Cyberspace is a phrase coined by science fiction author William Gibson in his epic 1994 novel "Neuromancer," the book which invented the cyberpunk generation.
In a very narrow sense, the term "cyberspace" concerns anything existing within the memory of a computer. "Cyber" has come to describe something online, especially anything to do with the Internet.
Cyberspace now refers to that vague place we enter whenever we sign onto an online service or access the Internet* or the World Wide Web* through an access provider*. Through electronic connections, we can browse or "surf" cyberspace and find vast amounts of information on computers around the world.
If we want our thoughts to be public, we can easily publish them some place on the Internet for the whole world to read. On a usenet newsgroup* we can share our opinions on an Lost Angelese restaurant (la.eats) or put pictures of the family album on the World Wide Web*.
You can't see, touch or point to cyberspace, but you can visit it. Cyberspace isn't owned by anyone, but people, internet service providers, institutions and telcos do everything possible to keep it working properly. These maintainers include the government, businesses and universities who support major servers, online services and commercial access providers*.
Because there are others in cyberspace when you're there, or they've left messages for you, it often feels like a regular community, a solid place where people communicate and learn. We can meet and chat with friends, share news and gossip, inform or argue with others, much like the way folks talked over the backyard fence in past generations.
But experts say it's not possible to build a real community on the Internet.
Despite that, the Internet is a powerful force. Reports by Matthew Drudge and his Drudge report have nearly toppled an U.S. president.
Unlike backyard fences, though, cyberspace has neither physical boundaries nor borders. Cyberspace is a new, seemingly limitless universe we've only just begun to explore; like the crews from any of the various versions of Star Trek, we're journeying to new worlds and "going where no one has gone before."
