The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier

About this book

Howard Rheingold tours the "virtual community" of online networking. Howard Rheingold has been called the First Citizen of the Internet. In this book he tours the "virtual community" of online networking. He describes a community that is as real and as much a mixed bag as any physical communityone 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 peoples 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. This edition contains a new chapter in which the author revisits his ideas about online social communication now that so much more of the worlds population is wired. It also contains an extended bibliography.