"This is a book about how people use advanced information technologies to write for community change. The author argues that the work of citizenship is knowledge work - on the same order as the knowledge work expected of workers in business and industry settings. Those writing for community change must interact with complex databases - even create them - work with ill-formed sets of information, and from this material, write persuasively to professional audiences. The civic rhetoric required is therefore mediated by complex information technologies that is deeply coordinated and collaborative. Rhetorical activity in contemporary communities requires the participation of many people and technologies. Invention is distributed; writing is always collaborative." "The importance of this book is the way it understands writing and technology, citizenship, and the implications of these understanding for how we need to teach and learn with students in university writing classrooms."--BOOK JACKET.