ThoughtVectors2014

Presence is widely accepted as the key concept to be considered in any research involving human interaction with Virtual Reality (VR). Since its original description, the concept of presence has developed over the past decade to be considered by many researchers as the essence of any experience in a virtual environment. The VR generating systems comprise two main parts: a technological component and a psychological experience. The different relevance given to them produced two different but coexisting visions of presence: the rationalist and the psychological/ecological points of view. The rationalist point of view considers a VR system as a collection of specific machines with the necessity of the inclusion of the concept of presence. The researchers agreeing with this approach describe the sense of presence as a function of the experience of a given medium (Media Presence). The main result of this approach is the definition of presence as the perceptual illusion of non-mediation produced by means of the disappearance of the medium from the conscious attention of the subject. At the other extreme, there is the psychological or ecological perspective (Inner Presence). Specifically, this perspective considers presence as a neuropsychological phenomenon, evolved from the interplay of our biological and cultural inheritance, whose goal is the control of the human activity. Given its key role and the rate at which new approaches to understanding and examining presence are appearing, this chapter draws together current research on presence to provide an up to date overview of the most widely accepted approaches to its understanding and measurement.

The data suggest that for these students the dimension of time is in complex, dynamic and contingent interplay with a range of networked devices and shifting material domains and practices, which are mobilised for textual engagement and production. It will argue that student entanglements with devices and digitally mediated texts serve to pause, distribute, elongate and render simultaneous the temporal nature of their practices in emergent 'temporal practices' in complex relationships of co-agency with devices and technologies. It will conclude that a typological analysis is inadequate to understanding these complex, emergent engagements.

and now that Pinterest has taken off, it's clear that people are drawn to an image—an image is what gets them in to learn more about an idea, product, or service,”

“Every registered dietitian (RD) has a different specialty, a different job, a different nutrition philosophy, and Pinterest is a good way to curate your values and expertise—and by doing that you can create a niche.”

The primary thing to keep in mind is that a key function of Pinterest is to drive users to your website or blog where they can learn more about your expertise as a food and nutrition practitioner. In fact, Pinterest reportedly drives more web traffic to other sites than Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined.

relationships between cultural spaces, the image-making practices of smartphone users and social media platforms.

In addition to targeted advertising, value is created by leveraging a continuous circulation of meaning and attention