I am guessing that because of these technological developments more people are perceiving the Internet as a place or a state of being.
hi there, The central subject of my thesis is an analysis of the development of human relationships in cyberspace. it is set within the wider topic of the interconnection of the Internet and society. Central to my analysis are four basic questions: how are online relationships formed and maintained, what kind of relationships are formed online, do relationships formed online migrate to other social settings, and how are real life and virtual life interwoven in terms of lived experiences? One of my chapters is an explanation of how cyberspace is constructed as 'place' Over the last three years I have undertaken an ethnographic study of an Internet community. My data consists of fieldnotes associated with participant observation, 86 interviews on the internet, ten 'short stories' about friendship, and four face to face interviews, with people I had met in this online community (including my 'mentor' who lived with myself and my family for 6 days). as an impoverished postgrad i have reviewed three books that might interest you - firstly, 'Life Online' for rccs at http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs/booklist.asp in feb 2002 - there is also a review of the same book there by Dennis L. Wignall and a response by Annette Markham i have also reviewed the following two books that look at how the internet is becoming a 'real' place - they are ethnographies of the internet - the first is an ethnography of the impact of the Internet in Trinidad - the second by frank Schaap is a fascinating account of life in a MUD. 1 - A review of - D Miller and D Slater (2000)The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach. Oxford and New York. Berg, in, Information, Communication and Society. Issue 5.4, Dec 2002. 2 - A review of - Schaap, Frank (2002)The Words That Took Us There: Ethnography in a Virtual Reality. Amsterdam. Askant Academic Publishers, in, Information, Communication and Society. Issue 6.2, Apr/May 2003. (not yet published) regards denise Denise Maia Carter, School of Comparative and Applied Social Science, University of Hull, UK http://www.denisecarter.net denisecarter@denisecarter.net