My first recession : criticial internet culture in transition

Study maps the transition of critical Internet culture from the mid to late nineties Internet craze to the dotcom crash, the subsequent downfall of the global financial markets and '911.' Internet critic Geert Lovink lays out the challenges faced by critical internet culture today. He looks into the ambivalent attitude artists and activists take as they switch back and forth between euphoria and skepticism. As a part of this process, he examines the internal dynamics of virtual communities through an analysis of the use of moderation and 'collaborative filtering' on mailing lists and weblogs. Fuelled by spam, viruses and server attacks, tensions on the ever-expanding Net have increased dramatically. Open, egalitarian Internet communities have become vulnerable. The book contains case studies of dotcoms, the internal dynamics of virtual communities, the stagnant situation of online audio and video, debates over how new media can be taught and designs for a 'free software society'. The central question is which information architectures deal best with information overload. How can Internet as an unfinished project maintain its liberty? Is filtering contrary to the philosophy of openness? Do peer-to-peer networks such as Napster, weblogs and wireless networks offer a way out of the growing discontent around new media?