Steve and Joanna raise some interesting issues. Yes, there is a great deal of ethnocenticism, but perhaps that's a reflection on the power of cultural identity.
Net culture is inevitably rooted in the user's self and hence mirrors the culture of the user.
C'est la vie. As someone with a background in anthropology and who works in a univertsity department of geography I'm amazed how much the Net is used to reinforce and reify our own cultural horizons. I can count on one hand the number of geographers who use the Net to link their students to students living in the foreign lands subject to study, for example. Far from being an innately empowering facility the Net, I suspect, serves to perpetuate and reinforce cultural hegemony. Net culture is inevitably rooted in the user's self and hence mirrors the culture of the user.