Wendy Robinson writes; "As is so often the case, e-roads and railroads typically lead back to the anomie and distributed communication enabled by the telegraph. Many of the "road warrior" issues have been theoretically considered within cultural studies by those influenced by Innis, McLuhan, Beniger and Carey for many years. Nothing new in that for most on this list." BW: 1. I don't understand the anomie reference to e-roads, RRs and telegraphs. I know the e-road data pretty well, and it shows no effect or a positive effect on sentiments and behaviors of community. (Time for another plug for our Nov 2002 issue of American Behavioral Scientist, and Wellman-Haythornthwaite's forthcoming _Internet in Everyday Life_). 2. As to "Innis, McLuhan, Beniger and Carey. Nothing new for most on this list". BW: I knew McLuhan, know Carey, and Beniger slightly and work often in a building named for Harold Innis. These are all smart guys and deep theorist. But except possibly for Beninger, none did a systematic study of long-distance communication and community at the interpersonal level. Innis, to be sure, wrote the wonderful Empire and COmmunication, etc., but as the title implies, that was not a detailed, deeply-textured look at community or work relations. Surely, we don't think that deep theorizing is enough without systematic evidence to back it up and, more likely, develop and extend it. I have received one pointer to a study of road warriors. I am leaving on the road myself in 10 minutes; will check it out when I get a chance. Cheers, Barry ___________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman@chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 ___________________________________________________________________