New possibilities of communication make the
digital media interesting and attractive for society.
According to Rheingold, the reasons for the power
of virtual communities and computer networks
are on the one hand to be found in the fact
that any participant is potentially connected
to any other participant and that all
communication partners have equal access to the system;
besides, on the basis of new media, a relation network
can be developed which goes far beyond traditional barriers.
Furthermore, all media tend to assume a digital form,
and in the end, according to his opinion,
the innovative potential of new technologies is enormous.

---

Howard Rheingold

THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY AND THE FOUR FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION

A tremendous power shift is underway, and despite the obscure or phony terminology used to describe it, this power shift is about people, and our ability to connect with each other in new ways, much more than it is about fiberoptic cables and multimedia appliances. The revolution triggered by the printing press was about literacy, and what literate populations are capable of doing (e.g., governing themselves), long after it had anything to do with the mechanics of moveable type. The technology enabled the power shift, but the power shift was created by people who used the tool to educate themselves.

There is a lot of talk about "information superhighways" these days. I understand why the metaphor is used, but it doesn't interest me. Highways are boring. Communities are more exciting. And I still believe that the community aspects - the person-to-person communications, not the access to entertainment and information - are what draw people to the new computer-mediated communication media.

In my travels in North America, Europe and Japan, it has struck me time and again that the same grassroots, citizen-to-citizen movement, now known as the virtual community, is simply popping up everywhere people have access to a public switched telecommunication network and affordable desktop computers. I believe computer conferencing can be a force for rebuilding a sense of community in our fragmented society. And I believe the ability and freedom of citizens to communicate with each other without prior restraint on their expression is as fundamental to democracy as it is to community. We need to understand the world in a new way, and we need to do it quickly, if we are to preserve individual liberties in the face of ever more powerful states. Art and artists help us all see the world in a new way, and reperceiving the world is the necessary prior step to understanding it anew.