This articlecompares two extended interactions that took place recently on the Internet, one from a recreational Internet Relay Chat (IRC)channel, and the other from an academic listservdiscussion group. The two interactions exhibit similar gender dynamic s, which can be characterized as harassment of female by male participants. This harassment takes different forms, in keeping with the possibilities inherent in the two modes of computer-mediated communication. Whereas female participants on IRC are kicked off the channel, in the discussion group harassers must rely exclusively on language to intimidate and silence. This ª rhetoric of harassmentº crucially invokes libertarian principles of freedom of expression, constructing women’s resistance as ª censorship.º A rhetorical analysis of the two harassment episodes thus sheds light on the means used to construct and maintain asymmetrical gender and power dynamic s in different modes of CMC.

For the current youth generation, the Internet has always existed. Online technologies have profoundly contributed to a dramatic techocultural shift in contemporary society, transforming how we learn, work, play, and socialize. Information from multiple sources on everything from Athabascan birch bark baskets to the calculation of z-scores is there for the googling. Global social networks – made visible, designable, and searchable via services such as “Friendster ”

This article examines the ways virtual environment software is explicitly designed with particular visions of identity, communication, and community in mind. This social context of software is considered with a particular focus on the ways various forms of embodiment are encoded in systems. Rather than simply framing software as a primarily technical product, this article analyzes the way software engineers and designers shape architectures and systems as conduits for social values and norms. Considerations of responsibility, identity, legitimacy, and sociability emerge as central factors in design practice.

Cyberspace challenges our traditional cultural understandings of notions as basic as time, space, and—more importantly—identity. With the advent and growth of electronic communication, it is becoming increasingly necessary to ask ourselves who we actually are and who we are interacting with when we are on-line. This article focuses on a case-study from the IRC chat room #rudos (Undernet), and poses the question of whether cyberspace is quite simply a powerful means of reaffirming pre-established Physical-Reality identities, or, on the contrary, a medium that allows for the creation of Virtual-Reality personae. Drawing on examples from casual conversations extracted from our emic ethnographic approach, the project soon revealed that the traditional dichotomous separation between reality and virtuality is not quite as clear-cut as many would have originally assumed.

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Abstract: This paper is an outline of a research agenda concerning implementation of information- and communication technology (ICT) in Swedish schools. During the last decade the Foundation of Knowledge and Competence has spent nearly 150 million euros on its school campaign in order to build a better infrastructure for ICT in Swedish schools. The main purpose with these investments was to create conditions for a development of ICT in the school. When the implementation of ICT in school education takes place it becomes embedded in local and historical contexts. The construction of new practice as well as the reconstruction of practices can be understood only in relation to this embeddedness. From this starting-point questions are raised whether the ICT increases or changes the organizational control in line with the New Public Management (NPM) and what implications ICT has on the educational practice. In the paper we use the case study of the municipality of Stenungsund in Sweden in order to analyse the matters of technology, organization of professions and gender identity. Keywords: Information- and communication technology, school organization, educational organization, educational practice, new public management, gender identity, practice, profession

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This report and a related issue brief are available at: