Charting Virtual Worlds

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."

Comments

Things to consider

[GoatPigSheep]

I suppose a geographer could look at the slashdot effect as equivelant to a 'random natural disaster' when mapping out the web.

Re:Things to consider

[grammar nazi]

I think that we should wait until the net is more similar to a Distributed-MMORG before we create detailed maps of it. After all, we currently don't need to try and find our way around the net in a 2 dimensional manner for which we commonly use maps as tools.

Once we have more of a virtual world, then the maps can contain land, portals, regions with boundaries (private networks would be similar to a border that we didn't know or couldn't map what was contained within.

As far as physiscal geography of the servers goes, this will become less and less of an issue as the physical content of the Net becomes distributed accross borders and servers. Of course, this is an optimistic view, but I'm entitled to it.

ThinkGeek has internet maps for sale :)

[deth_007]

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.

RFC 432

[mauddib~]

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

rfc432 in pdf format

WebStalker links

[sparcv9]

Here is a link to Google's cached copy of a previous Wired article on Web Stalker, the software used to make the black-and-white Spirograph-esque image in the Wired article above. The Web Stalker software itself can be found here, but for Windows and MacOS only, alas.

They're beautiful, but are these maps useful?

[hillct]

They're nice to look at but is it really useful to represent the internet in this way? Surely there is a more meaningful representation that is of equal or greater esthetic value. Perhaps a rendering similar to the constructs associated with Everything2. This could be achieved through analysis and visualization of the relevence data used by Google and Teoma to generate their results, where significant material is emphesized. Granted this would not produce a network map, but rather a contant map, ilustrating regional housing of particularly meaningful or valuable content. It would however, include content available using any protocol for which there is a URL representation.

Granted content pamming is not what they were going for, but it would have the side effect of displaying network topology with respect to relitive routing and bandwith capacities (utilization anyway).

--CTH

Methinks they're munching on "special" brownies...

[Guppy06]

From over at the Cyberceography site they mention in the article, we're posed with the question:

"Have you ever wondered what a data packet might actually look like as it zips along the phone line? What physical form might it take?"

Now, maybe I paid too close attention to my physics and EE classes, but they might as well ask "What does an electron taste like?" (Yes, I know it's grape-aid)

A conceptual map of the internet would be useful for helping to grasp the concept of the amorphous monstrousity the 'net is, but I'm worried that these electronic cartographers are going in the wrong direction. It's nice that 16th century cartographers put in all those pretty sea serpents and mermaids, but that still doesn't change the facts that South America looks nothing like that, there's a whole other continent in the South Pacific, and there's no Northwest Passage.

Good, silly fun - and that's all!

[OnanTheBarbarian]

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.

Not just maps of the internet

[Theodore Logan]

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.

Re:Methinks they're munching on "special" brownies

[Guppy06]

"And, if it is, what would such a network be thinking about?"

Sex. Just like everybody else. Especially on the internet.

Now we need tour guides.

[chrae]

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Internet Outback Safari. I'm your tour guide, Aligator Hunter and of course you all know my nephew, Crocadile Hunter.

On you left is a dot.com tech company. While once they roamed this jungle, they now are on the brink of extinction. Similar to the dodo bird, they animals were born with no sense of self-preservation.

You'll see up ahead the mating ritual of several humans. This is what's known as a porn site. Crikey! Would you look at that! That's the biggest mating orgy I've seen! Oiy!

Moving on, we see slashdot.org. Folks, I would like to take this moment to remind you all to keep your hands inside the vehicle and by all means, Don't Feed the Trolls! If my nephew C. Hunter were here, he'd get one in a headlock so you fine folks could get a closer view.

This concludes our first leg of the trip. Up ahead you'll see a tourist stand with OFF flame spray (tm) which is quite useful to repell flaming trolls. Also, dont forget to pick up a colorful map of the Internet Outback. We meet back in 30 minutes. Have fun.