"Knowledge Networks" or Discourse Communities?: Response to Hibbitts' Commentary on Electronic Journals

Professor Bernard Hibbitts commented on my article in support of scholarly electronic journals in his piece E-Journals, Archives and Knowledge Networks: A Commentary on Archie Zariski's Defense of Electronic Law Journals by suggesting there were now other more efficient and effective models of scholarly communication using computer networks. In this response, I question whether the networked alternatives Hibbitts recommends will enable scholarly discourse to continue in the way necessary for the maintenance of disciplinary knowledge or whether they merely provide for the bare exchange of data and information.