I am not so naive as to suggest or believe that the earth's population should be able, or in any way would wish to access the two endeavours focused upon by this site. But if the respective authors of 'Crossings' and 'Waxweb' propose that interactivity is a central issue to these works, it is essential at this early stage of the development of virtuality to ask who will be interacting.
I see the development of 'cybercafes' - places where it is possible to rent time on 'net linked computers(optionally at the same time as consuming beverages) - as an interesting development in terms of access, although it is not clear what their longer term role will be. If the 'net remains in the vast majority of instances read-only, cybercafes may be in danger of approximating digital library reading rooms with telephone (e-mail) and coffee machine access with little post-novelty appeal. However if the number of interactive projects originated by different social/ethnic groups available via the web should increase then it may be envisaged that the 'cafes will have a longer term future.
Neal Stephenson suggests that public access to shared virtualities will be of a particular sort:
"A liberal sprinkling of black-and-white people -
persons who are accessing the Metaverse through
cheap public terminals, and who are rendered in
jerky, grainy black and white (.....) Talking to a
black-and-white on the Street (the central drag
in the Metaverse) is like talking to a person who
has his face stuck in a xerox machine, repeatedly
pounding the copy button, while you stand by the
output tray pulling the sheets out one at a time
and looking at them."
('Snowcrash', ROC, 1992, p38)
