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Charting Virtual Worlds

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the making-things-purty dept.

Myrioandme writes "Since the inception of the Internet, cybergeographers have been trying to draw maps of cyberspace. The results have been mixed, but a new book brings together some of the most interesting -- and breathtaking -- maps of virtual worlds. Wired is carrying the full story."

5 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. RFC 432 by mauddib~ · · Score: 5, Informative

    RFC 432 contains one of the oldest maps of the internet, with only a couple of hosts.

    rfc432 in pdf format

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  2. Another interestring web site by MGKoch · · Score: 2, Informative

    Another interestring web site about that topic is mappa mundi.

  3. A better article on the topic by standards · · Score: 2, Informative
    "Wired is carrying the full story."

    Hardly. The wired article, barely 200 words, doesn't even begin to explain why someone would want to map cyberspace.

    This pretty old NY Times article (http://ai.bpa.arizona.edu/go/recognition/nytimes0 999.htm) explains things much better. And I'm sure there are even better references out there.

  4. Not just maps of the internet by Theodore+Logan · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not really just straight-forward maps of the internet. On the authors web page, there's a bunch of others too, like kernel maps of linux and artistic interpretations of various networks. Some are pretty, go check it out.

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  5. Better maps in the future by ZigMonty · · Score: 2, Informative
    These maps are something I got interested in a couple of months ago. Check out the Internet Mapping Project. Although they're not much use currently, they're cool for seeing how well connected your ISP is. I'm with telstra, they're pretty good.

    These maps could get much better in the future, especially if some new router protocols are developed that can report how much traffic is travelling through their individual lines. You could then colour code the links by traffic passing through them at a particular time. Red = very active, blue = idle. The backbones would be immediately obvious. This would also create a better map. The problem with the current maps is that they are generated using traceroute. This has the effect of making a few sites look very well connected when, in fact, they are simply the searching computers. By getting the routers themselves to divulge information about each link, you would get a complete map of the whole public internet. This may be possible now, I don't know much about BGP and its friends. Anywho, something to think about.