No "There" There Misc.7/28/2000; 9:41:25 AM 'Cyberspace isn't on any map, but I know that it must exist, because it is spoken of every day. People spend hours in chat rooms. They visit Web sites. They travel through this electronic domain on an information superhighway. The language we use implies that cyberspace is a place as tangible as France or St. Louis or the coffee shop on the corner. But why, exactly, should we think of the Internet as a geographic location? I recently participated in a telephone conference call with people in several other states and countries. Were we all together in another "place"? I doubt that any of us thought so.'Counterpoint: In Bruce Sterling's relatively well-known (and freely available on the Internet) book, he starts the first chapter with the invention of the telephone as the first 'cyberspace'.To some extent, both views are right. Part of the problem is simply the nature of the metaphor, which not everybody agrees on. To his credit, the author actually points this out at the end of the article:'The cyberspace-as-place metaphor is probably here to stay. And it has its uses, as do the many other fanciful metaphors we use in everyday speech. But let's not be misled. The regulation of cyberspace -- in areas from copyright to taxation to privacy -- hardly represents the spoliation of a pristine and untamed land.'