Still, the overall governmental structure of America Online remains. The ISP is provided at a monetary cost to the user, Terms of Service are laid out regualating activity and behavior, and strenuously-trained moderators are employed on a volunteer basis to police the community and enforce the rules. It’s like a gated computer in cyberspace… except there are about a billion people inside it. Governmental structures, and how individuals respond to those structures, is of particular interest to me. As someone who has participated in a number of internet communities over the years, it was of interest to me to examine how such communities come into existence, the purpose they serve to society and how they are sustained over time.
It’s obvious that Internet technology irrevocably altered the industrialized societies of the world, but what’s more significant is the fact that it also defined an entire generation as well as a class of people within that generation.
