Marc A. Smith is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Peter Kollock is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Both have lectured widely on the history and development of cyberspace.

• Part one INTRODUCTION 1 Communities in cyberspace Part two IDENTITY 2 Identity and deception in the virtual community 3 Reading race online: discovering racial identity in Usenet discussions 4 Writing in the body: gender (re)production in online Interaction Part three SOCIAL ORDER AND CONTROL 5 Hierarchy and power: social control in cyberspace 6 Problems of conflict management in virtual Communities Part four COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS 7 Virtual communities as communities: Net surfers don’t ride alone 8 Invisible crowds in cyberspace: mapping the social structure of the Usenet 9 The economies of online cooperation: gifts and public goods in cyberspace Part five COLLECTIVE ACTION 10 The promise and the peril of social action in cyberspace: ethos, delivery, and the protests over MarketPlace and the Clipper chip 11 Electronic homesteading on the rural frontier: Big Sky Telegraph and its community 12 Cyberspace and disadvantaged communities: the Internet as a tool for collective action