincide with the intentions of the game's
