Social studies of the New Media often focus on the user side of the equation, while overlooking product developers and designers as key actors. This special issue, edited by Yong Ming Kow and Bonnie Nardi, put together papers from a multi-disciplinary team of prominent researchers including Dan Burk, Jordi Comas, Mimi Ito, Hector Postigo, Walt Scacchi, and Ted Tschang. We hope that the papers would provide alternative lens for examining New Media development.

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Abstract of the special issue:

In this special issue, we present a multi–disciplinary perspective of the emergence of user creativity in new media. The papers were written by researchers in anthropology, sociology, media studies, law, computer science, and management studies. The authors examine the roles of users and commercial actors in the new media, and help answer critical questions on intellectual property, ethics, practice, and governance. Taken together, the papers expose a complex, mutable, creative ecology influencing new media product development and practice.