In The Virtual Community, Howard Rheingold provides a thorough, accessible, and enjoyable account of the Net as a social space. Anecdotes from his own net.experiences help Rheingold to underscore the principles that encourage the formation of online communities - such as freedom of expression, freedom of association, equality, individual commitment, and sense of self.
Communications technologies will continue to facilitate community formation by encouraging interaction among people who could not (or would not) ever meet "in real life." But communication systems can be (and have been) used to restrict the flow of information and to deny individuals a sense of control over their mediated worlds. As Rheingold states in his conclusion, the next few years may well be seen as a "narrow window of opportunity, when people either acted or failed to act effectively to regain control over communications technologies."
Virtual Community provides a uniquely human-centered understanding of community formation on the Net, from which users can begin to search for net.communities to call their own.
The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, by Howard Rheingold, $22.95. Addison-Wesley: (800) 447 2226, +1 (617) 944 3700.
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The Virtual Community
