Acknowledgements

There are many people I would like to thank for their support and participation in the creation of this book. I would like to thank my colleague Paul Allen, for convincing me to write this book based on a class we developed and teach, and colleague Amy Macy, who has been sharing her web discoveries with me. Thanks to colleague Storm Gloor, who initially reviewed the project. Thanks to my editor Catharine Steers and editorial assistant David Bowers of Focal Press. Thank you to MTSU alumni John Haring of Nashville Independent Music, who has been of great assistance as technical editor and footnote author, and Stephanie Orr-Buttrey of Country Wired.com, who has contributed her expertise and access to artists she represents. Thanks to all the musicians who allowed me to use them as examples throughout the book: Bill “Sauce Boss” Wharton, Richard and Andy Karg, Grant Peeples, Dick Hosford, and Inga Swearingen.

I would also like to thank the employees of many companies who were gracious enough to help me obtain permission to use their images in the book, including Gina Wilkinson of imeem, Lindsay Marlow of PassAlongNetworks, Ryan Jensen of The Ezine Directory, Grant Leavins of Yahoo!, Andrew Lu of FastStone Soft, several wonderful people at MySpace, and others whose works are featured throughout the book. Thanks to all of you.

Thank you to my two student research assistants, Jennifer Harbin, who trained me after I trained her on using social networks, and Brent Powelson, who was a reader for several chapters. And most of all, I'd like to thank my wife, Lynne, who assisted when she could but always filled me with inspiration to write—and finish—this book.