By Gregory Newby, Director and CEO of the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

People are naturally collaborative, social and cooperative. One of the great things about today’s globally connected networks, and the devices we use to connect to each other, is that it allows communities to form based on common interests, regardless of physical locations.

This is a major and recent change from what it previously meant to be part of a community. Although telecommunication has been a part of human life since ancient times, it is only recently that telecommunication has become nearly free: we can communicate electronically with individuals and groups without incremental costs for increased distance, or increased numbers of messages or recipients.