In some of the most emotionally wrenching times of their lives, millions of dying and bereaved Americans are receiving great comfort from total strangers online.
This paper looks at five U.S. cities (Austin, Cleveland, Nashville, Portland, and Washington, DC) and explores strategies being employed by community activists and local governments to create and sustain community networking projects.
At the most fundamental level, Americans would like the presumption of privacy when they are online, and they would like to be in control of when pieces of their identity are given out.