MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT: CHAT AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CYBERSPACE

• Mission Statement by John Suler, 6/21/97
  
  

BEHAVIOR ONLINE ( http://www.behavior.net) would like to invite you to attend an online roundtable discussion entitled:

"CHAT AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CYBERSPACE"

Sunday, January 24th, 9:00-10:30pm (eastern)

Behavior Online (chat login): http://www.behavior.net/chat

We will focus on the various manifestations and applications of "chat" (online synchronous communication) - including counseling and psychotherapy, support groups, chat communities, and chat meetings. Because the roundtable discussion is itself a chat meeting, we can use the opportunity to explore chat communication techniques and discuss the dynamics of the meeting. Broadening the topic, we also can compare chat to other modes of communication, including e-mail, newsgroups (forums), multimedia chat, and in-person interactions. Thus, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CYBERSPACE will be the broader context for our discussion. All attending the meeting are welcome to participate in the discussion. Some of the invited participants at the meeting include:

Michael Fenichel, Ph.D., Psych Services, NYC. Clinical psychologist, author, and online publisher of "Current Topics in Psychology" ( http://www.tiac.net/users/drmike/Current.shtml)

John Grohol, online psychologist; Webmaster/Director of Mental Health Net ( http://www.cmhc.com/); author of "The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online.

Stacy Horn, founder of the online community Echo in NYC; author of "Cyberville: Clicks, Culture and the Creation of an Online Town" ( http://www.echonyc.com/~horn); and instructor for the course "Virtual Culture" at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU.

Storm King, MS. Doctoral Candidate, clinical psychology. Maintains a web site listing resources for the study of the psychology of virtual communities at http://www.concentric.net/~Astorm/ and has authored articles on online self-help and online therapy

Rick "River" Larson, digital biographer, wizard at Electric Communities "Palace" sites.

Gilbert Levin, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Social Medicine and of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine; founder/director of the Cape Cod Institute: http://www.cape.org and editor and publisher of Behavior OnLine: http://www.behavior.net

Liz Margoshes, clinical psychologist practicing in New York City; host of the Psychology Conference on Echo ( http://echonyc.com); former editor of the column "Dr. Lovelady" for the webzine WORD ( http://www.word.com)

Cyndi Pock ("FO"), former AOL chat host; e-mail lists administrator; wizard at Electric Communities "Palace" sites; founder of the online magazine "The Scarlet Letters"; http://www.spelvin.com

Mike Sellers, Chief Creative Officer of the Big Network, an online entertainment and community site ( http://www.bignetwork.com); and designer of Meridian 59, the first 3D massively multiplayer role playing game

John Suler, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Rider University; clinical psychologist, cyberpsychology researcher and author of "The Psychology of Cyberspace" ( http://www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber/psycyber.html)

We strongly recommend that you visit Behavior Online ahead of time, register, and test out the chat software (see the address for chat login at the top of this page). For this meeting, we will be using the chat software "FreeChat." Once you're in FreeChat, read the help page. It's easy to understand.

A list of members attending the meeting will be available. If you'd like your name and a description of your background, affiliation, work (etc.) included on that list, send an e-mail with that information to suler@voicenet.com

If you're interested in some background reading about chat, here's an article you might find useful: http://www.rider.edu/users/suler/texttalk.html

We hope to see you there!

- John Suler - suler@voicenet.com

• re: the above ANNOUNCEMENT by John, 1/22/99