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Over the past few years, global movements have been continuously producing public spheres where the distinction between the" real" and the" virtual" is fading away. From encounters in the geographical space of large mobilisations and local preparation meetings on one hand, and the thicket of websites, webfora, email lists, chatrooms and wikis on the other, a new, hybrid communication space is emerging. The practices in this emerging communication space are by far exceeding the expectations attached to the concept of cyberspace as discussed with much fascination during the 80 and 90s. The fusion of virtual and physical spaces, body and technology turns out to be taken much more taken for granted, much more embedded in everyday life than anyone had imagined. So, what does this emerging communication space look like, what are its preconditions, in which situations does it open up and what constitutes its boundaries?

The Zapatistas evoked a spot-on vision when they declared their intention to" make a network of communication among all our struggles and resistances" in August 1996. This" intercontinental network of alternative communication" would be directed against neoliberalism, it would be a medium by which distinct resistances would communicate with one another. It would search to" weave the channels so that words may travel all the roads that resist". It would not be an organizing structure, nor would it have a central head or decision maker, nor would it have a central command or hierarchies. This network, so the Zapatistas, are us," all of us who speak and listen".[1]