What makes a community a community? Is it a set of shared beliefs, traditions, values, and other intangibles? Or is it "a mark of difference between the community members and the rest of the world and, more important, an external threat, real or imagined"? The latter definition seems more like a faction than a community, and a somewhat paranoid one at that. But, as put forth in net.wars, it forms the curved lens of Wendy Grossman's Net-viewing monocle.
In 16 rambling chapters, Grossman's text covers topics ranging from (take a deep breath) the Church of Scientology to demographics to America Online to cybersex to Pretty Good Privacy to hacking to the Communications Decency Act to finance. She's absolutely correct in saying "there will be lots of boundary disputes while we try to define the rules in the gray area where real life and cyberspace intersect." After all, at least 17 states have enacted "decency" laws.
Unfortunately, it's not clear who Grossman's message will reach. She risks alienating Net-savvy readers with patronizing definitions (the word flame is explained as "a Net word for sending angry, attacking messages") and annoying word combos such as "net.prophets," "net.freedoms," and "net.visionaries." Equally problematic, she risks zombifying more casual readers with not-quite-thrilling discussions of cryptography.
Grossman peppers the book with deep thoughts. After describing an online hazing incident she declares how "vital it is that the influence of system design on human behavior be examined and understood." About cybersex, she writes: "The question to ask is what the Net is teaching us about the society we built before we got wired."
To this end, Grossman is prescriptive about the medium's uniqueness, declaring that "a set of professional standards needs to be defined." This raises, of course, the question of who is going to define those standards. Is it prudent to trust states that develop unconstitutional laws? Or is it better to trust a community that coalesces around "real or imagined" threats? Stay tuned for the war of the worlds!
STREET CRED
Browser Beware Electronica through the Ages
War of the Worlds
