Espace numérique
Sommaire
Définition générale
Digital space is a space like all other spaces, and we can identify five characteristics that define it.
1. Digital space is an architectural space that organizes the relationships between objects in our society.
2. Digital space is an actual space, the space we inhabit. The adjective «digital» as it is used here refers to the very space we are living in today. The adjective cannot be limited to technologies: it has acquired a cultural meaning that signifies a set of characteristics, structures, and values that describe our society. Digital space is the space of digital society: digital space is the space where we live and where we act.
3. Digital space is a hybrid space. Some of the relationships that make this space – but not all of them – are determined by a network connection or by some other technology. In digital space, for example, the distance between two objects is determined both by the positions that these two objects have offline and by the positions they occupy within an online database. The same thing can be said about the visibility of objects in digital space: although we can see what is in front of us – on a computer screen, for instance – this «in front of» is a hybridization of connected and non-connected objects. My computer is in front of me, but my friend who is speaking to me via Skype is also in front of me.
4. Digital space is in movement. Our actions change it.
