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Introduction -- History and industry -- The relationships between technologies -- Public and private spaces -- Time -- Social networks and peer relationships -- Power relations -- Mobile images : the cameraphone -- Applying frameworks, going forward

This article discusses the challenges involved in constructing a field of study when the social relations in question involve multiple locations, objects, and stories about them. This article argues that the geographical, social, technical, and conceptual uncertainties presented by virtual systems problematize conventional constructions of the field and fieldwork, and require a flexible and "multisited" methodological approach. The article draws on experiences researching virtual reality technologies, and outlines the multisited ethnographic methods used in response to the methodological challenges involved. It outlines strategies of following objects, following people, and following stories to construct a flexible and multiple field of research. Such strategies are consistent with theoretical developments in feminist poststructuralism and science and technology studies that seek to deconstruct the coherence of the research process. The article argues that it is crucial to develop such methodological approaches in order to make nuanced critique of technology development, production, and consumption into the next millennium.

Investigates the representational content of the virtual reality experience produced by Dactyl Nightmare (trademarked name), a game played on a Virtuality Ltd. 1000CS Cyberspace unit. Typically, cultural meanings of embodiment in virtual reality are analyzed in terms of formal, textual, or symbolic representations. It is suggested that this method fails to account for how corporeality in virtual systems is produced precisely through the level of embodiment. It is in the act of negotiating one's digital self that cultural meanings are reproduced. Crucial to this act of negotiation is how bodies are already produced & mediated as digital in other, nondigital domains. Thus, in Dactyl Nightmare, the digital self is framed by many familiar forms of media, eg, TV drama & advertising, before a participant enters the digital world. It is shown that, in this game, standardized methods of imagining the digital self intersect with individual histories in such a way that participants are required to choose to participate or to resist those standardized virtual subjectivities. Rather than producing a singular subjectivity, virtual games such as Dactyl Nightmare present contradictions that may be worked out in numerous ways. 40 References. D. Ryfe

Intro -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Notes on contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 The politics of Big Data: principles, policies, practices -- Our focus and goal -- Big Data - does it exist, and if so, what is it? -- Politics as a perspective on Big Data -- The volume in brief -- Notes -- References -- PART I Principles and paradigms: questioning the tenets of Big Data -- 2 The haystack fallacy, or why Big Data provides little security -- Introduction -- Setting chapter parameters -- What are data? -- What makes data 'big'? -- What are Big Data good for, given how they are created, processed, and used? -- Because petabytes -- [Causal] models are moot -- Theory is irrelevant -- Numbers speak for themselves -- Correlation is enough -- Results show unprecedented accuracy -- So what? -- In conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 3 Grasping the ethics and politics of algorithms -- Introduction -- Opening black boxes is not enough -- Some things cannot be done right -- Discrimination and bias are no accident -- Human experts are not necessarily better -- The algorithm is just one part of the puzzle -- Superhuman artificial intelligence is not the main issue -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 4 Big Data - within the tides of securitisation? -- Introduction -- A new data pragmatism? -- Uncertainty, predictability and interpretation -- Securitisation and (surveillance) technology -- Big Data as a tool of (in)securitisation -- Increasing power asymmetries and technology dependencies -- Summary and conclusions -- Acknowledgement -- Notes -- References -- 5 Surveillance as a critical paradigm for Big Data? -- Introduction -- Big Data and dataveillance -- Epistemic issues in Big Data -- Amending the epistemic critique: critical issues of Big Data as surveillance -- The decoupling of generation and analysis of data