(2002-02-07) e

Gary Wolf profiles Howard Rheingold. Reed College, InstituteForNoeticSciences, WELL, Xerox PARC, Tools For Thought, Virtual Reality, Virtual Community, Electric Minds. The first promoters of online communication harbored serious hopes that these new technologies - modems, bulletin boards, internet sites - would contribute to the resolution of social problems. By reducing the cost of publishing and by shielding appearance, accent, and other particulars of identity, online technologies might prove an antidote to prejudice and chauvinism. Rheingold shared this idealism and presented it forcefully.