“Field Notes from the Metaverse” will be a book that documents the history, perspectives, and narratives of the metaverse and virtual worlds.
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Interview with Edward Castronova: The Economical, Legal, and Societal Implications of Virtual Worlds
Edward Castronova invented the field of virtual economics in 2001 with his highly influential paper “Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier.” His early books “Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games” (2005) and “Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality” (2007) continue…
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Field Log #8: Work In Progress & Feedback
I have published a first work-in-progress look into the book. The sample chapters are lifted from the section “A new subculture is born”, which describes what led to the cyberpunk genre, how cyberpunk spawned different visions for digital virtual worlds, and how these visions influenced the development of the emerging Internet.
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Work in Progress: Neuromancer & Snow Crash
The following chapters are lifted from the section “A new subculture is born”, which describes what led to the cyberpunk genre, how cyberpunk spawned different visions for digital virtual worlds, and how these visions influenced the development of the emerging Internet. “A new subculture is born” is the first section in the book, acting as…
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Field Log #7: Content Overview
A while ago I posted the sections and chapters of the book here: “Structuring my Field Notes.” This has changed quite a bit recently.
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Interview with Julian Dibbell: The Laws & Governance of Virtual Spaces
Julian Dibbell is an attorney in the Technology & IP Transactions practice of Mayer Brown LLP in Chicago. Before joining Mayer Brown in 2014, Dibbell worked as a journalist and author, writing about digital communities, how they function, and the limits of free speech online. Publishers included Wired, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and…
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Field Log #6: Back to Writing!
I’m back from vacation!
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Field Log #5: More Interviews!
The interview with Julian Dibbell is in the review stage. We talked about the intersection between the legal realities of virtual worlds and their theoretical potential to be something more – and in that context we have touched upon Web3 as a movement to regain some of the earlier optimism and semi-utopian visions that shaped…
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Field Log #4: Breakfast Talks
I was on vacation last week, so not much writing happened. However, I was able to meet with Thomas Riedel for a relaxed breakfast. We talked about his podcast Spatial Realities (probably the best Metaverse podcast in German), the current state of spatial computing, and why we do what we do. Thank you, Thomas, we…
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Field Log #3: Lots of Reading!
I haven’t been writing much, instead spending the time re-organizing my personal notes and sources. But I thought it might be fun to share more about what these sources are and how I use them: What are these “Fieldnotes”, exactly? – Fieldnotes from the Metaverse.
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What are these “field notes”, exactly?
In “Structuring my Field Notes“, I wrote: “At the end of each section I will add a chapter that contains the titular fieldnotes. I went through my personal notebooks to gather my thoughts, lessons learned, and insights from the respective time period.” I thought it might be interesting to talk about what personal notes I…
“Field Notes from the Metaverse” will be a book that documents the history, perspectives, and narratives of the metaverse. This blog documents the writing of the book, provides additional context & materials