About the book: This study examines the dynamics of critical Internet culture after the medium opened to a broader audience in the mid 1990s. It is Geert Lovink’s PhD thesis, submitted late 2002, written in between his two books on the same topic: Dark Fiber (2002) and My First Recession (2003).
The core of the research consists of four case studies of non-profit networks: the Amsterdam community provider, The Digital City (DDS); the early years of the nettime mailinglist community; a history of the European new media arts network Syndicate; and an analysis of the streaming media network Xchange. The research describes the search for sustainable community network models in a climate of hyper growth and increased tensions and conflict concerning moderation and ownership of online communities.
About the author: Geert Lovink, founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, is a Dutch-Australian media theorist and critic. In 2003 he was post-doc researcher at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland. In 2004 Lovink was appointed as Research Professor at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Associate Professor at University of Amsterdam. He is the founder of Internet projects such as nettime and fibreculture. He recently published his third volume on critical Internet culture, Zero Comments (2007). His institute recently organized conferences and related publications on urban screens, creative industry, online video, network theory, culture of search and Wikipedia research.
Colophon: Author: Geert Lovink. Editorial support: Ned Rossiter. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2009. ISBN: 978-90-78146-07-0.
Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, November 2002, English Department University of Melbourne.
Special thanks to: Scott McQuire and Nikos Papastergiadis and the University of Melbourne.