The Networking Book: People Connecting with People

Offering a comprehensive theory of networking in the context of evolutionary change, the authors, professionals in the networking field, state: ""A global economy and society, linked by information technologies, is poised to flower, yet it may instantly perish.'' They profile numerous networks, including the Boston Women's Health Collective (which produced The New Our Bodies, Ourselves, environmental groups such as Plant Drum, computer conferencing and electronic networking associations like the Electronic Information Exchange System, centers for spiritual and personal growth such as Esalen, and more. In the foreword written shortly before his death, Fuller sums up the significance of the authors' subject: ``As networking accelerates humanity into a spherically embracing, spontaneous union, yesterday's locally autonomous, self-preoccupied governments will find that trying to arrest networking is like trying to arrest the waves of the ocean.'' Like Fuller, the authors see the shape of the future in the ``complex latticework'' of this ``immense subculture.'' (December)