Howard Rheingold

In a recent Press Release from his agent PRI, Howard Rheingold is described as "a dynamic business technology and futurist speaker"; but Howard is much more than that. As a colorful individual, with a good portion of enthusiasm and curiosity, he bridges the world of technology with that of the one of flesh and blood. His search into unveiling the powers within ourselves have given us books like Higher Creativity (1984), published together with Willis Harman, and Tools for Thought (1984).

Preceeding his best-seller book Virtual Reality (1991) he ventured east of the sun and west of the moon; digging up dusty Sensoramas and garage-style VR-goggle gear, entering the bunkers of secret, hightech wargame playgrounds and shaking hands with low-tech telepresence puppy-dolls on the misty island of Great Britain.

Howard Rheingold is a 'netizen', being a long-time member of the WELL, a computer conference system located in Sausalito, California. This, by-now, famous computer conferencing system was founded by people who created the Whole Earth Catalog and the follow-on publication, The Whole Earth Review, now edited by Rheingold. Many of the fascinating net-stories we are been told in "The Virtual Community" spins around the life of the people and places at the WELL; preparing us for the opportunities and potential dangers associated with computermediated communications at the electronic frontier.

Rheingold is also a member of and contributor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which was "founded in July of 1990 to ensure that the principles embodied in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are protected as new communications technologies emerge."

Kim Baumann Larsen - April 94