Space for Change or Changing Spaces: Exploiting Virtual Spaces of Consumption 1

The internet driven information revolution is frequently cited as one of the key factors (re)shaping contemporary society. Within wider social changes (Laing et al. 2005a), the core of this revolution is a fundamental expansion of individual consumer access to information resources. In particular the internet, with its unprecedented breadth of interconnected information, offers consumers access to specialist product and market information which has conventionally been confined to organizations and professionals operating within that market. In the past decade the internet has variously been predicted to change working practices, lifestyles, personal relationships and even sense of community (Tambyah 1996; Jolink 2000). Yet many of these predictions have subsequently proved, along with some of the more high profile internet companies, to be at least premature. What is clear, however, is that the internet has a number of critical capabilities and recognizing these capabilities facilitates understanding of how, and where, the internet will ultimately impact on contemporary society. One of the critical areas where the internet has been perceived as disrupting established conventions is in respect of complex professional services where the core of the service product is information (Beck 2001).