ǂThe ǂimmersive internet : reflections on the entangling of the virtual with society, politics and the economy

Collecting short thought pieces by some of the leading thinkers on the emerging 'Immersive Internet', Power and Teigland's book questions what a more immersive and intimate internet – based on social media, augmented reality, virtual worlds, online games, 3D internet and beyond – might mean for society and for each of us. Front Matter....Pages i-xx Postcards from the Metaverse: An Introduction to the Immersive Internet....Pages 1-12 Niggling Inequality: A Second Introduction to the Immersive Internet....Pages 13-22 The Distributed Self: Virtual Worlds and the Future of Human Identity....Pages 23-36 Meta-Dreaming: Entangling the Virtual and the Physical....Pages 37-48 Individually Social: Approaching the Merging of Virtual Worlds, the Semantic Web, and Social Networks....Pages 49-64 Virtual Worlds as Radical Theater: Extending the Proscenium....Pages 65-76 Virtual Worlds and Indigenous Narratives....Pages 77-91 The Immersive Hand: Non-verbal Communication in Virtual Environments....Pages 92-105 Discovering the ‘I’ in Avatar: Performance and Self-therapy....Pages 106-113 Reflections and Projections: Enabling the Social Enterprise....Pages 114-124 Added Value of Teaching in a Virtual World....Pages 125-137 Play and Fun Politics to Increase the Pervasiveness of Social Community: The Experience of Angels 4 Travellers....Pages 138-147 Framing Online Games Positively: Entertainment and Engagement through ‘Mindful Loss’ of Flow....Pages 148-157 Inhabitants of Virtual Worlds, Players of Online Video Games — Beware!....Pages 158-167 Relationships, Community, and Networked Individuals....Pages 168-179 Gemeinschaft Identity in a Gesellschaft Metaverse....Pages 180-191 Sorting Out the Metaverse and How the Metaverse Is Sorting Us Out....Pages 192-203 On the Shoulders of Giants: Understanding Internet-based Generative Platforms....Pages 204-213 Social Norms, Regulatory Policies, and Virtual Behavior....Pages 214-227 Self-organizing Virtuality....Pages 228-237 Making Currency Personal: The Salutary Tale of the Downfall of the Domdrachma....Pages 238-246 An Afterword in Three Postcards....Pages 247-252 Back Matter....Pages 253-264 The internet has begun to develop into a much more immersive and multi-dimensional space. Three dimensional spaces and sites of interaction have not just gripped our attention but have begun to weave or be woven into the fabric of our professional and social lives. The Immersive Internet 6 including social media, augmented reality, virtual worlds, online games, 3D internet and beyond 6 is still nascent, but is moving towards a future where communications technologies and virtual spaces offer immersive experiences persuasive enough to blur the lines between the virtual and the physical. It is this emerging Immersive Internet that is the focus of this book of short thought pieces 6 postcards from the metaverse 6 by some of the leading thinkers in the field. The book questions what a more immersive and intimate internet might mean for society and for each of us