(you can see this page at http://duplox.wz-berlin.de)
(and there is much more to see of our work :-)
(but most of our texts are in german only :-(

Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB)
Reichpietschufer 50
10785 Berlin Germany

Fon +49 (030) 254 91 - 0 Fax +49 (030) 254 91 213

Sabine Helmers (s@duplox.wz-berlin.de)
Ute Hoffmann (uteh@medea.wz-berlin.de)
Jeanette Hofmann (jeanette@medea.wz-berlin.de)
Claudia Nentwich
Kai Seidler (oswald@duplox.wz-berlin.de)
Jillian-Beth Stamos-Kaschke (jillian@duplox.wz-berlin.de)

The notion of an Information Superhighway has come to dominate the discussion as the definitive guiding vision behind emerging global electronic data networks. This metaphor casts computer networks as pure transportation paths, designed to cross great distances as quickly as possible. The new element of today's electronic networks, however, is not so much to be found in technical mechanisms for the transfer of data, but rather in the rapidly growing number of uses and services, the expanding reach of networks, and the corresponding collapse of distance as a limit to communication--in short, an unprecedented form of 'connectedness' is emerging. Open electronic networks provide in effect an altogether new kind of space, forming, in a sense a new room in our perception of reality. Users (inter)act within this electronic realm. In the Internet, a 'Net-world' which exists unto itself has gained recognizable contours.

The work of the Projektgruppe Kulturraum Internet seeks to shed light on the rules, customs, habits, and institutions which shape events and activities in this world of data networks. In particular, we are interested in:

the principles on which the evolving internal order of the Net is based;
the individual elements of this internal order; and
the processes whereby it is changing (itself) in the current phase of radical and rapid development and diversification.