Michele (and others) - out of curiosity, do you have an alternative suggestion? You reject "space" and "place" and much of the terminology and research that is connected to those meanings. I understand that you may have started this discussion primarily because you feel flabbergasted (or something similar) and would love for someone else to provide you with new terminology. But maybe you have an idea already? Or at least a tendency? I'm curious to hear what you can suggest constructively in addition to pointing out flaws of the space and place metaphors. Personally, I don't have much of a problem with the "cyberspace" notion, tough I'm aware that cyberspace is measured in quite different 'units' than offline space. But then, I can even imagine Charles notion c), objects not floating in space (to me, the universe is a perfect example of that, but then that gets confusing because we refer to what's beyond the earth as "space" as well, when really it's a whole lot of dark matter and dark energy that we don't even know what it is. It seems to be matter so compressed that it acts as if it is nothing, sucking in other matter to fill a void; now isn't that fascinating? Sorry, for the digression, but I'm an avid Discover Magazine reader and - not being further educated on astrophysics - I tend to believe what I read there.). I'd be grateful for alternative suggestions (instead of space or place) to wrap my mind around. Ulla -- Ulla Bunz Assistant Professor Department of Communication Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901