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Module 2, Section 1.6 Exercise - Exploring Cyberspace

QUESTION: 'Explore the Atlas of Cyberspaces website. Which type of map do you find the most appealing and interesting?'


Mapuccino seemed to me to be a clear way of mapping the relative links between the multiple sections and individual pages of a large scale website. The horizontal tree view was far easier to understand than the fish-eye view.

Screenshot from Mapuccino

Image from http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/casa/martin/atlas/mapuccino1.gif [accessed 30/4/03]

The network 'weather maps' showing network performance and traffic flow were also particularly interesting and thought that the CESNET2 Czech diagram was clear and concise

Czech CESNET2

Image from http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/casa/martin/atlas/weather.html [accessed 30/4/03]

Examining the various conceptual maps of cyberspace, there are some extraordinary ways of representing large scale ideas, for example the concept map from Tim Berners-Lee's original World-Wide Web proposal and the visualization of the structure of the Linux kernel created by Christian Reiniger at the Free Code Graphing Project. I was particularly interested by the New Media 500 which bears a striking resemblance to the chemist's periodic table and represents the interactions and links between the top 500 new media companies at the time

New Media 500

Image from http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/casa/martin/atlas/conceptual.html [accessed 30/4/03]

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Last updated on Friday, 31-Oct-2003 09:32:40 GMT

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