学习，这个与人类生命同步的古老话题，随着时代发展着、延续着，网络的崛起，使它再一次热点迭出、思潮涌动。
当我用键盘“写”完这部书稿时，既感到如释重负，又为自己能用计算机写作而感到欣慰。我毕竟是一位年过半百的网民。就在五年前写作拙作《面对银色浪潮》时，我还只能用传统的纸笔，孤灯细字，寒来暑往，其中甘苦一言难尽。相比之下，不可同日而语。
记得也是在几年前，有一次我去电视台做嘉宾，点评一位“网虫”和一位传统学者就“网上读书与传统读书”话题的讨论。两位先生各抒己见，难以说服对方。我的评判发言是也只能是倾向于传统学者的。说实在的，我当时对网络的认识并不深，“网虫”的很多提法当时我不甚了了。但网络时代就在这样一些不经意的事情中或强或弱地冲击着我，促使我在学习与研究中对网络的认识日渐深入。
本书的写作发端于2001年在济南召开的中国社会学学会年会上，年逾花甲的著名社会学家邓伟志教授出人意料地做了一场十分前卫的关于网络社会问题的学术报告，意识超前，思想敏锐，极具冲击力。与邓先生相比，我自惭形秽。开会回来后，我把邓先生的报告和我的感触与同行进行了交流。经过一个阶段的资料准备，我开始了网络社会问题的研究。几年来，通过与网络和计算机的亲密接触，我走进了一个全新的信息世界，我的心理年龄变得年轻了，我进一步理解了邓伟志先生在济南那飞扬的心声。
我们正在走向社会主义和谐社会，因此必须将学习融入社会生活，使文明与知识需要共生共荣。正如社会学家、《网络社会的崛起》作者曼纽尔·卡斯特所说：我们已经迈进了一个真正多元、互相依赖的世界，因而唯有从汇集了文化认同、全球网络化与多向度政治的多元视角出发，方有可能理解和改革这样的世界。
网络学习将带来的是：
知识传播浪潮的一场革命性的崛起
传统学习方式的一次划时代的挑战
改变人生与社会的一种历史性选择
需要说明的是，这部书稿从写作到出版长达4年之久，相对于迅猛发展的网络技术，书稿内容时有滞后之感，为努力追赶时代进步的足迹，对于书稿的修改从未停歇，即使如此，仍然有望尘之憾。所幸的是书稿得到了谢泽明、于云才、李天明、李爱国、张健刚、李文诺、刘洪先、杨荣亮等专家学者的帮助和指正。他们在百忙中审阅了书稿并提出了建议，感恩之情，难以忘怀。
最后，在本书辗转出版之际，我要感谢青岛市社会科学院及一切支持和关心本书的朋友们，感谢青岛出版社的编辑同志，没有你们的帮助和劳动，我的愿望难以实现。
作者
2006年6月于青岛
Brief introduction of the Author
Liu Tongchang，male，native of Qingdao，China。 Graduated from the Nor-mal University of Beijing，received bachelor s degree。Now he is a Research-fel-low works in Qingdao Academy of Aocial Science，and he is the commissioner of committee of Shandong Province demographic experts，standing director of Shan-dong institute of sociology，the special researcher of Taiwan Tsinghua University。
Now his master research direction：the social problem，society guarantees，old-age sociology。 He has taken charge of and completed a lot of research projects of city s＆province s。Many of them have been paid at tention to by leader of higher authorities。Since 2000，there are 12 pieces of research reports were writ-ten instructions or comments by leader。T he related contents were adopted by su-pervise section and listed to the leader s decision。Moreover，great majority re-search reports had been published in city s newspapers or periodicals of state and regional，and produce good results。After the monograph of《Face expanding Aged population in China》was published，American scholar translated it from Chinese to English on American press，that also made certain influence in the U-nite States。T he author engaged in the social problem studies，paying at tention to the hot problem and difficulty in society，more than 200 research achievements of his have been published，several of them were awarded a prize in the appraisal of city social science excellent fulfillments。He attend the international and domestic theories seminar for many times，and all times be invited to make the conference speech。In 2002，he gave a conference-lecture on sixth world-agedness-fund con-ference was convened in Bosie，Australia，and interviewed by SBS broadcasting station of Australia。In 2004，he made academic visit at the Hawaiian University and South California University in the United States。Then went to Japan and Mexico on a tour of observation。
E-mail：Ltongchang711@sina。 com