This is an anthology of chapters written by different authors, ranging from computer scientists to sociologists. The chapters range from a discussion of the social conventions associated with interaction in a virtual environment to case studies of virtual environments with avatars. Avatars are graphical representations of an online person in a virtual environment. The book is loosely organized. Chapters on avatar use and social conventions appear early, while case studies and empirical studies appear toward the end.

There are a couple of problems with this book. First, if you go to the online forums, you will encounter some controversy about the presence or absence of avatars. One side opposes avatars because they make an online forum look unprofessional, and significantly increase the amount of time spent downloading information that is mostly text. The other side favors the use of avatars because they allow a forum participant to personalize their appearance. The editor doesn’t mention this controversy at all.

Second, this book seems to ignore the fact that online communication has been around for several decades. It also ignores significant changes in online communication, as users went from text-based personas to graphical avatars. A discussion of this topic would better link this book with the online communication technologies that preceded the emergence of avatars. As written, this book gives the false impression that all significant online communication started in the early 1990s.

In all fairness, this must have been a difficult book to edit. On the one hand, the editor is faced with contributions from computer scientists discussing the technology needed to create an interactive 3D virtual environment. On the other hand, there is an attempt to ground what is observed in these virtual environments in sociological theory on groups and behavior. The sociological theory that is discussed seems overly simplistic.

Perhaps if the book had taken a slightly different direction and focused on the technology needed for an online virtual environment conducive to virtual reality and the emergence of avatars, it could have provided the reader with an environment for simulating some of the group processes that sociologists study.

Ultimately, the over-emphasis on technology and the tendency to ignore the 15 years of text-based communication that preceded the emergence of online graphical environments create some problems with this book.

The book provides some useful background information about avatars and shared virtual environments. However, it fails to adequately discuss the sociological processes associated with online communication, and the people (not the avatars that represent the people) who are doing the communicating.