Wendy Robinson wrote: "We're better connected, yet more atomized." Barry wonders: What evidence is there to support this? Other than Bob Putnam's _Bowling Alone_ which is worth taking seriously, but focuses on the decline of organized groups. OTOH,lots of people have provided systematic evidence -- ethnographic and survey -- that show the continuation of connectivity, although more in social networks than in densely-knit bounded groups. My web page has both review articles and my own research on the subject. For those of you tiring of this thread, I am on the road again for the next week, and mostly offline. Flying economy class. See some of you Monday in the NSF-John Robinson Webshop summer institute at U Maryland, and perhaps others of you at the SSRC-Columbia U ICT meets Int'l Relns summer institute. BTW, I forgot to mention the greatest advantage of business class lounges: they provide abundant electrical outlets for us workaholics. It's sad to see the scramble among folks in the regular airport waiting rooms to get the few electrical outlet connections for their laptops. I've taken to carrying a multi-outlet tap, so I can ask people to share their precious wall connection. And so it goes ... ___________________________________________________________________ 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 ___________________________________________________________________