Howard Rheingold (born 1947) is an American critic, writer, and teacher, known for his specialties on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

such as the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

mobile telephony Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the li ...

and

virtual communities A virtual community is a social network of individuals who connect through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most pervasive virtual communi ...

Biography

Rheingold was born on July 7, 1947, in

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. He graduated from

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, Oregon, in 1968. His senior thesis was entitled ''What Life Can Compare with This? Sitting Alone at the Window, I Watch the Flowers Bloom, the Leaves Fall, the Seasons Come and Go''. A lifelong fascination with mind augmentation and its methods led Rheingold to the

Institute of Noetic Sciences The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) is an American non-profit parapsychological research institute. It was co-founded in 1973 by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell,Pfeffer, Elizabeth''Stars aligned: Astronaut's mission seeks to answer life's b ...

and

Xerox PARC PARC (Palo Alto Research Center; formerly Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, the company was originally a division of Xero ...

. There he worked on and wrote about the earliest personal computers. This led to his writing ''

Tools for Thought ''Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology'' is a work of "retrospective futurism" in which Smart Mobs author Howard Rheingold looked at the history of computing and then attempted to predict what the networked world m ...

'' in 1985, a history of the people behind the personal computer. Around that time he first logged on to

The WELL The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, was launched in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annual income of $2 million. ...

– an influential early online community. He explored the experience in his seminal book, ''

The Virtual Community ''The Virtual Community'' is a 1993 book about virtual communities by Howard Rheingold, a member of the early network system The WELL. A second edition, with a new concluding chapter, was published in 2000 by MIT Press. The book's discussion ...

''. Also in 1985, Rheingold coauthored '' Out of the Inner Circle: A Hacker's Guide to Computer Security'' with former

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

Bill Landreth William Troy Landreth (born April 5, 1963) is an American Hacker (computer security), hacker notable for his Password cracking, cracking activities during the early 1980s within a cracking club called "The Inner Circle". MySpace cofounder, Tom Ande ...

. In 1991, he published ''Virtual Reality: Exploring the Brave New Technologies of Artificial Experience and Interactive Worlds from Cyberspace to

Teledildonics Teledildonics (also known as cyberdildonics) is the name coined for virtual sex encounters using networked, electronic sex toys to mimic and extend human sexual interaction. The term became known after technology critic and writer Howard Rheingold ...

''. After a stint editing the ''

Whole Earth Review ''Whole Earth Review'' (''Whole Earth'' after 1997) was a magazine which was founded in January 1985 after the merger of the '' Whole Earth Software Review'' (a supplement to the ''Whole Earth Software Catalog'') and the ''CoEvolution Quarterly ...

'', Rheingold served as editor in chief of the ''Millennium

Whole Earth Catalog The ''Whole Earth Catalog'' (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articl ...

''. Shortly thereafter, he was hired on as founding executive editor of ''

HotWired ''Hotwired'' (1994–1999) was the first commercial online magazine, launched on October 27, 1994. Although it was part of the print magazine ''Wired'', ''Hotwired'' carried original content. History Andrew Anker, Wired's then Vice Presid ...

'', one of the first commercial content web sites published in 1994 by ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'' magazine. Rheingold left ''HotWired'' and soon founded Electric Minds in 1996 to chronicle and promote the growth of community online. Despite accolades, the site was sold and scaled back in 1997. In 1998, he created his next virtual community, Brainstorms, which, as of 2024, is a successful private webconferencing community for knowledgeable, intellectual, civil, and future-thinking adults from all over the world. Howard Rheingold by Christopher Michel 01

Howard Rheingold by Christopher Michel 01

In 2002, Rheingold published ''

Smart Mobs ''Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution'' is a book by Howard Rheingold dealing with the social, economic and political changes implicated by developing technology. The book covers subjects from text-messaging culture to wireless Internet ...

'', exploring the potential for technology to augment

collective intelligence Collective intelligence (CI) is shared or group intelligence (GI) that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making. The term appears in sociobiology, politic ...

. Shortly thereafter, in conjunction with the

Institute for the Future The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is a Palo Alto, California, US–based not-for-profit think tank. It was established, in 1968, as a spin-off from the RAND Corporation to help organizations plan for the long-term future, a subject known as ...

, Rheingold launched an effort to develop a broad-based literacy of cooperation. In 2008, Rheingold became the first research fellow at the Institute for the Future, with which he had long been affiliated. Rheingold is a visiting lecturer in

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

's Department of Communication where he has taught courses such as "Digital Journalism", "Virtual Communities and Social Media", and "Social Media Literacies". He is a former lecturer in

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

's School of Information where he taught "Virtual Communities and Social Media" and "Participatory Media/Collective Action". He has been a frequent contributor to the Connected Learning Alliance blog on topics ranging from new media literacy to learning innovation. Rheingold lives in

Mill Valley Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 census. Mill Valley is located on the western and ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, with his wife Judy and daughter Mamie. In an entry on his video blog, he provides a tour of the converted garage that became a "dream office" and an "externalization of ismind" where Rheingold absorbs information, writes, and creates art. He contributed the essay "Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies" to the Freesouls book project.

Selected bibliography

*''Talking Tech: A conversational Guide to Science and Technology'', with Howard Levine (1982) *''Higher Creativity: Liberating the Unconscious for Breakthrough Insight'', with

Willis Harman Willis W. Harman (August 16, 1918 – January 30, 1997) was an American engineer, futurist, and author associated with the human potential movement. He was convinced that late industrial civilization faced a period of major cultural crisis which ...

(1984) *'' Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology''
free in HTML form
(1985) *''

Out of the Inner Circle ''Out of the Inner Circle: A Hacker's Guide to Computer Security'' is a book by Bill Landreth and Howard Rheingold, published in 1985 by Microsoft Press and distributed by Simon & Schuster (). The book was created to provide insight into the ways ...

'', with

(1985) *''They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words & Phrases'' (1988) *''The Cognitive Connection: Thought and Language in Man and Machine'', with Howard Levine (1987) *''Excursions to the Far Side of the Mind'' (1988) *''Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming'', with

Stephen LaBerge Stephen LaBerge (born 1947) is an American psychophysiologist specializing in the Oneirology, scientific study of lucid dreaming. In 1967 he received his bachelor's degree in mathematics. He began researching lucid dreaming for his Ph.D. in psych ...

(1990) *''Virtual Reality'' (1991) *'' The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier'',
free in HTML form
(1993) *''Millennium

: Access to Tools and Ideas for the Twenty-First Century'' (1995) *''The Heart of the

WELL A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

'' (1998) *''The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier'' (2000 reprint with some new material) *'' Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution'' (2002) *''Net Smart: How to Thrive Online'' (2012) *''Mind Amplifier: Can Our Digital Tools Make Us Smarter?'' (2012)

References

External links

*
Howard Rheingold's Patreon page
hosting links, videos, paintings, and magical objects of paint & light
Howard Rheingold's Twitter feedSmart Mobs weblog/book site
at

TED conference TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

Reed College Alumni Magazine ProfileHoward Rheingold and Andrea Saveri Introduce the Cooperation Project
a 48MB QuickTime movie, hosted by the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rheingold, Howard 1947 births American online publication editors American technology writers Living people Writers from Phoenix, Arizona People from Mill Valley, California Reed College alumni Stanford University Department of Communication faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Whole Earth Catalog Wired (magazine) people Xerox people

Biography

Selected bibliography

See also

References

External links