Our students live in a cyberworld. We need teach them how to practice literacy–"writing" and rhetoric–in the virtual sphere. Thus, we need not only to familiarize ourselves with the cybersphere, we must also nurture computer-assisted "virtual" communities. Hardware and software acquisitions, technical expertise, and institutional support are not enough. As classrooms become more wired, technology and its mediating influences become increasingly transparent.

As the boundaries between real and online worlds blur and collapse, I begin by examining the logic of "alienation," in Jameson's sense. I argue that we need to become experts in working against cyber-alienation, which is imbued and set in motion by our choices. Next, I discuss how this logic of alienation results from cyborg life (including why it doesn't feel alienating).

Finally, I outline C. S. Peirce's approach to self and to communities of inquiry, offering a cyber-ready theory to work against alienation and to the improvement of all our communities. As teachers of writing are more fully wired, we must redefine our own approaches to self and community. I describe the means for learning the semiotic operations of selves-in-community.