This document contains papers commissioned by the Institute for Information Studies to provide a variety of perspectives on a particular topic relating to the impact of communications and information technology. Among the subjects covered are the impact of the Internet on community, education, electronic commerce, international development, and democracy, as well as the impact on the Internet of national governments' struggles to retain sovereignty in the face of the Internet's insistently global nature. The chapters are: "Sovereignty in the Networked World" (Michael R. Nelson); "The New 'Civic Virtue' of the Internet" (David R. Johnson and David G. Post); "The Internet and Community" (Jeffrey Abramson); "Will the Internet Transform Higher Education?" (Walter S. Baer); "The Internet and Electronic Commerce: A Tale of Three Cities" (Elliot Maxwell); and "Development and the Globalization of Cyberspace" (Heather E. Hudson). Author profiles are included. (AEF)