Barry Wellman learned to keypunch in 1965 and started chatting online in 1976. Now the head of the University of Toronto's NetLab, he's a leading scholar of cybersociety, community, and social network analysis. Prof. Wellman has pioneered understanding of both communities and computer networks as social networks. He founded the International Network for Social Network Analysis, chaired the Community section of the American Sociological Association, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Association for Internet Research. He's written more than 200 articles and edited two other books. His website has received 20,000 hits in three years.

Caroline Haythornthwaite is a faculty member at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is also Coordinator of the Undergraduate Minor in Information Technology Studies. Before returning to full-time study, she spent over 10 years in software development as a programmer, systems analyst, and software development manager. Her research focuses on how people work and learn together at a distance via computer technology and the Internet, and examines what combinations of computer media, and work and social communications build ties and social networks online. Current projects include examination of learning networks and community ties among distance learners, and processes of knowledge co-construction among members of distributed research teams.