Dr Ralph Schroeder

• Director of Research, October 2009 -
• MSc Programme Director, January 2009 -
• Senior Research Fellow, January 2009 -
• James Martin Research Fellow, September 2004 - December 2008

Ralph Schroeder was formerly Professor in the School of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University in Gothenburg (Sweden). He completed his PhD about Max Weber at the LSE in 1988. His publications include Possible Worlds: The Social Dynamic of Virtual Reality Technology (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996), as editor, The Social Life of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments (London: Springer 2002), and Rethinking Science, Technology and Social Change (Stanford: Stanford University Press, forthcoming 2007).

He is currently working on shared virtual environments and on the social implications of e-science.

Dr Ralph Schroeder's curriculum vitae

Research interests

virtual environments, social aspects of e-Science, sociology of science and technology

Contact information

Dr Ralph Schroeder, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, 1 St Giles Oxford OX1 3JS, United Kingdom. Telephone: +44 (0)1865 287210 Fax: +44 (0)1865 287211 Email: research@oii.ox.ac.uk

Students

• Tobias Escher, DPhil student

• Han-Teng Liao, DPhil student

• Lucy Power, DPhil student

Taught courses

• Networks of Collaboration

• Social Dynamics of the Internet

• Social Research Methods and the Internet (Parts I and II)

Publications

• Schroeder, R. and Fry, J. (2010) Disciplinary Differences in e-Research. In: Dutton, W.H. and Jeffreys, P. (eds) World Wide Research. Cambridge: MIT Press.
• Schroeder, R. den Besten, M. and David, P. (2010) Open Science and e-Science. In: Dutton, W.H. and Jeffreys, P. (eds) World Wide Research. Cambridge: MIT Press.
• den Besten, M., Thomas, A.J. and Schroeder, R. (2009) Life Science Research and Drug Discovery at the Turn of the 21st Century: The Experience of SwissBioGrid. Discovery and Collaboration.
• Eccles, K., Meyer, E.T., Schroeder, R., Kertcher, Z., Barjak, F., Huesing, T. and Robinson, S. (2009) The Future of e-Research Infrastructures. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on e-Social Science, Cologne, 24-26 June 2009.
• Fry, J., Schroeder, R. and den Besten, M. (2009) Open science in e-science: contingency or policy? Journal of Documentation 65 (1) 6-32.
• Meyer, E.T. and Schroeder, R. (2009) Sifting through the Online Web of Knowledge. Interdisciplines: Scientific Publication 3.0.
• Schroeder, R. (2009) Open Science and Collaborative Research in e-Science: Realities of information access policies and practices at the project level. In: J.Hunsiger (ed.) Handbook of Internet Research. London: Springer.
• Schroeder, R. (2009) Science, Technology and Globalization. In: Ohly, H.-P. (ed.) Globalisierung.
• Schroeder, R. and Fry, J. (2009) Towards a Sociology of e-Research: Shaping Practice and Advancing Knowledge. In: N.Jankowski (ed.) e-Research: Transformation in Scholarly Practice. New York: Routledge.
• Schroeder, R. and Spencer, D. (2009) Social Scientists and the Domestication of e-Research Tools. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on e-Social Science, 24-26 June 2009, Cologne.
• Schroeder, R., Eynon, R. and Fry, J. (2009) New Techniques in Online Research: Challenges for Research Ethics. 21st Century Sociology 4 (2) 187-199.
• Schroeder, R., Fry, J., den Besten, M. and Ackland, R. (2009) Probing Collaborative Activity among e-Science Projects in the UK. In: Anandarajan and Anandarajan (eds) E-Research Collaboration: Frameworks, Tools and Techniques.
• Schroeder, R., Meyer, E.T. and Park, H.W. (2009) Mapping Global e-Research: Scientometrics and Webometrics. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on e-Social Science, 24-26 June 2009, Cologne.
• Schroeder, R., Power, L. and Meyer, E. (2009) Community-Driven Discovery in Biology. Presented at the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology, Brisbane, July 12-16 2009.
• Caldas, A., Schroeder, R. Mesch, G.S. and Dutton, W.H. (2008) Web Search and Access to Global Knowledge: Democratizing Expertise or Creating New Hierarchies? Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13 (4) 769-793.
• Caldas, A., Schroeder, R., Mesch, G. and Dutton, W.H. (2008) Patterns of Information Search and Access on the World Wide Web: Democratizing Expertise or Creating New Hierarchies? Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13 (4) 769-793.
• Eynon, R., Fry, J. and Schroeder, R. (2008) The Ethics of Internet Research. ESRC Methods Festival, St Catherine's College, University of Oxford, 30 June-3 July 2008.
• Eynon, R., Fry, J. and Schroeder, R. (2008) The Ethics of Internet Research. In: N.G.Fielding, R.M.Lee and G.Blank (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods. London: Sage, pp. 23-41.
• Fry, J., Virkar, S. and Schroeder, R. (2008) Search Engines and Expertise about Global Issues: Well-defined territory or Undomesticated Wilderness? In: M.Zimmer and A.Spink (eds) Web Search: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Springer.
• Meyer, E.T. and Schroeder, R. (2008) The World Wide Web of Research and Access to Knowledge. 4th International Conference on e-Social Science, Manchester, UK, 18-19 June 2008.
• Meyer, E.T., Schroeder, R. and Dutton, W.H. (2008) The Role of e-Infrastructures in the Transformation of Research Practices and Outcomes. iConference 2008, UCLA, Los Angeles, LA, 28 February-1 March 2008.
• Meyer, E.T., Schroeder, R. and Power, L. (2008) e-Research 2.0: Taking the Measure of Web 2.0 in e-Research. 4th International Conference on e-Social Science, Manchester, UK, 18-19 June 2008.
• Schroeder, R. (2008) e-Sciences as research technologies: reconfiguring disciplines, globalizing knowledge. Social Science Information 47 (2) 131-157.
• Schroeder, R. and Bailenson, J. (2008) Research Uses of Multi-user Virtual Environments. In: N.G.Fielding, R.M.Lee and G.Blank (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods. London: Sage, pp. 327-342.
• Schroeder, R. and Den Besten, M. (2008) Literary sleuths online: e-Research collaboration on the Pynchon Wiki. Information, Communication & Society 11 (2) 167-187.
• Ackland, R., Fry, J. and Schroeder, R. (2007) Scoping the Online Visibility of e-Research by Means of e-Research Tools. 3rd International Conference on e-Social Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 7-9 October 2007.
• Axelsson, A.-S. and Schroeder, R. (2007) Making it Open and Keeping it Safe: e-Enabled Data Sharing in Sweden and Related Issues. 3rd International Conference on e-Social Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 7-9 October 2007.
• Axelsson, A.-S., Abelin, A. and Schroeder, R. (2007) Anyone speak Swedish? Tolerance for language shifting in graphical multi-user virtual environments. In: Danet, B. and Herring, S. (eds) The multilingual Internet: Language, culture and communication online. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Daw, M., Procter, R., Lin, Y., Hewitt, T., Jie, W., Voss, A., Baird, K., Turner, A., Birkin, M., Miller, K., Dutton, W., Jirotka, M., Schroeder, R., de la Flor, G., Edwards, P., Allan, R., Yang, X. and Crouchley, R. (2007) Developing an e-Infrastructure for Social Science. 3rd International Conference on e-Social Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 7-9 October 2007.
• Eynon, R., Fry, J. and Schroeder, R. (2007) The Ethics of Internet Research. Economic and Social Research Council e-Society Programme and SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods Colloquium, London, UK, 28-29 March 2007.
• Schroeder, R. (2007) Defending Technological Determinism - In Theory and in Practices. Society for the Social Studies of Sciences (4S) Annual Conference 2007, Montreal, Canada, 11-13 October 2007.
• Schroeder, R. (2007) e-Research Infrastructures and Open Science: Towards a New System of Knowledge Production? Prometheus 25 (1) 1-17.
• Schroeder, R. (2007) Ethical and Social Issues in Shared Virtual Environments: An Overview of the Issues. Futures: A Journal of Forecasting, Policy and Planning 39: 704-717.
• Schroeder, R. (2007) Michael Mann. In: Stones, R. (ed.) Key Sociological Thinkers. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.338-54.
• Schroeder, R. (2007) Rethinking Science, Technology, and Social Change. Stanford University Press.
• Schroeder, R. (2007) Virtual Environments and Other Media for Being There Together: Towards a Convergence of Technologies, Uses, and Research Agendas. Proceedings of Presence 2007, Barcelona, Spain, October 2007.
• Schroeder, R. and Fry, J. (2007) Social Science Approaches to e-Science: Framing an Agenda. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12 (2).
• Schroeder, R. and Steed, A. (2007) Collaboration in Virtual Environments: How Copresence, Immersiveness and Technology Shape Interaction. In: Biocca, F. (ed.) Handbook of Virtual Environments.
• Schroeder, R., den Besten, M. and Fry, J. (2007) Catching Up or Latecomer Advantage? Lessons from e-Research Strategies in Germany, in the UK and Beyond. German e-Science Conference (GeS), Baden-Baden, Germany, 2-4 May 2007.
• Schroeder, R., Fry, J. and De Beer, J. (2007) e-Research infrastructures and scientific communication. IATUL 2007, Stockholm, 11-14 June 2007.
• Bailenson, J.N., Yee, N., Merget, D. and Schroeder, R. (2006) The Effect of Behavioral Realism and Form Realism of Real-Time Avatar Faces on Verbal Disclosure, Nonverbal Disclosure, Emotion Recognition, and Copresence in Dyadic Interaction. Presence 15 (4) 359-372.
• David, P., den Besten, M. and Schroeder, R. (2006) How Open is e-Science? 2nd IEEE International Conference on e-Science and Grid Computing, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 4-6 December 2006.
• Fry, J., Virkar, S. and Schroeder, R. (2006) The World Wide Web of Science and Global Expertise: Democratizing Access to Knowledge? Presented at 'The World Wide Web and Access to Knowledge Workshop', Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, 9-10 February 2006.
• Schroeder, R. (2006) Being There Together and the Future of Connected Presence. Presence 15 (4) 438-454.
• Schroeder, R. (2006) e-Sciences: Infrastructures that reshape the Global Contours of Knowledge. NCeSS Second International Conference on e-Social Science, Manchester, UK, 28-30 June 2006.
• Schroeder, R. (2006) Introduction: The IEMP Model and its Critics. In: Schroeder, R. and Hall, J. (eds) An Anatomy of Power: Michael Mann's Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-16.
• Schroeder, R. and Axelsson, A.-S. (2006) Avatars at Work and Play: Overlapping Themes and Intersecting Research Agendas. In: Schroeder, R. and Axelsson, A.-S. (eds) Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments. London: Springer, pp. ix-xv.
• Schroeder, R. and Axelsson, A.-S. (eds) (2006) Avatars at Work and Play. Activities in Shared Virtual Environments. London: Springer.
• Schroeder, R., Heldal, I. and Tromp, J. (2006) The Usability of Collaborative Virtual Environments and Methods for the Analysis of Interaction. Presence 15 (6) 655-667.
• Schroeder, R., Heldal, I., Brathe, L. and Steed, A. (2006) Interaction Fragments influencing Collaboration in Distributed Virtual Environments. In: Schroeder, R. and Axelsson, A.-S. (eds) Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments. London: Springer, pp. 97-130.
• Schroeder, R., Spante, M. and Axelsson, A.-S. (2006) The Good Inequality: Supporting Group Work in Shared Virtual Environments. In: Schroeder, R. and Axelsson, A.-S. (eds) Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments. London: Springer, pp. 151-166.
• Spante, M., Axelsson, A.-S. and Schroeder, R. (2006) The good inequality: Supporting group-work in shared virtual environments. In: R.Schroeder and A.-S.Axelsson (eds) Avatars at Work and Play. Activities in Shared Virtual Environments. London: Springer, pp. 151-166.
• Heldal, I., Steed, A., Spante, M., Schroeder, R., Bengtsson, S. and Partanen, M. (2005) Successes and Failures in Co-Present Situations. Presence 14 (5) 563-579.
• Schroeder, R., Caldas, A., Mesch, G. and Dutton, W. (2005) The World Wide Web of Science: Reconfiguring Access to Information. NCeSS First International Conference on e-Social Science, Manchester, UK, 22-24 June 2005.
• Schroeder, R., Caldas, A., Mesch, G. and Dutton, W. (2005) The World Wide Web of Science: Reconfiguring Access to Information. NCeSS First International Conference on e-Social Science, Manchester, UK, 22-24 June 2005.
• Schroeder, R., Heldal, I., Steed, A., Axelsson, A.-S., Widestrom, J. and Spante, M. (2005) Immersiveness and Symmetry in Copresent Scenarios. Proceedings of IEEE VR 2005, Bonn, Germany.
• Schroeder, R., Steed, A. and Heldal, I. (2005) Evaluating Collaboration in Distributed Virtual Environments for a Puzzle-Solving Task. Proceedings of HCI 2005, Las Vegas.
• Schroeder, R., Steed, A., Roberts, D. and Heldal, I. (2005) Personal Interaction between Users of Immersion Projection Technology Systems. Proceedings of HCI 2005, Las Vegas.
• Farber, D. (2004) The Societal Implications of Networking: A Personal Perspective. Presented at 'The Societal Implications of Networking: A Personal Perspective, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, 12 October 2004.
• Schroeder, R. and Heldal, I. (2004) The Usability of Shared Virtual Environments: A Comparison of Three Studies and Outlook on the Future. Proceedings of Designing and Evaluating Virtual Reality Systems Workshop, 22-23 January 2004, Nottingham.
• Schroeder, R., Spante, M., Axelsson, A.-S. and Christie, M. (2004) How Putting Yourself into the Other Person's Virtual Shoes Enhances Collaboration. Proceedings of Presence 2004, Valencia, pp. 190-196.
• Axelsson, A.-S., Abelin, A. and Schroeder, R. (2003) Anyone Speak Spanish? Language Encounters in Multi-User Virtual Environments and the Influence of Technology. New Media and Society 5 (4) 475-498.
• Schroeder, R. and Swedberg, R. (2003) Weberian perspectives on science, technology and the economy. The British Journal of Sociology 53 (3) 383-401.
• Schroeder, R. (2002) The Consumption of Technology in Everyday Life: Car, Telephone, and Television in Sweden and America in Comparative-Historical Perspective. Sociological Research Online 7 (4).
• Slater, M., Sadagic, A., Usoh, M. and Schroeder, R. (2000) Small-Group Behavior in a Virtual and Real Environment: A Comparative Study. Presence 9 (1) 37-51.

Projects

• Digitised Resources: A Usage and Impact Study

  June 2008 - April 2009

  This project combines quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure the impact of online scholarly resources and to develop a best practices toolkit that will allow assessment of the impact of digitisation projects by researchers and funding bodies.

• Embedding e-science applications: designing and managing for usability

  April 2006 - March 2009

  The 'embedding e-science applications' project addresses the difficulty of managing requirements for usability in e-science projects, and developing collaborative approaches to system development that allow for communication of these requirements.

• OeSS: The Oxford e-Social Science Project

  October 2005 -

  The Oxford e-Social Science project aims to understand how e-Research projects negotiate various social, ethical, legal and organizational forces and constraints, in order to help researchers avoid these problems when building scientific collaborations.

• PEACH: Presence Research in Action

  May 2006 - April 2010

  Presence research focuses on understanding and controlling the cognitive experience of being somewhere, or someone: we are analysing social impact scenarios to raise and address potential ethical and policy issues relating to Presence technologies.

• The e-Horizons Institute

  October 2005 - April 2009

  The e-Horizons Institute researches the coming technological breakthroughs in e-science that will have cross-sector social and economic implications as they are taken up by business, government and other actors.

• The World Wide Web of Science: emerging global sources of expertise

  April 2005 - March 2006

  The World Wide Web of Science project assesses whether, and to what extent, the Internet and the Web are transforming access to sources of scientific expertise, and whether these sources are becoming more concentrated or more diversified.

• World Wide Web of Humanities

  April 2008 - March 2009

  Establishing a framework for e-Humanities research using available open source tools and technologies and archived web content to create novel research interfaces to the first of many, scholarly, e-Humanities web collections.

Webcasts

• Studying at the Oxford Internet Institute

  Recorded on: 27 October 2008 Duration: 00:00:00

  Thinking about applying for our DPhil or MSc courses? Want to know more about what it's like to study at the OII? In this ten minute video, faculty and students talk about the OII's DPhil and MSc programmes.

News

• Two James Martin Research Fellows for the e-Horizons Institute

  4 April 2006 Oxford Internet Institute

  Drs Ralph Schroeder and Matthijs den Besten are the first James Martin Research Fellows to join the James Martin School e-Horizons Institute

Last updated on: 3 February 2010