Jeremiah Spence: Introduction

Jeremiah Spence is the founder and editor of the peer-reviewed, online, academic publication: Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, is the director of the Virtual Worlds Institute, and has given presentations related to virtual worlds research at conferences in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and the United States. Jeremiah is pursuing his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin in the area of Communications and Sociology of Technology with specific research activities on the themes of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the digital divide, new media and virtual worlds research. Jeremiah has a Master of Arts in International Communications Theory and Technology Policy, and has been a visiting researcher at the University of São Paulo′s School of the Future and the Institute of Information Science at the Federal University of Bahia, both in Brazil. Additionally, he has been invited to speak on the virtual worlds and immersive technologies at the National Research Council of Canada′s Institute of Information Technology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Unisinos, the Eduverse Foundation (Netherlands), and the University of Bonn (Germany). Jeremiah has been a leader in developing new methodologies for the study of social stratification and digital humanities / community mapping. Jeremiah is fluent in both Portuguese and Spanish.  Jeremiah is also the CEO / President of VWRC Ideas, LLC - a technology consultancy specializing in micro and small business service provision and technology development.

Jeremiah′s has published numerous academic articles including, "Demographics of Virtual Worlds" (Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, Vol. 1, Number 2, 2008); and is the co-editor of the forthcoming book titled, "Persistence of Inequity in the Technopolis: The Case of Austin" with co-editors Joseph Straubhaar, Ph.D. (U. of Texas at Austin), Zeynep Tufecki, Ph.D. (U. of Maryland at Baltimore), and Becky Lentz, Ph.D. (McGill University) to be published by UT Press in 2010.