Les défis
du cybermonde
by Hervé Fischer,
Editor
Les Presses de l'Université Laval,
Québec, 2003
275 pp. Paper, $30.00
ISBN: 2-7637-7932-8.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be
In her introduction to this collection
of short essays, Canadian journalist Paule
des Rivières asks for a round-up
of the unkept promises and the new challenges
facing the Internet and the World Wide
Web. Has the world become more democratic,
and has the distance between governments
and citizens really shrunk? Is the Internet
economy just an inflated idea that has
all but collapsed in the early years of
this century, or is there a future yet?
Does the future of cyberspace lie in new
modes of creativity and multidisciplinary
scientific research? How are we going
to direct the ever faster movement of
information along the superhighway?
In the spring of 2002, these questions
were posed to a number of more or less
distinguished artists, authors, philosophers,
and scientists from four continents and
the answers were published in the French-Canadian
newspaper Le devoir. Now, 27 essays
have been brought together in this wide-ranging
lucky bag. This isn't intended disrespectfully,
but a collection of 27 essays of less
than nines pages on average and on a range
of topics from the myths of the cyber-economy
to the nature of the universe, the future
of online education and the development
of new modes of authoring must have something
for all. This is a strength as well as
a weakness. Its strength lies in the fact
that an uninformed reader at least gets
to know what the issues are. In a very
readable format, all philosophical, political,
artistic, and scientific facets of the
current state of the cyberworld are covered.
However, the strength of a chain depends
on the weakest of its links, and that
is certainly true for this volume. Some
of the contributions are of prime quality.
Jacques Nantel, professor of e-commerce
at the Ecole des hautes études
commerciales de Montréal (School
for Higher Business Studies) does an excellent
job at assessing the alleged virtues of
e-business and Diana Domingues from the
Universidad Caxais do Sol in Brazil writes
convincingly and lucidly about one aspect
of art and magic in cyberspace. These
are just two of the strong links, and
there are many others.
On the negative side, there are some very,
very poor contributions that I would put
down to an uninformed or unlucky choice
of authors. Surely, more and better things
have been written about cyberdemocracy
and the Digital Divide or on the reality
of the virtual?
Fortunately, only a small number of essays
are really below standards, and this is
compensated for by a number of really
outstanding, original, and often humourous
pieces.