CONTEXTS

Book Reviewsemployees and effectively grow his company, Hollerithsells his company to a conglomerate that will becomeIBM in 1924.Although separate chapters describe punched carduse in Europe and Hollerith’s attempt to gain a footholdthere, we never really get to know Herman Hollerith asa man. While this book is clearly of interest to anyonewho studies the history of technological innovation, Iwould like to know more about the individual behindthe punch card. What was it that caused Herman topress through so many periods of business reversals?What spark drove him to usher in our modern computerage against often overwhelming obstacles? We learnmuch about the design of the punched card but toolittle about the design of the man who crafted it.Victoria MakiVictoria Maki is the president of Bitzone, a technical publishingand training company, and coauthor of Documenting APIs:Writing Developer Documentation for Java APIs and SDKs,which is available from the Bitzone Web site at http://www.bitzone.com. She also co-manages the Technical/API DocsSpecial Interest Group for the Silicon Valley STC Chapter.Connected Minds, Emerging Cultures:Cybercultures in Online LearningSteve Wheeler, ed. 2009. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.[ISBN 978-1-60752-015-3. 284 pages, including author bios. US$39.99(softcover).]Today, people can accessa wide range of onlinedegree programs, certificategrantingcourses, and trainingseminars with the click of abutton. Providing successfulinstruction in such contexts,however, is often not a matterof technology but of people.That is, the group with whichstudents interact in educationalcontexts can influence thelearning process. Educators and trainers, therefore, needto understand how the group dynamics or the cultureof an online class affects both instructor and studentsuccess. In this context, Connected Minds, Emerging Cultures:Cybercultures in Online Learning offers insights into the roleculture and communities can play in online instruction.Cultures—whether online or face-to-face—arecomplex and nuanced. Thus, it would be difficult fora single text to effectively explore all aspects affectingtheir creation and evolution. The editor of ConnectedMinds, Emerging Cultures does not try to provide readerswith a definitive reference resource; rather, his objectiveis to present ideas and perspectives that will promptreflection and help readers think more carefully aboutthe topic. This approach allows him to include entrieson a wide range of issues and opinions associatedwith communities, culture, and education in onlineenvironments. It also means that the book’s contributorsuse various methods to explore ideas and differentwriting styles to convey information. The result is aninteresting, highly informative, and very readable workthat would be of interest to anyone involved in orconsidering online education or online training.Steve Wheeler has organized the book’s 17chapters into four broad sections that address“Digital Subcultures,” “Roles and Identities,” “CyberPerspectives,” and “Narratives and Case Studies.” Onemight expect such divisions to be too broad; on thecontrary, each section contains rich and interestingchapters that collectively do an effective job ofexamining the various aspects of that section.The first section explores what subcultures areand how they are created in terms of collaboration,mobility and access, visual versus verbal interaction, andpervasiveness. Similarly, “Roles and Identities” reviewsprevious research on online identity. The entries inthis section also examine how different kinds of socialinteractions (for example, interaction via gaming vs. viaformal online classes) lead to the creation of differinggroup identities, such as virtual clans and digital tribes,which affects perceptions of self in the virtual and realworlds.The vaguely titled section “Cyber Perspectives”actually contains four focused entries that expandnotions of culture and identity. These chapters explorehow such ideas affect information creation and sharingin online communities. The concluding section leavesreaders with four examples of how the topics covered inthe book’s first three sections can affect online learningin different contexts. This section provides readers withVolume 57, Number 3, August 2010 l Technical Communication 357