Monika Lenhard, born in 1976, graduated from Bremen University in 2003. She holds an M.A. in Cultural History of Eastern Europe and History. During her studies and after she spent considerable time in Eastern Europe, particularly Russia and Poland. In her M.A. thesis "The internet and a net-related public sphere in Russia. How social movements like the Russian women's movement use the internet", she examines the extent to which the internet can create new forms of public spheres, and how social movements in a country in transition can make use of these new public spheres. At the moment she works for the German embassy in Moscow, where she helps to coordinate all events taking place during the "Year of German culture in Russia", particularly the so-called "German days" in more than 20 regions of the Russian Federation.

Annette Markham is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of the Virgin Islands. Dr. Markham holds an MA in Communication from Washington State University and a Ph. D. in Organizational Communication from Purdue University. Her research in Internet Studies focuses on the lived experience of ICT users, interpretive qualitative methods, and online ethnography. Her ethnographic studies of Internet users are well represented by the book Life Online: Researching real experience in virtual space (AltaMira, 1998). Her more recent work explores how everyday metaphors shape the conception and use of Information and Communication Technologies.

Hola! (Hi!):

My name is Claudia Ivon Rivera. I was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, Central America. This is actually the place that I live in at this very same moment. I was a Graduate Student at University of Illinois at Chicago. That's where I met Professor Markham. I am a professor at a Jesuit University. It is formally known as Universidad Centroamericana "Jose Simeon Canas" (UCA). May be you can recall the name of this university from back in 1989, when El Salvador was on the news because of the war. This is the place where five Jesuits were murdered.

Despite the fact that I have already finished my course work, I still have to finish my master's thesis. This big enterprise is about metaphors of the internet, and it has been designed to be part of Professor Markham's more recent work. She has been my patient advisor -I hope she still is! Specifically, my thesis project seeks to find how the metaphors used at internet conferences are framing what has to be studied about it. The data has shown that the papers presented at these conferences are defining, and a logical cause in the process of reasoning, they are conceptualizing the internet in newer ways. I won't tell you more about my findings. The only thing that I will let you know is that it has been a very difficult process in which I had to change my frame constantly.

I am also a passionate philosophy student. I am currently enrolled at an Iberoamerican Philosophy PhD.

My fields of study are Communication and Philosophy. My major fields of scholarly interest are new technologies (internet), discourse construction through mass media and the social construction of identities and knowledge about reality.

I teach Communication Theory and Communication Research for undergrads in the same university that I study at.

I like to go to the movies. I used to chat -a LOT! But my current schedule and lack of internet connection at home, doesn't allow me to spend enough time on line. I like to go to the movies, travel, listen to music and learn more about any topic that gets my attention from time to time.

Regarding my expectations for the course, I expect to learn and be aware of new perspectives in metaphors of the internet. Sometimes, we are so immersed in our daily and scholar lives, that we take everything we read for granted. Since I am in the process of taking some time off to work on my thesis project, I thought this might be a good refreshing start for me. Thanks you for including me in this discussion group.

Also, and because metaphors are highly mediated by the cultural frame that we see reality though, I would like to learn the experience of other cultures with metaphors. That is, how they conceive it and how they name the internet.

Eugene Gorny was born in Novosibirsk, USSR. In 1991, he graduated from University of Tartu, Estonia, with qualification of Russian philologist, librarian and bibliographer, and an equivalent of MA degree. He worked as a teaching assistant at the department of semiotics at the University and delivered two courses in 1994 - Semiotics of persuasion and Interpretation and understanding of cultural phenomena. In 1994-1996, he worked as a journalist for Tallinn Russian-language newspapers and obtained publicity as one of the first journalists writing about the Internet. In 1996-1998, he was editor-in-chief of Zhurnal.ru. In 1998-2000, he worked for Russkij Zhurnal where he edited Net Culture section. He has also participated in a number of online literary projects such as Setevaja Slovesnost' and RVB. Since 2000, he worked as an independent expert in journalism and Internet cultural projects for various organizations, including Soros Foundation and IREX. In 2002, he was awarded a Ford Foundation International fellowship which gave him an opportunity to continue his academic career. His PhD research on which he is currently working at Goldsmiths College, University of London, is devoted to creativity on the Russian Internet. Eugene Gorny's bibliography includes works in literary studies, the history of art, semiotics and Internet studies. The latter include his Chronology of the Russian Internet: 1990-1999 (2000) and Russian LiveJournal: National specifics in the development of a virtual community (2004).

Natalia Konradowa was born in Moscow, graduated Russian State University for Humanities in Mowcow (1996) with qualification in Theory of Culture, an equivalent of MA degree. She holds PhD in Cultural Research. In her PhD thesis “Kitsch as cultural and social phenomena” she proves semiotics and sociological approach to "bad taste" and naive perception of art.

At the moment she is working as a scholar in Russian Institute for Cultural Research, as a professor in Moscow State Teacher's Training University, as a cultural reporter of “Polit.ru” (www.polit.ru). Her studies concerned to contemporary naive and amateur works of art, Russian official art and kitsch, design and style of public memory places in Russia and Europe, non-professional literature in Russian Internet. In the works dedicated to Russian literary Internet she examines the nature and the character of non-professional writings, the role of literature for virtual communication in the Internet, formation of virtual communities.