The Virtual Community

This is a free book about virtual communities on the Internet. Howard Rheingold has been called the First Citizen of the Internet. In this book he tours the “virtual community” of online networking.

Book Description

He describes a community that is as real and as much a mixed bag as any physical community — one where people talk, argue, seek information, organize politically, fall in love, and dupe others. At the same time that he tells moving stories about people who have received online emotional support during devastating illnesses, he acknowledges a darker side to people’s behavior in cyberspace. Indeed, contends Rheingold, people relate to each other online much the same as they do in physical communities.Originally published in 1993, The Virtual Community is more timely than ever.

Table of Contents

• The Heart of the WELL
• Daily Life in Cyberspace: How the Computerized Counterculture Built a New Kind of Place
• Visionaries and Convergences: The Accidental History of the Net
• Grassroots Groupminds
• Multi-user Dungeons and Alternate Identities
• Real-time Tribes
• Japan and the Net
• Telematique and Messageries Rose: A Tale of Two Virtual Communities
• Electronic Frontiers and Online Activists
• Disinformocracy

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