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Cyberspace:
A new universe, a parallel universe created and sustained by
the world's computers and communication lines. A world in which
the global traffic of knowledge, secrets, measurements, indicators,
entertainment, and alter-human agency takes on form: sights,
sounds, presences never seen on the surface of the earth blossoming
in a vast electronic night.
Cyberspace:
Through its myriad, unblinking video eyes, distant places and
faces, real or unreal, actual or long gone, can be summoned
to presence, from vast databases that constitute the culture's
deposited wealth, every document is available, every recording
is playable, and every picture is viewable.
Cyberspace:
The realm of pure information, filling like a lake, siphoning
the jangle of messages transfiguring the physical world, decontaminating
the natural and urban landscapes, redeeming them, saving them
from the chain-dragging bulldozers of the paper industry, from
the diesel smoke of courier and post office trucks, from jet
fuel fumes and clogged airports, from billboards, trashy and
pretentious architecture, hour-long freeway commutes, ticket
lines, and choked subways...from all the inefficiencies, pollutions
(chemical and informational), and corruptions attendant to the
process of moving information attached to things - from paper
to brains - across, over, and under the vast and bumpy surface
of the earth rather than letting it fly in the soft hail of
electrons that is cyberspace.
Michael
Benedikt in Cyberspace Michael Benedikt,"Introduction"
to Cyberspace: First Steps. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991.
"Our
minds were softly leaking rainbows of colored imagination, soon
to be joined by innumerable rainbows that would embrace the
earth and change the climate of the human psyche. Perception
would change, and with it, the sense of reality, of time, of
life and death....We would find a common thread running through
cyberspace, dream, hallucination, and mysticism (which may prove
that images generated by light impulses, be they technical or
biological, can only follow certain patterns)..."
"We will all become angels, and for eternity! Highly unstable,
hermaphrodite angels, unforgettable in terms of computer memory.
Nichole
Stenger in Cyberspace
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I
always feel the movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts
in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the
end. -Alice Paul, pioneer suffragist
The
Well was the ancient gathering place of women—the
hub of life in the village, where stories, ideas, information,
and inspiration were exchanged. Cyberspace provides a virtual
well for the global village.
While the Web helps build community globally, it can also help
build community locally.
WNC
WOMAN has created a virtual well where the women of Western
North Carolina can gather online 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. We've observed that women's organizations (business,
civic, etc.) sometimes fail—despite the participation of
intelligent and dedicated women—simply because they cannot
all be in the same room at the same time. Conflicting schedules
of women who are already overcommited can bring the collaborative
process to a standstill. The Mountain
Area Information Network, in cooperation with WNC WOMAN,
will be hosting a series of online discussion groups so we can
communicate with each other despite our busy lives and conflicting
schedules. Let's see what a 'great mosaic' we can create together!
ABOUT
THE WELL
The
Well is an email discussion group for the women of
Western North Carolina. THIS IS NOT A CHAT ROOM. When you send
an email to the group, it is distributed to everyone who has
subscribed, either in individual emails or in one packet of
emails per day. Details about registering will be available
shortly.
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