Which way the Internet? The virtual world has undergone so many changes in its brief existence no one can predict its future with confidence. Philosophers argue over whether the Internet will enhance or diminish public life. Most agree that television has been bad for democracy. Is the Internet the antidote to broadcasting that can reinvigorate public life? Or will it fragment society by enabling citizens to associate only with like-minded others? Social researchers look to the practice of online community for insight into our evolving social life. As suburbanization and the breakdown of the extended family and neighborhood isolate individuals more and more, the Internet appears as a possible corrective. Are virtual communities "real" enough to support the kind of personal commitment and growth we associate with community life, or are they fragile and ultimately unsatisfying substitutes for human interaction?

Andrew Feenberg holds the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication of Simon Fraser University. He is the author of Lukacs, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory (Oxford University Press, 1986), Alternative Modernity (University of California Press, 1995), Questioning Technology (Routledge, 1999), Transforming Technology (Oxford University Press, 2002), and Heidegger and Marcuse: The Catastrophe and Redemption of History (Routledge). He is also co-editor of Technology and the Politics of Knowledge (Indiana), Modernity and Technology (MIT Press, 2003), and Community in the Digital Age (Rowman and Littlefield). In addition to his work on Critical Theory and philosophy of technology, Dr Feenberg is recognized as an early innovator in the field of online communication. He is currently directing a project for improving software for online discussion forums under a grant from the US Department of Education.