Featured in AR.VR Journey
In 2004, I submitted my PhD thesis, the culmination of two decades of discoveries, imaginings and mistakes. It’s called ‘A Journey of Integration: Virtuality And Physicality In A Computer-Mediated Environment‘ and in many ways it’s also the story of my own journey into the wired world which is now so familiar to us.
It covers the years 1988-2004, yet this is the first time, 16 years after completion, that it has become available. Why not before? Two reasons, really. First, I know it’s not as ‘academic’ as most theses, and I’ve been somewhat embarrassed by that, so I didn’t submit it to any scholarly journals. But, by the same token, some might consider it too academic for general readership. So, stuck in my usual uncategorizable backwater, I didn’t send it to any editors at all. Second, I wasn’t happy with the final chapter and always intended to revise it, but never got around to it.
But then, Medium.
This week I launched an introductory page, complete with the original Abstract, Acknowledgements, and Bibliography. From there, readers can click through to the six chapters which make up the thesis. My plan is to publish one chapter a week over six weeks, in the hope that by the time I reach the final chapter I will have made my peace with it or, if I haven’t — well, publish and be damned!
Please dip in. I hope you enjoy my account of those early days online and that students find it a useful source of insights and sources. I would love to read your own memories and comments here on the blog or at Medium. And do please give me a few claps at Medium if the spirit moves!
Introductory Page: A Journey of Integration (subscription not required)
Chapter 1: Experiencing the machine (subscription not required)
Chapter 2 will go live next week. Follow me on Twitter for alerts.
Featured Image top: Second Life 2011-04-14 14-40-09-05 TORLEY ISLAND =^_^= OMG! CYBERSPACE! DIGITAL FRONTIER! lulz
Sue Thomas 