he one of a book: the unity and quality of editorial
work!"

= Cyberspace and information society

Over the years, I asked people I was interviewing by email how
they would define cyberspace and information society. Here are
a few answers, to open new perspectives that will happily
replace a "conclusion" for this book.

According to Peter Raggett, head of the Central Library at the
OECD (Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development):
"Cyberspace is that area 'out there' which is on the other end
of my PC when I connect to the internet. Any ISP (Internet
Service Provider) or webpage provider is in cyberspace as far
as his users or customers are concerned." And the information
society? "The information society is the society where the most
valued product is information. Up to the 20th century,
manufactured goods were the most valued products. They have
been replaced by information. In fact, people are now talking
of the knowledge society where the most valuable economic
product is the knowledge inside our heads."

Steven Krauwer is the coordinator of ELSNET (European Network
of Excellence in Human Language Technologies). "For me the
cyberspace is the part of the universe (including people,
machines and information) that I can reach from behind my
desk." And the information society? "An information society is
a society: (a) where most of the knowledge and information is
no longer stored in people's brains or books but on electronic
media; (b) where the information repositories are distributed,
interconnected via an information infrastructure, and
accessible from anywhere; (c) where social processes have
become so dependent on this information and the information
infrastructure that citizens who are not connected to this
information system cannot fully participate in the functioning
of the society."

Guy Antoine is the founder of Windows on Haiti, a reference
website about Haitian culture. For him, cyberspace is
"literally the newest frontier for mankind, a place where
everyone can claim his place, and do so with relative ease and
a minimum of financial resources, before heavy
intergovernmental regulations and taxation finally set in. But
then, there will be another."

Henk Slettenhaar is a professor in communication technologies
at Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland. For him,
cyberspace is "our virtual space. The area of digital
information (bits, not atoms). It is a limited space when you
th