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About the Reader
The rapid proliferation of Web 2.0 applications and related technologies has transformed the way humans interact with and within online spaces. Though articles discuss Web 2.0 and its varied implications, no single text unites them under a common heading. Such a text would, we think, be useful for instructors and students at the graduate and undergraduate levels in myriad disciplines. Fields as diverse as rhetoric and writing studies, internet and new media studies, information studies, and videogame studies are but a few to name.
The open-source, online format provides exciting opportunities for both rethinking what a reader can be and what texts can be included. An online reader like this one provides the opportunity to include audio, video, still images, and interactive websites in addition to more traditional readings. An online reader also allows for easy updates and expansions as important texts emerge.
Most readers contain a series of essays or images that have been represented within the space of the technology of the book. Permissions are often needed to gain access to these technologies. However, we propose here using only/mostly those texts that are freely available online to anyone with an internet connection. From Wired and YouTube to First Monday and interactive projects by Jonathan Harris, such texts can be linked-to from the reader so they might be read in their original online context. They can also be opened in an iframe within the reader space with the option of removing the frame.
However, we will maintain some traditional characteristics, e.g., an introduction to contextualize readings and subjects as well as an introduction to each individual text.
We would like to organize texts over time so readers may be able to see a progression of ideas. We encourage and welcome item submissions, including suggestions for participatory media.