Jan-Hinrik Schmidt studied Sociology at the Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg and West Virginia University Morgantown, USA. From 2000 onwards, he held various positions in the University of Bamberg, among them the research centre for “New Communications Media”, at the Chair in Sociology II (Prof. Dr. R. Münch) and at the State Institute for Research into Families. After completing his doctorate on the institutionalisation of locally related online services, he was a German Academic Exchange scholar at the Donau-University Krems, and guest scholar at the Johannes-Kepler-University Linz (Prof. Dr. B. Batinic). From 2005 to 2007, he worked on a postdoc project supported by the German Research Foundation on “Practices in online–based networking” at the research centre for “New Communications Media” in Bamberg. Since November 2007 he has been working as a senior researcher for digital media and political communication at the Hans Bredow Institute. His research focus is on developments of “Web 2.0”, or respectively” social software”, where he is particularly interested in current changes in online based public spheres and social networks, as well as their effects on politics, economy and civil society. In addition, he analyses form, functions and consequences of online and game-based social spaces at the research and transfer centre ”Digital Games and Online Worlds” at the Hans Bredow Institute.

In Sessions as Moderator: