Virtual Publics: Policy and Community in an Electronic Age

by Beth Kolko

Overview

How does virtuality affect reality? Fourteen experts consider this question from the perspective of law, architecture, rhetoric, philosophy, and art. Nearly all of the contributors have been online since before Netscape and a graphical World Wide Web; thus they have a thorough understanding of the cultural shifts the Internet has produced and been affected by, and they have a keen appreciation for the potential of the medium. Most scholarship on cyberculture has repeatedly emphasized that our offline selves determine how we are able to use technology, that real life affects what we do online. This volume is an attempt to reverse that discussion, to demonstrate that how we live online affects our lives offline as well. A virtual public is not an unreal one.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231118262
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	07/30/2003
Pages:	383
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Beth Kolko is an associate professor in the Department of Technical Communication and director of the doctoral program at the University of Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction. The Reality of Virtuality
Part 1. Users and the Structure of Technology
The Net Effect: The Public's Fear and the Public Sphere, by Gilbert B. Rodman
The Internet, Community Definition, and the Social Meaning of Legal Jurisdiction, by Paul Schiff Berman
Architectural Design for Online Environments, by Anna Cicognani
Community, Affect, and the Virtual: The Politics of Cyberspace, by J. Macgregor Wise
Securing Trust Online: Wisdom or Oxymoron?, by Helen Nissenbaum
Part 2. Technology and the Structure of Communities
TV Predicts Its Future: On Convergence and Cybertelevision, by Tara McPherson
Women Making Multimedia: Possibilities for Feminist Activism, by Mary E. Hocks and Anne Balsamo
Is It Art, in Fact?, by Mitch Geller
Making the Virtual Real: University-Community Partnerships, by Alison Regan and John Zuern
Where Do You Want to Learn Tomorrow? The Paradox of the Virtual University, by Collin Gifford Brooke
Community-Based Software, Participatory Theater: Models for Inviting Participation in Learning and Artistic Production, by Susan Claire Warshauer
Communication, Community, Consumption: An Ethnographic Exploration of an Online City, by David Silver
Can Technology Transform? Experimenting with Wired Communities, by Mark A. Jones