Realization #1: Cybertime

Through phone conversations and our “live visits” we would eventually negotiate our gaps in communication, coming to be very aware of the fact that implicit in the narrowing of space is the expansion of time. Despite the fact that the relative speed of an email far surpasses that of over-ground mail, the speed itself necessitates a need to be gracious in the gift of time: the time it takes to explain something, the time it may take to find a file online, the time it will take to move from one idea to the next.

These realization make clear that when sharing cultures occurs – in cybertime – becomes just as important as where we say it occurs – in cyberspace. These elements work together – as we do – negotiating a shared reality. We cannot allow ourselves to take for granted that cyberspace necessarily makes all interaction “faster.” In fact, we know that it has taken five years to make changes that, if we had been face to face, we all know would have taken much longer. However, it is the process here, the passing through of time, rather than the impulse to simply “not waste it” that enables all involved to actually find the time to process difference, negotiate exchanges, and effect the sharing of cultures.