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

Richard Holeton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0070295484 | ISBN-13: 978-0070295483 | Publication Date: December 1, 1997 | Edition: 1

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 1 edition (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070295484
• ISBN-13: 978-0070295483
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #667,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Essential Reader, April 21, 2000

By 

feysidhe "feysidhe" (Mount Kisco, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Composing Cyberspace: Identity, Community, and Knowledge in the Electronic Age (Paperback)

Although Amazon calls Richard Holeton the author of this book (as, indeed, does McGraw-Hill), he would far more aptly be called its compiler. Not that compiling is any less respectable than authoring; the medieval societies in which the compilatio flourished provided us with such revered compilers as Geoffrey Chaucer, who took stories already known to his contemporaries and provided a narrative framework in which each had its place.

In Composing Cyberspace Holeton provides readers with virtually all the foundational texts for a study of technology and society. Here one finds writers musing on the effects of technology as early as 1909 (E.M. Forster's The Air-Ship) and as late as 1997. Every fundamental short work (with the possible exception of Sandy Stone's "How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Prosthesis") on the formation of a human identity in the age of computers is here, including:
- Sherry Turkle's "Identity in the Age of the Internet: Living in the MUD"
- William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Burning Chrome"
- Julian Dibbel's "A Rape in Cyberspace"
- Howard Rheingold's "The Heart of the WELL"
There are essays, interviews and fiction by such notables as: George Lakoff, Jon Katz, Dale Spender, Jorge Luis Borges, Clifford Stoll, and many, many more. Even Dave Barry has his say.

Composing Cyberspace is divided into three sections: Constructing Identity in the Computer Age, Building Community in the Electronic Age, and Seeking Knowledge in the Information Age. Each section is divided into chapters containing several texts, each of which is followed by a set of "SecondThoughts" for getting the most out of the text. The chapters themselves also have introductions and sets of "Discussion Threads" and "Research Links" for provoking further topical exploration.

The composition of the book makes it appear as a textbook (and it would be a good one), but Composing Cyberspace is more reader than textbook: a set of works essential to anyone thinking seriously about the impact of electronic communication on society.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book...needs updating, September 3, 2000

By 

dr. b. (Lafayette, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Composing Cyberspace: Identity, Community, and Knowledge in the Electronic Age (Paperback)

While this is one of the best readers on Communities and Cyberspace many of the essays are dated. While many of the essays like "Gender-Bending", "You Make Me Feel Like a Virtual Woman", and "The Heart of the WELL" that deal with messages boards and gender issues still work quite nicely, some of the others like "Identity in the Age of the Internet: Living in the MUD" do not work as well as they once did because networked gaming now goes past MOOs/MUDs and many students don't relate well to the idea of text based games. That appears to be something reserved for academics and die hard gamers of a time long passed.

With the change in computer user profiles over the three years since this text was published a second edition would be welcome. I would like to see what some of the authors in this text would have to say about the fact that studies show women as the internet user majority, the rise in women gamers, the direct correlation between playing video games and the decrease in suicide attempts, the increase of computerized classrooms, as well as (and most importantly) a real addressing of questions of class, race, and computer/internet access.

On a whole I would recommend this book for use in the classroom but be aware of the fact that in many cases there will be the need for supplemental readings to bridge the gap in the technology timeline.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sociology Primer, August 17, 2001

By 

Len Ellis (New York City, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Composing Cyberspace: Identity, Community, and Knowledge in the Electronic Age (Paperback)

A compendium largely within the boundaries of the liberal social science tradition will be excellent fodder for college-level sociology classes seeking to explore how the Internet challenges modern conventions. Beyond that, look elsewhere.