Tutorial #16

Network Communities

John M. Carroll, Stuart Laughton, Mary Beth Rosson, Virginia Tech

Monday, April 15, full-day

Benefits

You will see and learn about many of the diverse network communities on the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). You will learn access procedures to a wide variety of network services, and see the use of a wide variety of network community mechanisms.

Origins

This tutorial is new for CHI 96.

Features

virtual trip to the Blacksburg Electronic Village
mechanisms and infrastructures for network communities, including Internet Relay Chat channels, newsgroups, collaboration rooms, MUDs, MOOs, listservs, bulletin boards, Web-based annotation systems, e-mail, gophers, and interactive video
how mechanisms affect norms of behavior within a network community
sense of place, co-presence, and group membership in network communities
survey of network community applications for education, business, science, technology, and recreation
challenges and directions in network communities

Audience

HCI professionals whose users could benefit from participation in educational, work-related, mutual-support, or recreational network communities. No prior knowledge of network communities is assumed. The tutorial is not intended for expert surfers.

Presentation

Lecture and live demonstrations of network communities on the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Instructors

John Carroll is a professor of computer science and psychology and head of the Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech. His recent work focuses on education and community history applications for the Blacksburg Electronic Village and the World Wide Web. Stuart Laughton is a computer science doctoral student at Virginia tech. His dissertation research concerns ethnographic studies of World Wide Web applications in small learning communities. Mary Beth Rosson is an associate professor of computer science at Virginia Tech. She is one of the developers of StoryBase, a Web application for contributing, browsing, and annotating stories of WWW use.