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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."

2 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. ThinkGeek has internet maps for sale :) by deth_007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Check out the latest:

    http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/fun-stuff/573c.sh tm l

    It's also a good example of yet another style of internet map, different from those shown in the wired story.

  2. Good, silly fun - and that's all! by OnanTheBarbarian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    These are pretty pictures, but in general, trying to embed this kind of information in 2-space (or 3-space, for that matter - adding a dimension doesn't really help) is mostly futile.

    I learned much more from the "bowtie" representation of the Web (that study that - roughly - divided Websites into a "mainstream", sites that linked into the mainstream but were not linked to from it, sites that were linked from the mainstream but didn't link back into it, and sites that were in isolated islands). That was nice, and used some smart analysis, rather than a huge dump of complex information onto the printed page.