From cyberspace to DigiPlace: Visibility in an age of information and mobility

Abstract

The information age is increasingly mobile with ever finer webs of potential connectivity overlaying the physical spaces we inhabit. While commentators have long argued that cyberspace can only be understood in reference to material places (Castells, 1996; Graham, 1998; Zook, 2000), this chapter analyzes a particularly striking example of the connections between electronic data, physicality and mobility, i.e., Google’s localization products. In fact, we argue that services such as GoogleLocal engender a type of hybrid space (Couclelis, 1996), which we term DigiPlace, in which digital data and physical places are continually re-combined into lived, subjective space as one negotiates through time, space and information. Particularly novel factors behind the construction and experience of DigiPlace are: the ability to access it in real time and on the move, and the impact of this electronic visibility on perceptions of physical accessibility. This chapter briefly outlines a theoretical lens through which this phenomenon can be viewed and presents a case study based on mobile access to GoogleLocal to explore changes to the way people experience and move through data, space and place.