ABSTRACT
The community that Drew McGarr, Dave Kaplan, Mona Twocats, LuAnn Molloy, and Alan Kardoff formed in cyberspace exemplifies a degree of connection that has become increasingly rare in physical space. The connections that generate social capital are fueled by relatively basic, but unfortunately diminishing, qualities: honesty reciprocity, and trust. These qualities produce and are reinforced by community. The decline in social capital is most acute among young adults. This chapter finds that the Internet provides citizens who are separated from each other by time and space a way to reconnect and become more concerned about each other and their society. Admittedly, thinkers like Robert Putnam are keen to explore ways of making genuine connections, but they focus on the physical, not the virtual. The Internet that the chapter observed may be supplementing the village square and traditional forms of face-to-face connections with virtual communities and coast-to-coast connections that appear to be relevant and actually pertinent, meaningful, and valuable.
