This volume brings together cutting-edge thinkers and scholars together with young researchers and students, proposing a colourful spectrum of media-theoretical, -practical and -educational approaches to current creative practices and techniques of production and consumption on and off the web. Along with the exploration of some of the emerging social media concepts, the book unveils some of the key drivers leading to participatory engagement of the User. Mashup Cultures presents a broader view of the effects and consequences of current remix practices and the recombination of existing digital cultural content. The complexity of this book, which appears on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the international MA study program ePedagogy Design - Visual Knowledge Building, also by necessity seeks to familiarize the reader with a profound glossary and vocabulary of Web 2.0 cultural techniques. With contributions by Axel Bruns, Brenda Castro, Doris Gassert, David Gauntlett, Mizuko Ito, Henry Jenkins, Owen Kelly, Noora Sopula & Joni Leimu, Torsten Meyer, Eduardo Navas, Christina Schwalbe, Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss, Wey-Han Tan and Tere Vadén & Juha Varto.

Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss, PhD, is Professor of communication and education technologies in Visual Culture and study programme director of ePedagogy Design - Visual Knowledge Building at Aalto University / School of Art and Design Helsinki. He coined the term Visual Knowledge Building, referring to "a visualization process of interconnected models of distributed socio-cultural encoded data representations and simulations that are structured and contextualized by a learning community." In his research he tries to find answers to how real and virtual space interactions can generate novel forms of communicative, creative and social practices in global connected communities. The last 20 years he worked as art and design teacher, media artist, graphic designer, author, multimedia-developer and university teacher. He is also serving as expert advisor and reviewer for a number of scientific and research bodies, including the European Commission and he has received several honors and scholarships. His international activities as speaker, lecturer, invited scholar and researcher brought him to many institutions around the world, for example Oxford University-Internet Institute, Seoul National University-Design Talks, National Institute of Multimedia Education Tokyo, University of the Arts London, K.U. Leuven, University Hamburg, Bilgi University Istanbul, San Francisco de Quito University. Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss is married to Barbara Sonvilla and they have a daughter, Felicitas, and a son, Silvius.