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NMC Releases White Paper on the Evolution of Communication

Posted October 12th, 2007 by Rachel Smith

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The New Media Consortium announced today the release of Social Networking, the “Third Place,” and the Evolution of Communication, a white paper that discusses the premise that technology not only mediates interactions, but is actually changing the nature of communication itself.

This release marks the first in a series of topical papers associated with the NMC’s Series of Virtual Symposia (formerly the Series of Online Conferences), which are designed to explore emerging topics in education and technology using social computing technologies to bring people together online in a way that offers many of the same affordances of a face-to-face conference.

With this release, the NMC is adding a new component to the Virtual Symposium on the Evolution of Communication that will extend the conversation to the entire community rather than limiting it to those who attend the conference. The white paper is being released in advance of the NMC Virtual Symposium on the Evolution of Communication to spark discussion, discourse, and especially critical thinking on the topic. It is available online in a form that encourages discussion and that itself embodies the topic of the changing nature of communication.

The upcoming Virtual Symposium on the Evolution of Communication will be the tenth in the NMC’s Series of Virtual Symposia (formerly Online Conferences), now in its fifth year. Three times in the past the supporting platform selected for the online conferences has changed as new platforms emerged. Of particular importance in the choice of a platform are the ways in which opportunities for the kinds of social interactions that make in-person conferences so valuable are possible: hallway conversations, end-of-the-day informal gatherings, opportunities to speak with presenters in between sessions, and highly interactive breakout sessions that invite participation from the audience.

In December, the format is changing once again based on these criteria and the unparalled success of the August 2007 Symposium on Creativity, the first event of its kind to be held entirely in the virtual world of Second Life. The Virtual Symposium on the Evolution of Communication, to be held December 4-5, will also take place entirely in Second Life, at the specially designed NMC Conference Center.

Please follow the links below for more information.