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The Internet, the World Wide Web, Virtual Community are a variety of terms used to describe the international connections we can make using our home computer, a modem, and an internet service provider (ISP).
Bordering on the miraculous, we can instantaneously, through satellite and microwave, talk to nearly anyone who also has a computer, a modem, and an internet service provider, no matter where they are in the world.
As with any communication tool, we use this one for good or for evil. We sell and buy, so we can steal; we can post our ideas so that anyone can see them, so we can build others up or tear them down, steal their work and call it ours. We can show pictures of family or friends, of products, of naked people engaged in lewd and obscene activities; we can invite people to our homes, find how to get there by map or directions, so we can proposition children and know where to find them.
That we can do these things means we must struggle with the rights and privileges of individuals and groups in a free society where the law provides legal protections to free speech and past history mitigates against burning books and preventing assembly.
This course opens the door on the questions this technology and easy access for most people, though access is also one of those things we're going to talk about, presents us collectively and individually. We find more questions than answers and we will leave this course with new insight into the tensions posed when living in a virtual community.
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