Wait a minute. Did I say that?
The internet is "still lacking" as a tool for inter-personal communication?
That's certainly something that the New York Times might write, or some
research institute that sheds a tear for a long-lost small town ethos.
But me? I've got my hands in literally tens of online discussion forums,
and I proselytize the benefits of a-synchronous communication. Do I really
mean that? Well, yes. Not because our internet tools are so poor - they've
improved immensely, though we're still learning how, and when best, to
use them. And not because non-internet based communication is so great
- many too many people don't know how to talk to each other face to face,
let alone with the aid of a computer. But when we compare the best of face
to face communication with the best of Computer Mediated Communication,
we've still got a long way to go before computers will be the medium of
choice.