summary | table of contents | readability | intended audience | related links | the book's utility Utility The utility of this book is separate from the "appropriateness for the audience" discussed in the audience webnode. This is a useful book, if not for the greater audience of online writing teachers, then for a good deal of others. I would, for example, recommend that every VP of Information Systems read this book. The same would go, I believe, for college presidents, ISP executives, and city administrators. These are the folks, you see, who will have – and already do have – an impact on how we get telecommunications service through whatever means we get it. I'd argue, then, that this is one of those books that is useful beyond its readability. It's necessary to know about these issues if we are going to do something about the universal access issues that Noam brings up.            Therefore, while the book's a tough read and not aimed at writing teachers, I hesitate to discourage those in the writing-teaching or technology-and-writing businesses from reading it. And, to be completely honest, those who use a nation's technology network are, I think, obliged to at least something about those networks (though explaining and understanding something like frame relays or packet switching may take a bit of time). We at least need to know the nature of these networks. Perhaps, then, techno-teachers are not completely left out of the loop by this book. After all, the more we require our students to have online/Web access, the more they will be living with the results of the issues discussed in this book, whether it's through cable, DSL, wireless, or the trusty 28.8 modem. Changes in these services bring changes to these services – not the least being the cost of the services. The access to technology by some students – particularly ethnic minority students, students with lower incomes, and students in rural areas – is hardly a given, and changes in technology services mean changes in these students' ability to take place in the education we proffer. It behooves us to be aware of structures that affect our plans for our students so we can look at the end-user (so infrequently-done in so many techno-education environments) and her/his ability to even access, much less learn, in a given environment.