Physical place and cyberplace: The rise of personalized networking

Computer networks are social networks. Social affordances of computer-supported social networks - broader bandwidth, wireless portability, globalized connectivity, personalization - are fostering the movement from door-to-door and place-to-place communities to person-to-person and role-to-role communities. People connect in social networks rather than in communal groups. In-person and computer-mediated communication are integrated in communities characterized by personalized networking.