The concept of social capital, or the value that can be derived from                  social ties created by goodwill, mutual support, shared language, common beliefs,                  and a sense of mutual obligation, has been applied to a number of fields, from                  sociology to management. It is only lately, however, that researchers in information                  technology and knowledge management have begun to explore the idea of social capital                  in relation to their fields. This collection of thirteen essays by computer                  scientists, sociologists, communication specialists, economists, and others presents                  a multidisciplinary look at this particular intersection of information technology                  and social science and the need to adopt a sociotechnical perspective.For the most                  part the contributors take a positive view of the interplay of social capital,                  knowledge sharing, and community building. Some essays look at specific instances,                  including the on-line and face-to-face relationships of a community of athletes, the                  building of social capital among Iranian NGOs, and the Internet-based communities                  created by the open-source movement, while others discuss more general ideas of                  civic and personal communities. The last four essays examine computer applications                  that augment social capital, including topic- and member-centered communications                  spaces such as the Expert Finder and the Loops system and virtual repositories of                  knowledge such as the Answer Garden and Pearls of Wisdom.

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