ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights the historicity and plurality of public leisure spaces and provides a much needed rootedness in the speculative media discourse by drawing parallels between public parks and Web 2.0 spaces. It investigates a range of park spaces to make transparent the diverse needs and deeds of actors in the leisure commons, both offline and online. For methodological efficacy in using metaphors to explain, throughout the book specific online phenomena and concerns are juxtaposed against the physical spatial equivalent. The Wild Wild Web, the Frontier, the Cloud, and the Electronic Ghetto are some of the metaphors that have played a part in evoking expectations and emotions as well as endorsing policy and practice. The book makes the case that global cities and digital leisure networks function similarly: both are at once stateless and yet constrained by diverse national laws and local social practices.
