This article examines nicknames of IRC users. On IRC, a person's physical existence and identity must be condensed textually into a single line which states his or her nickname, the electronic address, and a slogan or the person's real name. IRC users attempt to make these representational elements as prominent as possible, by choosing an original nick which will tempt other participants to strike up a conversation. In this paper I demonstrate that although people play many kinds of games with their nicknames, the nicks they choose are very important to them. They are an inherent part of their Net- identity, and even of their "real-life" identity. Two hundred sixty nicknames were collected from IRC logs, and were analyzed and classified. Only rarely did the IRCers in this study use their real names. The largest category was that of nicks related to the self in some way, referring to character traits, physical appearance, the physiological or psychological state of the self, or the person's profession or hobbies. The list of nicknames and the relative frequency of the different categories illustrate prominent features of electronic culture, a culture in which the individual is placed at the center. Participants in this culture have a high awareness of technology and technological change. They value linguistic virtuosity, yet they show contempt for the rules of the language. Although there is freedom to engage in constantly changing identity games through the manipulation of nicks, most people tend to keep to one nick for a long period of time.

This is an interdisciplinary study of a group called the Hamnet Players, who have scripted and performed parodies of Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams on IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Our approach draws on sociolinguistics and discourse analysis; the study of oral genres of verbal art, as practiced by folklorists and ethnographers of communication; Shakespearean studies and analyses of genres in literature; research on communication and popular culture; and recent studies of language, play and performance in computer-mediated communication. We focus primarily on the first production of the Hamnet Players, a hilarious, 80-line parody of Hamlet, called "Hamnet". The main source of humor is the playfully irreverent juxtaposition of Shakespearean plot, characters and language with materials drawn from Net culture and from IRC specifically. Hamnet productions are currently primarily textual-- participants type their lines in real time, or load them in prepared mini-files--but the players have already begun to experiment with graphics and sound, as well.

The paper contains three main sections: (1) an analysis of the substantive and stylistic features of the "Hamnet" script;" (2) an explication of the logistics of virtual production--how one coordinates in real time the activities of a group of persons dispersed around the globe and seated before their computer screens; (3) detailed analysis of logs of actual Hamnet performances, with special focus on improvised play with the Shakespearean canon, with the "theater game," with language itself (obscenity, parlor word games, spelling games, puns), with the IRC software, and with the situation of typed online interaction. Hamnet productions are not only experiments in virtual theater; they are also carnivals of wordplay, chock-full of wit and humor, reflecting and fostering a sense of abandon not unlike that in real-world carnivals. They provide new and important evidence for the rise of interactive digital writing as stylized performance. In times of rapid, even dizzying technological change, it is natural to turn to Shakespeare for a sense of continuity with the past. There is some evidence for the democratization and globalization of culture in Hamnet productions, as reflected in the countries represented among players and audience members. In addition, women are quite prominent in all phases of production. On the whole, however, Hamnet activities appeal primarily to a well-educated, technologically sophisticated, English-speaking elite.

There has been very little work on humor in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Indeed, the implication of some CMC work is that the medium is inhospitable to humor. This essay argues that humor can be accomplished in CMC and can be critical to creating social meaning on-line. The humor of the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.tv.soaps (r.a.t.s.), which discusses soap operas, is analyzed. The method combines user surveys with message analysis to show the prevalence and importance of humor in r.a.t.s. Close analysis of five exemplary humorous messages shows how the group's humor arises from the juxtaposition of close and distant readings of the soap opera, which place the participants in close relationships to one another, and distance them from the soap opera's writers and producers. Group solidarity is also created as participants draw extensively on previous messages to ground their own humor. Humor is also shown to be a primary mechanism for the establishment of individuality, as participants combine the shared meanings and play with the shared parameters of the group in idiosyncratic ways.

Department of Anthropology University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Abstract

While some have argued that computing via the Internet offers a vision of freedom and a shared humanity, others have claimed with equal vehemence that it may become the instrument of global surveillance and personal alienation. Foucault's notion of self-fashioning (souci de soi) exemplifies both sides of this debate, since fashions may both be imposed and freely chosen. To present a Foucauldian perspective on fashioning of self online I use instances of recent postings to the Usenet news group rec.games.chess. Key aspects of self-fashioning that I identify include romantic and modernist images of interior experience, the importance of keeping your "cool," the discussion of techniques designed to improve skill or strength, and the purchase and use of chess computers as icons of mastery. Finally, I consider some implications of this Foucauldian approach for future research on Internet self-constructions.

Enduring Traditions, Ethereal Transmissions: Recreating Chinese New Year Celebrations on the Internet

Seana Kozar Department of Folklore Memorial University of Newfoundland Department of East Asian Studies University of Edinburgh

Abstract

This paper presents a post-modern discussion of the playful re- creation of Chinese New Year "cards" by Chinese students through the electronic medium of the Internet. "Re-creation" here refers to two distinctive, yet related styles of performance. Firstly, it describes the recycling of traditional Chinese motifs and large-character texts --lanterns, wishes for good fortune in the coming year and so on-- from year to year in different combinations to create novel greetings. Secondly, it signifies the increasingly popular practice of incorporating festive symbols from other cultures, such as menorahs and Christmas trees, into the electronic greetings. Through the juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary, borrowed texts, the seemingly disordered pastiches are transformed into uniquely Chinese expressions of celebration. Re-creation and transmission of these greetings also requires a certain degree of technical performance on the part of senders and receivers before they can fully participate in this playful discourse. This paper also discusses how Chinese-language freeware and shareware programs must often be downloaded and locally installed by users before these encoded texts can be translated and displayed in readable Chinese characters. At another level of performance, anonymous Chinese computer artists may use some of these or similar tools to actually design greetings which then have the potential for global distribution and reproduction. "The Ten Thousand-Dimensional Web of Heaven and Net on Earth" (WWW) is quickly becoming an integral feature of many Chinese students' intra-cultural communication, a vast rhetorical surface where one can do anything from peruse a classical novel to select a clever greeting to send to an old friend now halfway around the world.

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