The social info-structure, however, the very heart of any community network, requires genuine citizen participation at many levels. It is a major cultural shift for citizens to adopt any new communications behavior. Change doesn't come easily. Bringing our existing social structures into the online environment will open many new possibilities for more effective communications, but it will take time for us to become comfortable with both the technology, and conceptualizing these new communications benefits. What we're all needing is definition of the process by which we individually get the help we need to continuously learn, experiment with, and evaluate the increasing variety of new communications options.
Expectations increase with experience.
You can't effectively tell someone about the advantages of email. They have to experience these advantages firsthand to understand. The medium with the highest potential social benefit is also the most affordable and accessible. Offline readers are software programs that allow anyone, anywhere with a computer and modem the ability to send or receive messages, written offline or for reading offline, at a cost of under one cent per page. This has yet to be recognized as the most powerful ubiquitous communications capability in human history.