Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for the Study of Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Internet activist and blogger, in his debut book describes how social networks, transport hubs and new information technologies are changing our lives. The new interconnected world does not function exactly as techno-optimists and trade columnists imagine, but nevertheless it already exists, and learning to live in it, adequately using the Internet and other tools for good and not harm, is a task that faces today is unusually acute.