Composing Cyberspace: Identity, Community, and Knowledge in the Electronic Age

This innovative reader addresses the social, cultural, political, and educational implications of today’s burgeoning information and communication technologies in substantial critical depth. Using three broad human themes—Constructing Identity, Building Community, and Seeking Knowledge—this brief freshman reader engages students in exciting rhetorical issues, including "Gender Online," "The Global Village," and "Information Overload and New Media." In each case, hopeful and optimistic views are balanced with incisive technology criticism, helping to make cutting-edge social issues intellectually coherent and accessible to your students.

PART ONE: CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY IN THE COMPUTER AGE

CHAPTER 1: NEW WINDOWS ON THE SELF

Forward Thinking (cartoon—Tony Auth, "He thinks, therefore I am")

Sherry Turkle, "Identity in the Age of Internet: Living in the MUD"

Charles Platt, "What’s It Mean to Be Human, Anyway?"

Iain A. Boal, "Body, Brain, and Communication: An Interview with George Lakoff"

Ellen Ullman, "Come In, CQ: The Body on the Wire"

William Gibson, "Johnny Mnemonic" (fiction)

CHAPTER 2: GENDER ONLINE

Forward Thinking (cartoon--Mike Luckovich, "Monique")

Dale Spender, "Gender-Bending"

Jesse Kornbluth, "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Virtual Woman"

Barbara Ehrenreich, "Put Your Pants On, Demonboy"

Julian Dibbell, "A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two

Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned A Database into a Society"

Laura Miller, "Women and Children First: Gender and the Settling of the Electronic Frontier"

CHAPTER 3: CULTURAL IDENTITY AND CYBERSPACE

Forward Thinking (cartoon--Peter Steiner: "On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog")

Charlise Lyles, "CyberFaith: Promoting Multiculturalism Online"

Steve Silberman, "We’re Teen, We’re Queer, and We’ve Got E-Mail"

Max Padilla, "Affirmative Access: A Gay Chicano Lost in Cyberspace"

Glen Martin, "Internet Indian Wars"

John Shirley, "Wolves of the Plateau" (fiction)

PART TWO: BUILDING COMMUNITY IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE

CHAPTER 4: VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

Forward Thinking (cartoon--Cory Garfin: "Family@21st Century.Hom")

Howard Rheingold, "The Heart of the WELL"

John Perry Barlow, "Is There a There in Cyberspace?"

Amy Bruckman, "Finding One’s Own in Cyberspace"

Joshua Cooper Ramo, "Finding God on the Web"

E.M. Forster, "The Air-Ship" (fiction)

CHAPTER 5: ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY

Forward Thinking (cartoon--Scott Adams: Dilbert)

Lawrence K. Grossman: "The Shape of the Electronic Republic"

Jon Katz, "The Netizen: Birth of a Digital Nation"

Langdon Winner, "Mythinformation"

John Schwartz, "The American Dream, and E-mail for All"

Pamela Varley, "Electronic Democracy: What’s Really Happening in Santa Monica"

CHAPTER 6: THE GLOBAL VILLAGE

Forward Thinking (cartoon—Paul Duginski, "Global Village")

Richard Rodriquez, "A Future of Faith and Cyberspace"

John Hockenberry, "The End of Nationalism"

Dale Spender, "Social Policy for Cyberspace"

Rory J. O’Connor, "Africa: The Unwired Continent"

John C. Rude, "Birth of a Nation in Cyberspace"

PART THREE: SEEKING KNOWLEDGE IN THE INFORMATION

CHAPTER 7: NEW MEDIA AND INFORMATION OVERLOAD

Forward Thinking (cartoon--Cathy Guisewite: Cathy)

Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel" (fiction)

Dave Barry, "Selected Web Sites: At Last, Proof that Civilization is Doomed"

Sven Birkets, "Into the Electronic Mellennium"

Shyamala Reddy, "The Once and Future Book"

Brenda Laurel, "Virtual Reality: A New Opposable Thumb

CHAPTER 8: OWNERSHIP AND SHARING OF KNOWLEDGE

Ann Okerson, "Who Owns Digital Works?"

Mark Fearer, "Scientology's Secrets"

Herb Brody, "Wired Science"

David Bank, "The New Corporate Know-It-Alls: Chief Knowledge Officers"

Esther Dyson, "Intellectual Value"

William Gibson, "Burning Chrome" (fiction)

CHAPTER 9: THE CLASSROOM OF THE FUTURE

Forward Thinking (cartoon—Chris Suddick, "Off 101")

Claudia Wallis, "The Learning Revolution"

Clifford Stoll, "Computers in the Classroom: What’s Wrong with This Picture?"

Kelly A. Zito, "The Digital Difference"

Monty Neill, "Computers, Thinking, and Schools in the ‘New World Economic Order’"

Orson Scott Card, "The Giant’s Drink" (fiction)