Digital Cosmopolitans - Why We Think the Internet Connects Us, Why It Doesn`t, and How to Rewire It

In an age of connection supercharged by the Internet, we often assume that more people online means a smaller, more cosmopolitan world. In reality, it is easier to ship bottles of water from Fiji to Atlanta than it is to get news from Tokyo to New York. In Digital Cosmopolitans Ethan Zuckerman draws on contemporary research in psychology, sociology and his own work on how humans "flock together" to explain why the technological ability to reach someone does not inevitably lead to increased connection. For those who seek a wider picture-a picture now critical for global success-Zuckerman highlights the challenges and the headway already made by attempts to bridge cultures through translation, cross-cultural inspiration and the search for new, serendipitous experience. Digital Cosmopolitans offers a map of the innovations needed to more tightly connect the world. Ethan Zuckerman is the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media. A media scholar, Internet activist, and blogger, he lives in Lanesboro, Massachusetts.