Esteemed colleagues from many disciplines, I think we're onto a really interesting line of discussion. I'll break my longish comments into two sections. 1. Internet The questions that David Silver raised here (and that he and several of us on this list are working on) concern how the internet enables/makes/shapes a public sphere and a public or publics. The rise of a seemingly more democratic and interactive medium is occurring at the same time political and military power is being wielded in very old-fashioned and undemocratic -- nay, imperial -- ways. I think it behooves us to think about what this means for the claims we're making about the transformation of society. My research project on how social movements are using the internet to organize is one such attempt, and I'd love to hear the ideas for further research and/or writing that others have been inspired by recent world events. 2. Politics (warning: explicitly political) I was bothered by Angela's frustration about emails to representative being deleted. (Sorry, Angela!) There are ways, in my opinion, that online political participation at this time is ultimately frustrating and perhaps even demoralizing. For now, email doesn't seem to be an effective way for citizens to communicate political sentiment. From the research I've seen, emails aren't taken as seriously as handwritten notes or letters in one's own words. And emails don't get covered by the New York Times; marches of over 100,000 get covered by the New York Times (and the same is true for other cities and their hometown papers and marches -- good turnouts lead to coverage). By all means contact your elected officials -- this is the time to do it -- but for goodness sake don't send them an email. For the USA'ers on the list, I'm confident that most of you are already plugged into the ways in which you want to be involved, but if you'd like suggestions of groups, activities, readings, resources, etc., please contact me off list. Juggling my two hats, Gina