Like its predecessor, the best-selling CyberSociety, published in 1994, Cybersociety 2.0 is rooted in criticism and analysis of computer-mediated technologies to assist readers in becoming critically aware of the hype and hopes pinned on computer-mediated communication and of the cultures that are emerging among Internet users. Both books are products of a particular moment in time, and serve as snapshots of the concerns and issues that surround the burgeoning new technologies of communication.
After a brief introduction to the history of computer-mediated communication, each essay in this volume highlights specific cyber societies and how computer-mediated communication affects the notion of self and its relation to community. Contributors probe issues of community, standards of conduct, communication, means of fixing identity, knowledge, information, and the exercise of power in social relations.