The language of the Internet is full of spatial metaphors. Individuals and organizations spend time in "cyberspace," create "web sites," and frequent "chat rooms" and "multi-user domains" (MUDs). If we view the web as a landscape to be explored, what similarities can we say that cyber spaces have to physical spaces? In what ways is this comparison useful? Where does the analogy break down? If we treat the Internet as a global village, what evidence of national or regional communities can be found?

Consider the ways in which colleges and universities are creating virtual campuses online. In addition to providing "live shots" of campuses on sites such as Campus Tours, academic institutions are paying greater attention to developing an online presence. Spend some time exploring the web site of your college or university. How do the look and feel of this virtual representation differ from the look and feel of the physical space itself? What sort of virtual space has your school created?

Assemble a group and go on the web to search out several personal home pages. Then write a collaborative analysis of one or two sites, keeping in mind Eudora Welty’s statement, "The thing to wait on, to reach for, is the moment in which people reveal themselves" (p. 85). Your analysis should address how the people who are constructing home pages reveal themselves by creating a place in virtual space.