What does cyberspace ‘look’ like? The Atlas of Cyberspace is the first book to explore the spatial and visual nature of cyberspace and its infrastructure. It examines in accessible style why cyberspace is being mapped and the new cartographic and visualisation techniques being employed. The Atlas is broad in scope, concentrating on the many different aspects of cyberspace such as the Web, chat, email, virtual worlds, and the telecommunications infrastructure that supports cyberspace. It is fully illustrated with over 300 full colour images.
Cartographers have been creating maps for centuries. In recent years they have turned their attention to a new realm, cyberspace. For the first time a comprehensive selection of these maps have been collated into one source. Written in layperson’s terms and fully illustrated, the ‘Atlas of Cyberspace’ catalogues thirty year’s worth of maps to reveal the rich and varied landscapes of cyberspace, a landscape occupied by half a billion users and sustaining the information economy.
Several different types of maps are detailed. First, a review of maps of the Internet infrastructure showing where the computers are located, how the networks interconnect them and the traffic that flows between them. The book then takes a look at maps of the World-Wide Web, showing how the hyperlink structures and contents of websites are mapped to provide informational landscapes. Next, comes an examination of the ways social interactions between people, using email, chat, bulletin boards, virtual worlds, and games, can be mapped. It concludes with a discussion of the ways in which artists and writers are imagining the visual structure of cyberspace.
