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The paper seeks to understand the formation of mutual knowledge in the online world using the phenomenological framework that Alfred Schutz and his associates constructed for the examination of the lifeworld.

This study consists of three parts: reviewing Schutz's theory of the constitution of intersubjectivity in the lifeworld; extending Schutz's analysis to the acquisition of mutual knowledge in the online world; and applying the extended version of Schutz's theory to the booming blogosphere on the internet.

Schutz divided the contemporaneous lifeworld into two realms – consociates and mere contemporaries. Schutz maintained that people came to know one another based on shared life experiences through “growing older together” in the realm of consociates and based on objectified schemes of interpretation through “ideal typification” in the realm of mere contemporaries. This article extends Schutz's analysis to human interaction on the internet, showing that in the emergent online world people become mutually familiar based on the biographic narratives they recount to one another through self‐disclosure. Mutual knowledge obtained online also contributes to the total stock of knowledge people come to accumulate in an increasingly distanciated lifeworld.

This article argues that the spread of the internet has changed the structure of the lifeworld Schutz depicted, and such changes have produced ways of getting to know others that were previously impossible. In light of those changes, this article seeks to update Schutz's theory of mutual knowledge.

Using the perspectives of dramaturgy and symbolic interactionists like George Herbert Mead and Carl Couch this study focuses on paid sex work in the hypermodern, virtual world of Second Life. Using seventeen semi-structured interviews and six months of ethnographic fieldwork, I find that the employment of sexual scripts, carrying off a successful erotic scene, and the creative use of communication and embodiment are highly valued in escorts’ performance of Second Life sex work. Escorts craft an online persona that is a digital representation of the self, which is manifested in the embodiment of their digital body or avatar. In addition to digital representations of the physical self, Second Life allows for multiple methods of computer-mediated communication, and escorts are able to re-embody the first life body through the trading of first life pictures, voice cybersex, and web cam cybersex. The data allow the conclusion that most escorts are unwilling to re-embody the first life body for reasons of personal safety and the desire to restrict access to the first life self. I find, however, that there is a porous boundary between first life and Second Life in which the first life self comes through in the Second Life persona. In the concluding remarks, I explore the implications this study has for the negotiation of privacy for new social media actors who are reluctant to fully disclose their lives yet perform a persistent, archived persona for friends and followers on the Internet. This study contributes to a small, but growing, body of literature on Second Life and expands the existing work on embodiment and privacy in the digital realm.

Digital collections are becoming more commonplace at libraries, archives and museums around the world, creating potential for improved accessibility to information that may otherwise remain hidden and further support for intellectual exploration. As a result of the growing potential for digital collections to inform and influence, the conversation surrounding ethics and digital collections needs to be continually examined and adapted as technologies evolve, user expectations change and digital information plays an increasing role in our everyday lives. In this context, this paper presents an overview of multifaceted ethical realities that impact the how, why and what digital information is created, accessed and preserved.

Written from the perspective of a digital collections librarian, this paper relies on existing research in presenting ethical considerations and complements that research with professional observations in providing subsequent reflections on addressing challenges in the age of digital information.

There are and should be considerations given to not only what information is contained in a given collection, but also how that information is selected, accessed and consumed by the public. The conclusions offered are designed to provoke reflection on the evolving and interconnected nature of information and ethics in the context of digital collections.

Information ethics is multifaceted, with one of those facets relating directly to digital collections. This paper demonstrates that digital collections are more complex than simply a collection of digitized documents and photographs. As the field of information management continually evolves and adapts, so, too, do the ethical realizations identified in this paper, all of which go beyond the (virtual) walls of a library, archive or museum, and carry the potential to have a long-term impact concerning information and its integrity, equity and access.

The purpose of this report is to demonstrate open and distance education (ODE) can support poverty alleviation. Taking the practices of the Open University of China (the OUC) as an example, this paper aims to reveal how open universities make contributions to local residents in rural and remote areas.

Focusing on 25 poverty-stricken counties, the OUC had invested 58 million RMB to its learning centers in these counties from 2017 to 2020. The first one is to improve ICT and educational facilities in these learning centers. The second approach is to cultivate local residents with degree programs through ODE so as to promote local economic development. The third one is to design and develop training programs according to local context to meet the specific needs of local villagers.

After 3 years working, cloud-based classrooms and computer rooms have been set up. Bookstores have been founded and printed books have been donated. Hundreds of thousands of digital micro lectures have been supplied to these learning centers which have been improved and fully played their functions. Nearly 50,000 local residents have been directly benefited. Village leaders have helped lift local residents out of poverty. Poverty-stricken villagers have been financed to study on either undergraduate or diploma programs. Local residents have improved their skills by learning with the training programs offered by the OUC.

ODE is proved to be an effective way to eradicate poverty. Open universities are proved to be able to make contributions to social justice. By fulfilling its commitments to eliminate poverty within the national strategy framework, the OUC has built its brand nationwide.

African-Americans historically report greater exposure to discrimination and also experience unfavorable outcomes associated with physical health, poverty concentration, residential segregation, and poorer education. The effects of discrimination are particularly harmful on mental health as discriminatory experiences contribute significantly to diminished mental health status and psychological distress. African-Americans pursuing graduate education may experience additional stressors, increasing the risk for poorer mental health. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association of psychological health and discrimination experiences among black and white graduate students at a southeastern university.

Participants were 505 graduate students at a predominantly white southeastern institution. Researchers collected data via self-administered online and paper questionnaires during the spring 2010 semester. Graduate students were asked questions pertaining to individual demographics, discrimination, and psychosocial concerns.

Approximately 15 percent of the graduate students reported psychological distress. Additionally, black graduate students reported significantly higher levels of day-to-day and lifetime discrimination when compared to white graduate students. In addition to the proportions of psychological distress differing by race, African-American graduate students reported better psychological well-being when exposed to both day-to-day and lifetime discrimination than whites with similar exposure.

Resilience factors and coping strategies should be examined further among African-American graduate students for greater understanding. Moreover, it is important to develop applications to improve mental health outcomes for all graduate students.

This is one of the few studies to focus on the mental health and discrimination experiences among a graduate student population. The sample is drawn from the southeastern USA where there are long vestiges of discrimination and a sizable sampling of African-Americans who live in the USA.