Cyberspace is a nonphysical place built by analogies to physical things.  For example, initially the Internet appeared as a vast and open country that was essentially vacant, a place where no one initially owned anything. This anarchy of open spaces quickly subsides as people settle the space and set up their own communities and societies.  Because cyberspace is a place built out of texts, it may be understood as imaginative realities with made-up structures, representations of people, and simulated environments with new kinds of rules and limits.

In Beyond Borders:  See William Mitchell's "Soft Cities"; Stephen Doheny-Farina's "Real Cold, Simulated Heat, Virtual Reality at the Roxy"; Howard Rheingold's "Disinformocracy"; and IBM Compute Ad "Pyramids."

In Beyond Borders Online:  All of the Web Research Activities are directly relevant to the keyword "cyberspace."  You might start, however, with activities from "The Web and a Sense of Place and Community" and "Identity in Cyberspace" and more introductory than some of the other Web Research themes. [BC: Note underscored links to research page of this site.]

difference  Difference refers to the idea that not all identities are alike, nor are all communities and cultures. Some of the readings in Beyond Borders explore the idea that we form our own identities and know ourselves through difference. That is, we define ourselves, cultures, and communities by what they are not. One distinction the textbook also considers is the relationship between intra- and inter-cultural difference. Not all individual members of a community are exactly alike. And certainly, there are all sorts of different communities. How then does a multi-cultural community (a community whose members are different communities) handle difference?

In Beyond Borders:  See David Sibley's "Feelings About Difference" and Ronald Takaki's "A Different Mirror."

In Beyond Borders Online:  See Web Research Activities, "Identity in Cyberspace."

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