4 Net Nerds
This website was started by some web developers who needed a diversion from developing commercial websites. For those who spend a lot of time in cyberspace, this is a good place to get some comic relief. You'll find some good nerd stories here, including funny tales about tech support people dealing with clueless customers. For those who need them, there are pickup lines you can use in a net nerd singles bar ("Need me to unzip your files?") and tips on how to tell if you are a net nerd. A more serious article offers insights on how to interest kids in becoming computer literate.
http://4netnerds.com

The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
Anyone who hates spam will love this web resource. Spam, or unsolicited commercial email, is a growing problem on the Internet. Junk email shifts the costs of advertising from the advertiser to the recipient, and costs everyone in the system time and money. CAUCE is is an all-volunteer group of Internet users, network technology professionals, and Internet Service Provider administrators who provide the public with information about spam and promote legislation to eliminate it. Consult this website for regular updates on legislative developments and other news. Read True Tales of Spam, and the text of pending bills in the legislature. Learn the potential dangers of email abuse, how to track down junk emailers, and how to register a complaint.
http://www.cauce.org/

Council for Online Community Alternatives (COCA)
Just when many people thought bulletin board systems (BBSs) were becoming obsolete because of the Internet, the expanding online population is manifesting a new wave of interest in these local systems. Alongside the vastness and diversity of the Internet, the BBS offers something special: an intimate online community where one can belong and know other members. The mission of COCA (Council for Online Community Alternatives) is to promote the community atmosphere of the BBS as an alternative to just browsing the Internet, and to make computer users aware of their local bulletin board systems. COCA membership is free and open to all individuals regardless of software used, geographic location, or whether they run a BBS. Some goals of COCA are to build a worldwide network of organizations, sponsor IRC conferences for sysops and callers, and hold a new BBSCON. Some of the many resources offered at this website are a chat room, a BBS FAQ, file areas, listserves, and a newsletter. Users can read reviews of BBSs and find a local BBS or FidoNet from the lists here.
http://coca.home.ml.org

The ThiemeWorks
The ThiemeWorks offers daily reflections, weekly columns, and illuminating articles about the interaction between ourselves, computer technology, and spirituality. The site features clean design, easy navigation, and intelligent, often very original, commentary on subjects like cybersleuthing; the Roswell incident and other popular UFO stories; and how Japanese culture is adapting to the Internet. Visitors can sign up to get free subscriptions to the columns by email.
http://www.thiemeworks.com

j-dom
j-dom, "The Zine for Netizens," has interviews, feature stories, and humor. The Vision section presents trends in the Internet community, and where we're heading. Media discusses developments in New Media, and their impact on us. The Tek section has news on late-breaking technology. Definitions of computer terms can be found in Jargon Buster. In addition there are Hints 'n Tips for computing, IT/IS business news, and Wavelength for the exchange of opinions.
http://www.j-dom.demon.co.uk

Weekly Web Poll
The Weekly Web Poll poses a new question each week for Internet users. The questions may be about technology, politics, food, entertainment, or any other topic - user suggestions are welcome. For example, is the shareware system effective (what percentage of users register the shareware they download)? How many people favor legalized gambling? What percentage of Net surfers have their own websites? How many people have fallen in love with someone they met online? The Weekly Web Poll is kid-safe, although some topics will be more interesting to older people. All results are updated in real time.
http://www.dreamscape.com/throb

Virtual Institute of Information
The Virtual Institute of Information is a research institute focusing on telecommunications, cybercommunications, and mass media. This website contains a searchable database of papers on the economic, business, policy, and social aspects of telecommunications, cybercommunications, and mass media. The site also publishes calls for papers, an events calendar, mailing lists, chat rooms, forums on new telecommunications issues, and more, all in multiple languages. There are links to Internet search engines so that academic research centers, companies, and government agencies can all be accessed without leaving the site.
http://www.ctr.columbia.edu/vii

CyberAngels
CyberAngels is an all-volunteer Internet safety patrol and monitoring project started by The International Alliance of Guardian Angels. CyberAngels membership unites more than 1000 users worldwide in 32 countries, sharing a common mission: to be a Cyberspace Neighborhood Watch and to fight Internet crime. CyberAngels helps any user with problems of safety and security on the Internet, advising on how to deal with mailbombs, forged email, mailing list spams, viruses, impersonation, electronic sabotage, sexual harassment, hate mail, unsolicited email, and threats to children's online safety. Many NetCitizens have no idea how to report such abuses. CyberAngels supports the effort to develop, in effect, a 9-1-1 system for NetCitizens to use in case of emergency. Visitors to this web page can find out how to join this group of dedicated volunteers who surf the Internet on the lookout for criminal activity. This web page also has a list of screening software and law enforcement links.
http://www.cyberangels.org/

Timothy Leary's Home Page
This home page was the last wish of psychedelic pioneer Timothy Leary, according to friend Doug Rushkoff. It is an archive of his works, and more. Part of the site is structured as Leary's "cyber home." The living room, like Leary's real-life home, is set up to be a never-ending cyber party where friends can visit, talk philosophy via live chat, and just hang out. The library contains portions of Leary's books such as Chaos & Cyberculture, High Priest, Surfing the Conscious Nets, and The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead which Leary wrote with Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert; also letters and manuscripts. The art room has photos and gallery exhibits with a monthly featured artist and art from Leary's friends and around the world; you can also browse archives of past exhibits. There is a video room (you can order Leary's video How To Operate Your Brain), and a cyber room in the making which will offer free software and profiles on innovative cyber pioneers. The current issue of The Global Village Voice, this site's online newspaper, contains a notice of Leary's recent passing with reminiscences and tributes from his friends. The site also offers excerpts from Leary's last book, intended to be published in 1997: The Ultimate Trip: A Manual for Designer Dying.
http://leary.com/

James Gleick's Home Page
James Gleick is the author of Chaos: Making a New Science, and Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. In 1993 he and Uday Ivatury founded The Pipeline, a New York City-based Internet service that pioneered the first Internet full-featured graphical user interface for Windows and Macintosh. Gleick now writes Fast Forward, a monthly column on technology and the future, for the New York Times Magazine, and contributes articles to other publications. Some articles at this site that may be of interest to the Net community: "Making Microsoft Safe for Capitalism", "Chasing Bugs in the Electronic Village," "This Is Sex?" (about online pornography), and "dirtytricks@campaign96.org."
http://www.around.com/

The Electronic Frontier Foundation
New digital networks offer a tremendous potential to empower individuals in an ever-overpowering world. However, every day decisions are being made that will affect the future of communications: decisions that are made before the public even knows that there are choices. The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded to ensure that the principles embodied in the Constitution and Bill of Rights are protected as new communications technologies emerge. Some of the issues arising from this new technology are: freedom of speech and censorship; the free flow of information; privacy of email; privacy of health and medical records; privacy of transactions; digital intellectual property rights; proposed "Net taxes;" availability of encryption technologies; how to protect children and undesiring adults from exposure to offensive materials; how to determine which country's laws have jurisdiction over a medium that is nowhere and everywhere at the same time; how best to protect privacy while still permitting recovery for harm. EFF publishes an electronic bulletin, EFFector Online, as well as a hardcopy newsletter, EFFector, and maintains a free telephone hotline for "Netizens." EFF answers hundreds of technical and legal questions daily via telephone, postal mail and email. EFF also advises related organizations worldwide, finds pro bono counsel for important legal cases, and monitors legislation affecting the online community and the Internet as a tool for understanding and democracy.
http://www.eff.org/

The Virtual Community
"My seven-year-old daughter knows that her father congregates with a family of invisible friends who seem to gather in his computer. Sometimes he talks to them, even if nobody else can see them. And she knows that these invisible friends sometimes show up in the flesh, materializing from the next block or the other side of the planet. . . . "It became clear to me during the first months of that history that I was participating in the self-design of a new kind of culture. I watched the community's social contracts stretch and change as the people who discovered and started building the WELL in its first year or two were joined by so many others. Norms were established, challenged, changed, reestablished, rechallenged, in a kind of speeded-up social evolution. . . . "The technology that makes virtual communities possible has the potential to bring enormous leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost--intellectual leverage, social leverage, commercial leverage, and most important, political leverage. But the technology will not in itself fulfill that potential; this latent technical power must be used intelligently and deliberately by an informed population. . . . The Net is still out of control in fundamental ways, but it might not stay that way for long. What we know and do now is important because it is still possible for people around the world to make sure this new sphere of vital human discourse remains open to the citizens of the planet before the political and economic big boys seize it, censor it, meter it, and sell it back to us." --Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community (online book)
http://www.well.com/user/hlr/vcbook/

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
CPSR is a public-interest alliance of computer scientists and others interested in the impact of computer technology on society. As technical experts, CPSR members provide the public and policymakers with assessments of the power, promise, and limitations of computer technology. As concerned citizens, they direct public attention to critical choices concerning the applications of computing and how those choices affect society. See this web page for events, publications, historical information, electronic resources, relevant legislation, and the latest hot topics.
http://snyside.sunnyside.com/home/

Webgrrls! Women on the Web
Webgrrls is "a real-world, face-to-face networking group for women in and interested in new media." Chapters provide a forum for women to exchange information, give job and business leads, learn about new technologies, mentor, intern,train and more! Monthly networking meetings allow members to meet other women with similar interests. Other benefits of membership are panels, presentations, classes and events, and email announcements of job opportunities.
http://www.webgrrls.com/directory.html