The Wired Neighborhood (Hardcover)

by Stephen Doheny-Farina (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A level-headed analysis of the nature of community in the online world, and the effect of the online world on real-world communities. Contains some of the best discussions I have encountered about the substantive qualitative value of projects such as the National Public Telecomputing Network, which, to my mind, could serve the same balancing service for the future of the Internet that National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service have served for radio and television in the U.S., Recommended

From Publishers Weekly
In his book about how computer technology affects our relationship to our geophysical communities, Doheny-Farina, an associate professor of technical communications at Clarkson University in upstate New York, offers excellent discussions on telecommuting, virtual education and also on community nets (locally based networks that serve as town hall, bulletin board, etc.) as the most recent version of early public-access cable TV. The problem is that much of his often wistful discussion is about a community that has already been thoroughly, perhaps fatally, compromised by the telephone and the car. Admitting that requires one of two responses?either expanding the argument to include these other earlier technologies, or else admitting that we have accommodated to that technology and (aside from the few lost netsouls) will accommodate to this. His discussion of possible alternatives are generally logged-in suggestions about community-based CMC, like Ottawa's National Capital FreeNet. But one of the most important parts of community building is the unplanned encounter?not the convergence of common interests but the chance meetings that make for a more generalized neighborliness. Doheny-Farina hints at the importance of this kind of interaction at several places but doesn't address it in his solution. Then again maybe this is just an acknowledgment of the computer's basic function. Computers were designed to make it easier to get what we know we want, not to find what we never knew we needed.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 25, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300067658
• ISBN-13: 978-0300067651
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,184,305 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent, level-headed, and thought-provoking, October 12, 1998

By A Customer

a very well-considered look at the realtionship between digital communications technology and local communities, with particularly good treatment of public access, education, and attempts to use computers to enhance, rather than undermine, neighborhood and community relations. Highly recommended.