CYBER-SPACE, OR CYBER-TOPOS: The Creation of Online Space1

Abstract

This paper argues that communicative and behavioural patterns used online together with the intersection of these patterns with offline conventions (particularly those about the role regulatory and interpretive functions of locale, and the distinction between public and private), give people their sense of the 'space' in cyberspace. Cyber 'space' is deeply im plicated by the use and categorization of offline spaces. I take it that space does not simply exist neutrally as a container, to be filled by things, but that the particular quality of space, and the space itself, exists in feedback with human usage, both present and past. Whatever the accuracy of this position in general, humans clearly open up and create cyberspace. The kinds of space opened up then influence the qualities of the events and processes occurring 'within'. Cyber 'space' does not hold ob jects but is created by the processes initiated by people in social interaction, or in the hope of social interaction, which are affected by conventions and forces in offline life. Con sequently, the experience of space and of 'virtual community' might differ radically between those networks which have participants who live in a local area and those which have participants located in many different areas.2 Space in the offline world has many different social functions, such as: organising production, distribution, display and consumption; indicating or enforcing status; in fluencing the type of communication probable; separating people and gathering them together; representing cosmic truth or 'social ideology'; allowing openness or secrecy, and so on. Not all organisations of space, or representations of space, have to serve all of these purposes all the time. Consequently these functions may not all be served by the space of cyber'space', and cyberspatiality may not be uniform. The kind of space perceived may depend upon the kind of social actors representing and using the space. It is not necessary to assume that everyone brings to a place the same expectations of space — some social dynamics occur because people have different interpretive schemas. There may also be difference in the use of representations of space, for persuasive purposes. In brief, when considering the construction of cyberspace it is necessary to bear in mind at least three factors, all of which interact. 1) Constructions and use of space in the embedding society. Internet space is con figured by economic, political and technical factors. It must be remembered that MOOs, Mailing Lists and Web sites all require a located computer to operate from, just as people access the Internet from a located place. Ease of access, speed and reliability, are not socially or geographically uniform. Offline social partitions such as language and identity 'ghettoization' can also be introduced. 2) The experience of space generated when using the Internet.