Howard Rheingold sees things that others simply hadn't noticed before. And he knows how to explain why they are important and why you need to pay attention to them.

THE CYBERANALYST
(Sherry Turkle)

The Citizen

"I resent the shallowness of the critics who say that if you sit in front of a computer and participate in online conversations worldwide you are not leading an authentic life. I question the premise that one person can judge the authenticity of another person's life. Millions of people passively watch television all day long. Don't tell me that having an email relationship with someone on the other side of the world is less authentic than sitting alone and watching the tube. For many people, this new medium is a way of breaking out of the virtual world they already live in."

In the fifteen years I have known him, Howard Rheingold has evolved from a modest, quiet, thoughtful working writer/editor into the flamboyant Howard "always ten years ahead of his time" Rheingold. From his dazzling hand-designed shoes to his vividly colored suits and his TV ads for Kinko's, he has invented his own character-spokesman, communications expert, celebrity, lecturer, writer, thinker, wise man, one of the first people to recognize the potential of a new medium for human communication.

HOWARD RHEINGOLD is the author of Virtual Reality (1991), and The Virtual Community (1993), and was the editor of Whole Earth Review and the Millennium Whole Earth Catalog (1995). His weekly column, "Tomorrow," is syndicated by King Features. His new webzine, Electric Minds, can be found at www.minds.com.