Question: In your writing you talk about virtual communities and networks, could you give us a short description of the main characteristics you can find in a virtual community?
Answer (1'21”)

Question: Regarding identity in virtual communities, what do you consider are the main specificities of its construction?
Answer (2'55”)

Question: What do you think about blogs, weblogs, wikies, chats and all the different technologies appearing, and their benefit for building virtual communities, and where do you think they are looking today?
Answer (2'03”)

Question: In your latest book you talk about Smart Mobs , could you explain a bit more what exactly a Smart Mob is, and how do you relate it to your other books?.
Answer (2'18”)

Question: So there is a social value in on-line communities, as you said before; but do you think this sociability on line or digital communities could break down the digital divide?
Answer (1'34”)

Question: Do you think this could be a symptom of an emerging type of democracy?
Answer (1'42”)

Question: Lots of things have changed since the "dot com" crashed down and many utopias are still falling down, like the utopia of internet will bring democracy and so on. In which position do you think the utopias and ideals about technology are today?
Answer (2'18”)

Question: Also another utopia was about virtual reality, when lots of people were expecting the virtual reality to change everything, as you also pointed up years ago. Do you think virtual reality ideal has completely felt down?
Answer (3'04”)

Question: Nowadays which one is the book you are dreaming on?
Answer (1'35”)

Howard Rheingold, leading thinker and writer on the social implications of technology, has travelled to many different places looking for emerging trends in computing, communication and society. In the conversation he talks about how technology has influenced and changed communication between people and also the concept of communication itself. He explains the different uses and possibilities of virtual communities, wikies and weblogs, how people use them today to create links between their interests, intentions and projects, and how people show their personalities in the Internet relationship context. But he thinks that the Internet is not the only communication technology revolution, as mobile phones are also really getting deeply inside society. Howard invented the term Smart Mobs to describe groups of people who use mobile phones to organise collective actions.
We can find a lot of writings, books and articles by Rheingold since the 80s. In 1984 he started writing about computers as mind-amplifiers with Tools for Thoughts . Later he wrote Virtual Reality (1991), about the world of artificial experience, and also in 1993 he published the book The Virtual Community where he focused on new communication media. Later on, in 2002 he published his latest work Smart Mobs about the phenomenon of new mobile phone technology culture and how it influences so many events that happen in society.

Interviewed by Pau Alsina, Professor of Humanities Studies (UOC) and recorded by Pau Waelder (co-director of Artactiva), at Ars Electronica 2004.