Online Communities and the Future of Culture

This is an enthusiastic piece I wrote when it became apparent to me that the Internet is coming of age as a social networking technology, and that this has broad cultural implications.

Summary: "Online communities afford individuals the freedom to move across cultures as they see fit. This makes them emerge as bastions of intellectual life where culture-makers increasingly like to hang out. This evolution means that over time, online communities will become a vital part of cultural development."

Full story and discussion on kuro5hin.

I later found an article by William Butler O'Connor in the journal First Monday that made a similar point using primarily economic arguments.

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