The best of all possible cyberworlds?
I don't know if people are still reading Howard Rheingold's The
Virtual Community. Frankly, I don't even know whether anyone is still interested
in concepts such as virtual community (hey, that lapse of interest is just what
this column is about, isn't it?). From a vantage point of many years, and lots
of online experience, I suppose that what most stands out in my mind about the
book is the extent to which the vision of community seems based upon assumptions
about an almost natural good of people. Today, when we've been witness to too
many examples of the underside of that online utopia, we're probably more clearly
aware of the fact that although computers and the internet created the basis for
community, they also created the basis for a hell on disc.
Go to: Maybe not totally wishful thinking, or
Go to: Who cares?