Jones, Steven G., Editor
Sage Publications Ltd.

Reviewer: Todd S. Frobish
The Pennsylvania State University
Website: http://www.personal.psu.edu/tsf2/

Steven Jones's new edited book, Cybersociety 2.0, provides an expert's glance into the promise of the Internet and critically exposes some of its weakest structures. Jones's introduction is a good opener into the questions his book seeks to answer, including "how does an individual, much less a community, maintain existence?" and "who are we when we are on-line" (xvi)? This book is a sequel to his first on CMC and community. [1]

Information, Internet, and Community: Notes Toward an Understanding of Community in the Information Age

Jones's chapter is an inquiry into the literature on the interrelationships among community, identity, and CMC. He questions our assumptions of Internet communities: whether we need new communities and if we can create them technologically. One problem for online communities is that face-to-face communication is lost; instead, he argues that we might define "community" in terms of social networks. Still, even this is problematic since people in cyberspace lack the personal commitments to one another that some believe form the crux of community. This essay is a good point of departure for the forthcoming writers.

The Emergence of On-Line Community

Baym's creative essay probes not if online groups are communities, but why these groups perceive themselves to be so. She frames her analysis with two questions: "does on-line community really serve as a substitute for off-line community" and "what occurs on-line that leads some people to experience them as communities" (37-8)? She claims that there exists a "style" to online community, characterized by "a range of preexisting structures, including external contexts, temporal structure, system infrastructure, group purposes, and participant characteristics" (38). The resulting effect is a set of shared meanings that allows users to believe that they are a community.

Designing Genres for New Media: Social, Economic, and Political Contexts

Agre's essay engages the creation of new media. He begins by defining "community" as a group of people who have collective cognition: all being aware of the group's ways of thinking. A strong community is one that can identify its core beliefs and creators of new media must assist that core by understanding the community, the activities and relationships of its members, the best media for sustaining those relationships, and the expected forms of communication. Following an obscure discussion of economics and politics, Agre warns that creators are also designers of social relationships. As a techne on media design, this chapter is helpful. The essay, however, fails to answer the Jones's initial questions of community-building.

Feminist Fictions of Future Technology

Kramarea's essay does little to redeem this difficulty. She explores the futuristic imaginings of feminist writers who offer ideas for communities and contends that while some of these possible alternatives are radical and "incompatible with the survival of the present culture" (123), they should be considered. Yet, little is proposed toward getting us there. While her article merits attention for its grappling of alterity, it lacks any sustained discussion of community and, like the earlier essay, fails to answer Jones's initial questions.

Text as Mask: Gender, Play, and Performance on the Internet

Danet engages gender performance in cyberspace. She proposes a research agenda for the study of cybergender including naming, linguistic cues, differences between synchronous/asynchronous modes, and genres of discourse. While her essay does not provide any answers, she advances ten areas for investigation that are worthwhile for those interested in this area.

Dating on the Net: Teens and the Rise of "Pure" Relationships

Following a concise history of dating practices, Clark explores teenage Internet dating. Through interviews and participant observation, she argues that teens may find a "pure" relationship--one in which both gratify wishes through interpersonal intimacy. These cyber-relationships are different, however, in that particular elements are missing--trust, commitment, and longevity--and that participants seem more empowered. These missing elements, however, may affect later real-life relationships. Overall, her findings appear elementary; those with any online experience can intuit what Clark offers as insights. Consequently, this chapter is instructive to those who do not have such experience.

Virtual Ethnicity: Tribal Identity in an Age of Global Communications

Poster discusses "the fate of ethnicity in an age of virtual presence" (188). His answer: users can create ethnicity online, but the place of communication will restrict one's choices. Within MOOs, for example, users can portray ethnicity with virtual people-icons, names, and even voices. But through email, where choices are limited, there are no absolute barriers to presenting ethnicity. Poster's essay is helpful in understanding this important topic, but it lacks examples that could strengthen it. He does not satisfactorily explore, furthermore, tribal or communal identity that the title of his essay embraces.

Dissolutions and Fragmentation: Problems in On-Line Communities

Kolko and Reid's creative essay seeks to uncover why online communities fail. They argue that the fragmented self can become a fixed identity, hindering flexible social interaction necessary for a strong community. Examining one group's failed attempt to form an online government, the authors assert that its breakdown formed from unrestricted, crude discourse. The blurring of public and private space on the Internet, as Benson's research has also shown [2], fosters a rhetorical environment in which users feel little commitment to community and civility. This final chapter is a pleasant ending to an otherwise frustrating book.

Expecting a book on CMC and community, I found a loose collection of essays that only indirectly focused on community. A better reason to buy is its rich bibliography that will be helpful to anyone who buys the book.[3] I would recommend this book to one who is just starting to research cyberspace, not to an experienced researcher. Many "insights" are oversimplified and are not varied enough. More than one absence warrant a raised eyebrow: unbalanced topics, overstress on gender and sexual politics, not even a nod to the many articles on the public sphere, and little attention paid to Jones's initial questions.

Notes:

1. Cybersociety 2.0 has been reviewed by Joseph Feller in CMC Magazine: Http://www.december.com/cmc/ mag/1998/dec/feller.html His first book, Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, is reviewed by Chris Silker in CMC Magazine: http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1995/apr/silker.html.

2. Benson, T. (1996, Summer). Rhetoric, civility, and community: political debate on computer bulletin boards. Communication Quarterly, 44, 359-378.

3. Jones's book is available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0761914617/