Voices from the Net by Clay Shirky

Hosting philosophers and rebels, historymakers and historians, the net has more friction and fewer rules than the Annual Meeting of Anarchists. Still, on the Internet stage, people from everywhere continue to rapidly develop a unique and fascinating culture of their own, complete with all the benefits, and problems, of a real-life society.
In Voices from the Net, author Clay Shirky takes you on a tour of the communities of the net - a tour that shows you where and how they form, and how they have made the Internet the most dynamic, far-reaching online phenomenon to date.
It is only in the cyberspace communities on the net that webs of words become more vital than their counterparts in the "real" world. Drawing from many arenas and many voices, the author weaves together the threads of individuality and community that gather the net into one fabric where groups of people create their own online universe. Although many of the voices in Voices from the Net aren't in tune, you'll find that they form a fascinating choir that is as full as the net itself.