Acknowledgments

The research for and writing of this book was a collective effort that involved a wide network of individuals and institutions beyond those named as authors and contributors. The late Peter Lyman was a principal investigator on the project on which this book reports, and he defined the vision and direction for this project as well as constituting the team that started it off. Michael Carter provided leadership as a principal investigator and the heart and soul of the project, and he held the team together through many challenges. We are also grateful to Barrie Thorne, who stepped in as principal investigator offering guidance and support, including crucial input on our writing and analysis.

The project was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as part of the Digital Media and Learning Initiative. We would particularly like to thank our program officer and Director of Education at the foundation, Constance M. Yowell, and Vice President of Human and Community Development, Julia M. Stasch.

This was a multi-institutional project that was guided by the administrative and research staff at multiple research centers. At the University of California, Berkeley, the project was housed at the Institute for the Study of Social Change and benefited from the technical support of the School of Information. At Berkeley, we would like to thank Shalia McDonald, Janice Tanigawa, Diane Harley, Kathleen Kuhlmann, and Evelyn Wong for their help in administering and managing the project. At the University of Southern California, the project was housed at the Annenberg Center for Communication and the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at the School of Cinematic Arts. We are grateful to Mariko Oda, Josie Acosta, Steve Adcook, Chris Badua, Willy Paredes, and Chris Wittenberg in guiding and supporting the project at USC.

In addition to the authors and contributors to this report, we had many research assistants and collaborators who enriched this project along the way. Max Besbris, Brendan Callum, Allison Dusine, Sam Jackson, Lou-Anthony Limon, Renee Saito, Judy Suwatanapongched, and Tammy Zhu were both research assistants and vital informants and experts in all things digital and youth. We also benefited from working with our collaborators on this project, Natalie Boero, Carrie Burgener, Juan Devis, Scott Carter, Paul Poling, Nick Reid, Rachel Strickland, and Jennifer Urban. The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and the Annenberg Foundation also were institutional collaborators in this research. Karen Bleske, in addition to careful copyediting of the entire book, provided invaluable help in integrating the many different voices and styles of the contributors. Eric Olive was our web guru who helped get our work out to the online universe.

Our work has benefited from the wise counsel of many colleagues, more numerous than we can fully name here. We would like to acknowledge those who participated in the occasions that we organized to get formal feedback on our work in progress. An early draft of this book was reviewed by John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid, Jabari Mahiri, Daniel Miller, Katie Salen, Ellen Seiter, and Barry Wellman. Their comments resulted in considerable changes to this document that have both sharpened the arguments and made it more intelligible to diverse audiences. As we were conducting our research, we arranged for periodic meetings and conversations so we could be in dialogue with scholars whom we knew would inform our work. In addition to those who were reviewers of this book, we would like to thank those who participated and generously shared their insights and perspectives: Sasha Barab, Brigid Barron, Suzy Beemer, Linda Burch, Lynn Schofield Clark, Michael Cole, Brinda Dalal, Dale Dougherty, Penelope Eckert, Nicole Ellison, James Paul Gee, David Goldberg, Shelley Goldman, Joyce Hakansson, Eszter Hargittai, Glynda Hull, Lynn Jamieson, Henry Jenkins, Joseph Kahne, Amanda Lenhart, Jane McGonigal, Ellen Middaugh, Kenny Miller, Alesia Montgomery, Kimiko Nishimura, John Palfrey, Nichole Pinkard, Alice Robison, Ryan Shaw, Lissa Soep, Reed Stevens, Deborah Stipek, Benjamin Stokes, Pierre Tchetgen, Doug Thomas, Avril Thorne, and Margaret Weigel.

Finally, we would like to thank the many individuals, families, organizations, and online communities that welcomed us into their midst and educated us about their lives with new media. Although we cannot name all the individuals who participated in our study, we would like to express our gratitude to those whom we can name who facilitated our access to various sites and who acted as key “local” experts: Vicki O’Day for introducing Heather to Silicon Valley families; Tim Park, Carlo Pichay, and zalas for being Mizuko’s senpai in the anime fandom; Enki, Wurlpin, and all of KirinTheDestroyers for taking Rachel under their wing; Tom Anderson, who helped danah get access to MySpace; the people of YouTubia who spoke with Patricia and shared their videos; and all of the youth media, middle-school, and high-school educators who opened their doors to us.

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