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Rating: 
Summary: Poor Scholarship, Vague Writing, Premature Publication
Review: Modern scholars are often driven by a host of pressures to
produce monographs, particularly tenure and in some cases
prestige. Even so, it is possible to produce competent
work that is precise and offers empirical evidence as well
as the insights of other scholars. That is to say, the best
academic work combines actual research with commentary on the
work and writing of one's peers.Levy's _Cyberculture_ offers neither. It is a pretentious,
pompous exercise in self-aggrandizment that masquerades as
scholarly writing. The book lies in the tradition of McLuhan
and Nostramdomus, in that it offers prognostications and
claims for experientiality without much evidence. Many
technical details are shoddy or wrong, and there is a stunning
lack of detail that suggests the author might not have spent
much time exploring the current state of "cyberspace". To take
one example, the author's position that the importance of
the Internet for digital music is really related to its potential
for collaboration holds little weight against the massive
current use of it for music distribution, the production of
Def Leppard's _Eupohoria_ notwithstanding. Levy presents
no backing for his claims, and seems to ignore what's currently
happening. Like all academics, the author attempts to create and define
the terms of his own debate. Scholars do this now so that
they can have something to write about, first off, and second
to attempt to form a legacy (in that other scholars will quote
them). Levy's attempt is centered around the Internet
as "Universality Without Totality", and of course these terms
are highly suspect and open to contention. Whither the
Digital Divide? Not here. Just like the lack of proper
documentation for sources in text. Just like any intellectual
merit beyond self-indulgence and blind seer-work. Proper
education teaches us to be wary of claims for universality,
and if Levy had stopped for a moment to consider the lack of
Third-World internet providers, or even the disenfranchised
in North America, he would have understood that there IS a
totalizing dimension to the Internet, which revolves around
ACCESS, the terms of which are CAPITAL and to a less extent
PRIVILEGE. In short, there are many superior works on the impact of Internet
technologies on society. All of them are necessarily premature,
as Communication History teaches us that the printing press,
television, radio, and every other new medium took years to
"settle out" (it's called the "Incunabula" period). Still,
it's possible to use empirical research to understand the
current state of affairs with its concommitant implications.
It's also possible to skip merrily through some terms of
your own devising, making broad claims that bear tenuous
connection to lived reality, which Levy does par excellence.
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