This wide-ranging introductory text looks at the virtual community of cyberspace and
analyses its relationship to real communities lived out in today's societies. Issues such as
race, gender, power, economics and ethics in cyberspace are grouped under four main
sections and discussed by leading experts:* identity* social order and control* community
structure and dynamics* collective action. This topical new book displays how the idea of
community is being challenged and rewritten by the increasing power and range of …

Since 1993, computer networks have grabbed enormous public attention. The major news
and entertainment media have been filled with stories about the “information superhighway”
and of the financial and political fortunes to be made on it. Computer sales continue to rise
and more and more people are getting connected to “the Net.” 1 Computer networks, once
an obscure and arcane set of technologies used by a small elite, are now widely used and
the subject of political debate, public interest, and popular culture. The “information …