Carmen Hermosillo facts for kids

Carmen Hermosillo (who passed away on August 10, 2008), also known as humdog, was a very important person in the early days of the internet. She was a community manager, which means she helped manage and guide online groups. She was also a talented essayist (someone who writes essays) and a poet.

Carmen wrote for many different publications, including 2GQ (now called New Oregon Arts & Letters), FringeWare Review, Wired, and Leonardo. She also contributed to books like High Noon on the Electronic Frontier by Peter Ludlow and How to Mutate and Take Over the World. She was active in many early online communities. These included chat rooms, internet forums, and BBSs (which were like early online message boards). Later, she also participated in virtual worlds like Second Life.

Understanding Online Communities

In 1994, Carmen Hermosillo published a very important essay online called "Pandora's Vox: On Community in Cyberspace". This essay made many people think about how the internet was changing things.

Her Main Idea

In her essay, Carmen argued that computer networks, like the internet, didn't make things more equal as some people hoped. Instead, she believed they led to a new kind of control. She felt that people's online personalities and information were becoming like products that could be bought and sold. This meant that power and information were shifting more and more to large companies.

Selected Writings

Carmen Hermosillo wrote several thought-provoking pieces during her career.

• "Pandora's Vox: On Community in Cyberspace" (1994)
• "Veni Redemptor: The Metallic Masks of God" (1997)
• "The History of the Board Ho" (2004)
• "Roleplay and the Social Contract in Virtual Worlds" (unfinished)