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摘要
摘要
Are communication technologies ushering in a new age of computer networks that connect people into worldwide virtual communities of like-minded individuals? Or are global computer networks isolating us from real relationships and from our society, as we stare into a screen instead of interacting face to face? In this book, Stephen Doheny-Farina explores the nature of cyberspace and the increasing virtualization of everyday life.
评论 (5)
出版社周刊评论
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 responseseither 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 encounternot 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. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
Another entry in the tired line of books expressing alarm over the Internet and its effect on our eroding communities. The author (Technical Communications/Clarkson Univ.) starts by waxing poetic about his own rustic town in upstate New York, and then worries about what globalization and the increased popularity of the Internet will do to it. He writes, ``In immersing ourselves in the electronic net, we are ignoring our real dying communities.'' To his credit, Doheny-Farina does counter the wild hyperbole of some of the more enthusiastic Net-hype, which promotes the Internet as a replacement for real social interaction. But such books always use the worst addicts and most tedious online conversations to discredit the Internet, and they completely ignore all of the far more significant causes for our troubled communities. This volume is no exception. The author uses boring chat-room conversations and the text-based networks called MOOs (now out of style) to illustrate his points. As a solution, he recommends steering the Net toward community networks that stimulate local interaction. No realistic consideration is given to how the Internet, which ignores geographic boundaries, can be used in this manner. Even worse, the tone is overly academic, and readers seeking simple prose will choke on sentences like ``This vision represents the manifestation of our will to virtuality.'' The author also falls into one of the greatest pitfalls facing writers on modern technology: The pace of change is so great, they often miss the latest developments. Doheny-Farina fails to properly consider the emergence of the Web, which has shifted the focus of the Internet from text-based chat communities to publishing, commerce, and entertainment. Though his concern for our troubled localities is justified, Doheny-Farina takes the wrong path in blaming the Internet and seeing in it the means to a solution.
《书目》(Booklist)书评
In the debate over cyberspace's threats and opportunities, technical communication professor Doheny-Farina seeks a "middle way between denial and obsession, between antitechnological hopelessness and electronic ecstasy." With the immersiveness of linked computers' virtual reality making "the electrosphere a refuge for those who wish to avoid people who are different from themselves," he insists "we do not need electronic neighborhoods; we need geophysical neighborhoods, in all their integrity." He analyzes "the destructive, globalizing seductions of cyberspace," and discusses the range of small but potentially significant victories of the civic networking movement: "limited, focused, carefully applied efforts . . . to use communication technologies to help reintegrate people within their placed communities." Doheny-Farina is no utopian; he concedes most community networks are now either underutilized or just on-ramps to the highly commercialized information highway, but he argues netizens need to harness the power of connectivity to improve their geophysical as well as virtual environments. Appropriate for larger libraries where interest in technology goes beyond how-to's and the latest bells and whistles. --Mary Carroll
Choice 评论
Doheny-Farina (technical communications, Clarkson Univ.) presents an interesting and very personal perspective on the impacts of current communications technologies. Rather than focus on technical aspects, he centers discussion around how people relate to the technologies and ultimately to one another. Though the author attempts to debunk many unsubstantiated claims of the advantages of these technologies, he is not antitechnology. His primary concerns are ethical and social and with countering "the destructive, globalizing seductions of cyberspace." He argues that what communities need are not electronic neighborhoods but geophysical neighborhoods, and that communication technologies can be used to reintegrate people within their placed (as opposed to virtual) communities. Part 4 presents an extended discussion of the National Capital FreeNet of Canada's Ottawa-Hull region, one of the world's largest community networks. The book also contains a section on civic organizations, primarily in Canada and the US, taken from the Electronic Frontier Foundation's list of organizations that promote online or offline community development activities. Recommended for undergraduate and graduate students and for anyone interested in a balanced look at the personal and social advantages and disadvantages of today's communications technologies. E. J. Szewczak Canisius College
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Telecommunication technologies have seduced increasing numbers of users into connecting to the worldwide virtual community. The universal question is whether this connectedness truly enhances our global perspective or merely isolates us from real relationships in our society. Doheny-Farina (technical communications, Clarkson Univ.) pursues this question headlong, examining both views. While taking the middle road, he argues that the virtual communities in which we participate are less important than our own geophysical neighborhoods. Though both are valuable in their own ways, he clearly suggests that we must not use the new technologies as drugs to escape the reality of our troubled neighborhoods. Rather, we need to focus these virtual forces on reinvigorating our communities. In a chapter entitled "Fight the Good Fight," Doheny-Farina outlines a step-by-step plan to meet this challenge to use the net not simply to connect to the world but to our own city, town, or neighborhood. This is an absorbing work on an important topic. Recommended for all libraries.Joe Accardi, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.