Places do not have to be composed of physical space. Even if the technology never progresses beyond what is possible today, there are already real virtual places, that is, areas of virtual space governed by a web of norms for "embodied" social action. People do things in virtual places. People have conversations "in" locales that don't exist physically; they get into arguments "there." If we can ask of these activities in what place they happen, it would seem that "in the virtual space" is a better answer than in the scattered physical locations of people sitting at desks all over the world.
But, some might ask, don't virtual places have only a derivative place-quality? Aren't virtual places examples of the death of place?
(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001