Although Amazon calls Richard Holeton the author of this book (as, indeed, does McGraw-Hill), he would far more aptly be called its compiler. Not that compiling is any less respectable than authoring; the medieval societies in which the compilatio flourished provided us with such revered compilers as Geoffrey Chaucer, who took stories already known to his contemporaries and provided a narrative framework in which each had its place.
In Composing Cyberspace Holeton provides readers with virtually all the foundational texts for a study of technology and society. Here one finds writers musing on the effects of technology as early as 1909 (E.M. Forster's The Air-Ship) and as late as 1997. Every fundamental short work (with the possible exception of Sandy Stone's "How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Prosthesis") on the formation of a human identity in the age of computers is here, including:
- Sherry Turkle's "Identity in the Age of the Internet: Living in the MUD"
- William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Burning Chrome"
- Julian Dibbel's "A Rape in Cyberspace"
- Howard Rheingold's "The Heart of the WELL"
There are essays, interviews and fiction by such notables as: George Lakoff, Jon Katz, Dale Spender, Jorge Luis Borges, Clifford Stoll, and many, many more. Even Dave Barry has his say.

Composing Cyberspace is divided into three sections: Constructing Identity in the Computer Age, Building Community in the Electronic Age, and Seeking Knowledge in the Information Age. Each section is divided into chapters containing several texts, each of which is followed by a set of "SecondThoughts" for getting the most out of the text. The chapters themselves also have introductions and sets of "Discussion Threads" and "Research Links" for provoking further topical exploration.

The composition of the book makes it appear as a textbook (and it would be a good one), but Composing Cyberspace is more reader than textbook: a set of works essential to anyone thinking seriously about the impact of electronic communication on society. ( )