Cyberpl@y: Communicating Online

“This is a highly original book with wide appeal on a hot topic ... A splendid book. It will speak to both a scholarly and a general audience and will cut across fields - communication, visual culture, electronic communication, multi-media design, and cultural studies. It is original in its scope and conception. It is astonishingly rich in terms of visual material, ethnographic accounting, historical references, and analytic concerns. The writing is clear and lively.” ―Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

“This work provides cogent evidence that the scholarly study of cyberlife has now come of age. Writing with humor and elan, Danet demonstrates that e-life has changed the way we write, the way we think and how we live.” ―Gary Alan Fine, Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University

“Cyberpl@y does a masterful job of illustrating the deeply meaningful nature of text-based communication online. Through insightful analysis of a variety of forms of online expression, Danet is able to shed new light on new media of communication. It is a book of both historical value, as it examines all too often overlooked subjects (such as ASCII art, fontography, online greetings) in studies of the Internet and the computer. Danet's book greatly pushes forward our understanding of orality and literacy in the digital age.” ―Steve Jones, University of Illinois

“Brenda Danet applies a unique combination of expertise and skills in sociolinguistics, literature, folklore and aesthetics in this pioneering, empirical study of playfulness in digital communication.” ―Elihu Katz, University of Pennsylvania and Hebrew University of Jerusalem

“This wonderful new book provides enough surprises to amuse, and amaze ... Semiotics has never looked so exciting.” ―Monthly Book Reviews of the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies

“A fascinating series of case studies ... Danet encapsulates a transitional moment in computer-mediated communication; Cyberpl@yn0 draws on and summarizes a wealth of information, being unafraid to offer informed speculation.” ―New Media and Society

“It is an important book that all readers interested in the playful convergence of communication and art on the Internet should read.” ―Symbolic Interaction

“Among the large number of books that aspire to interpret the unwritten rules of communnication online, this text stands out for the quality of its empirical research and for its examination of the historical roots of the signs and signifiers constantly exchanged on the Net.” ―neural.it