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KTH
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CSC
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~pargman
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thesis
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Daniel Pargman's Ph.D thesisDaniel Pargman's Ph.D. thesis:
Code begets community: On social and technical aspects of managing a virtual community
This Ph.D. thesis in seven sentences
This thesis looks at a Swedish-speaking adventure mud - SvenskMud - a text-based "virtual world". I have taken a broad view and describe how this mud functions, with a special focus on "the work to make it work". More specificly I describe the activities in and around the mud from three different perspectives:
- Where muds came from, how they work and how this particular mud works.
- The mud as a computer program and an ongoing systems development project.
- Management of the mud as a task or a hobby for the mud administrators (called "magicians" in the mud).
Endorsement
Writing a Ph.D. thesis is hard work. I can take consolation in the fact that (at least) one person has read my thesis and liked it. This is what Richard Bartle writes about it in his book "Designing virtual worlds" (2003, p.623):
"Without community management experience to draw on, the following writings are the next-best thing:"
"Daniel Pargman, 2000. This is Pargman's Ph.D. thesis, which examines the administration of the textual world SvenskMUD over a period of three and a half years. It is amazingly detailed and full of insight; every professional virtual world designer should have a copy, even though it is somewhat obscure"
By publishing it on the web (November 2004), I make it less obscure. Unless Richard referred to the content rather than accessibility.
Download
Abstract
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 - Introduction (pages 13-27)
Chapter 2 - Introduction to muds (pages 28-50)
Chapter 3 - Methods and ethics (pages 51-64)
Chapter 4 - SvenskMud is, SvenskMud as (pages 65-101)
Chapter 5 - Who Plays in a Virtual Place? (pages 102-125)
Chapter 6 - SvenskMud and Open Source (pages 126-156)
Chapter 7 - Hacker Culture and SvenskMud Hackers (pages 157-187)
Chapter 8 - Organization, Governance and Learning (pages 188-219)
Chapter 9 - Laws and Punishment (pages 220-253)
Chapter 10 - Communities in Cyberspace (pages 254-266)
References
Appendix 1-4
Original excerpts (warning - in Swedish!)
Glossary
Suggested citation
Pargman, Daniel (2000). Code begets community: On social and technical aspects of managing a virtual community . Ph.D. thesis, Department of Communication Studies, The Tema Institute, Linkoping University, Sweden
The previous homepage of the thesis was
<http://esplanaden.lysator.liu.se/svmud/pargman>.
There is some information there that might be useful (for example how to order a physical copy of the "book" from my old department)
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