Resumen
The article focuses on tools for navigating large social cyberspaces. Ideally, Usenet members would make efficient use of bandwidth, participating actively but judiciously in newsgroups, ensuring their comments are posted only to relevant newsgroups, and abiding by the local norms and culture that govern decorum. A key finding of collective action studies shows that mutual awareness of other participants' histories and relationships is critical to a cooperative outcome. The challenges of cooperation are heightened further when people are able to draw from a resource without contribution. Interfaces, like email and news browsers, that provide access to social cyberspaces such as discussion boards, email lists and chat rooms, present limited, if any, information about the social context of the interactions they host. Basic social cues about the size and nature of groups are missing, making discovery, navigation, and self-regulation an increasing challenge as the size and scope of these spaces expand. While people can eventually develop a refined sense of the rhythms, leaders, and fools in a particular social cyber space, the information does not come easily or easily transfer to other spaces. With little sense of the presence of other people, individuals have a difficult time forming cooperative relationships.