p. 3

Harrison and Stephen argue that computer networking wil result in the "reconfiguration of the academic world time and time again." [their pp. 3-4]

We contend that our age will witness the reconfiguration of the academic world against and again, we see the computer as a central player in this revolution. But it is not the computer alone to which we now attribute these dramatic effects upon the character and substance of the academic world. Instead, the technology that will be responsible for this largely unforeseen revolution in the practices, the structure, and the products of scholarship is the computer network (pp. 3-4)

It is too soon to make any definitive statements about how computer networking will ultimately recast the shape and structure of academic life... computer networking threatens to disrupt existing disciplinary social structures based on print technology, restructure traditional student-teacher relationships, and destabilize longstanding economic, legal, and professional interdependencies in the dissemination of academic research (p. 7).