New communities have sprung up all over the Web. Portal sites are merely the beginning. Increasingly, people are using one site as the start of their daily surfing. They are being exposed to one set of links, news and features and thus involving themselves in a world and culture that they share with other people on a global rather than local basis. Added to that are the sites that give birth to a culture all of their own.
Sites support or create cultures catering for a huge variety of people and beliefs.
Cutting out the middleman has long been a tenet for people looking to reduce prices. Now the Internet can do that easily, said Mr Taylor. We are looking at a world that is being transformed in the business sense with friction free trading environments, we are looking at changing the way that people interact with each other and the degree to which culture can constrain those interactions. According to Mr Taylor, the very cornerstones of our societies are going to be changed by the influence of the Internet. It will be very difficult for people to protect their national and cultural autonomy.