CEmCom: Culturally Embedded Computing
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Blogs and Death

Janet Vertesi

Blogs are not only a personal publishing tool. After a blogger's death they can be appropriated by a class of blog users -- commentators -- who become the primary users of the blog. Instead of making comments and passive response, they instead commemorate the deceased and even use the opportunity to speak directly to the dead. This project explores the phenomenon of commemorative blogs to examine user appropriation and spirituality in an online sphere.