Mapping Cyberspace

Martin Dodge(m.dodge@ucl.ac.uk)

Lecture 3, Monday 18th October 2004

http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/cyberspace

3011: Geographies of Cyberspace

Today’s lecture• what does cyberspace look like?• a bit about maps• a bit about geography• mapping info space• mapping people • the power of maps

Comments on the film

• mythology of the unifying nature of the net• interesting spatial metaphors of industrial

machines to represent the inside of the net• how to make software and digital electronics

into tangible things• use of proxy servers and firewalls• hierarchy of infrastructure, complexity of

operation. this is all hidden from end-users

Understanding cyberspace with maps• there are many ways to describe and understand

cyberspace • economics, legal, mathematics, art, sociology, etc..• being a geographer, I believe maps enjoy a privileged

position• maps have been powerful visual tools for

understanding the world for 1000s of years• maps have been key in framing our understanding

places, their size, shape and the relations between them

• maps have been vital for navigation • maps vital in war, commerce and government

Defining maps and mapping• “maps are graphic representations that

facilitate a spatial understanding of things, concepts, conditions, processes, or events in the human world”

(Harley and Woodward, History of Cartography, Volume 1, 1987)

• the virtual is changing the map of course

the map is a help provided to the imagination through the eyesHenri Abraham Chatelain, Atlas Historique (1705)

The role of maps

• maps for storing spatial data• maps for thinking• maps for communicating

Defining cyberspace mapping?

• cyberspace mapping concerned with maps that show some aspect of ICT infrastructure or conceptual digital information spaces

• maps of cyberspace, not maps in cyberspace

• my framing of the domain of cyberspace mapping is obviously artificial

• cyberspace mapping being done by lots of different people, groups and organisations. but not conventional cartography or GIS industry

Who makes them? not cartographers!

But can we really map cyberspace?

• a common question, based on 2 misconceptions– maps have to be geographical– cyberspace is non-spatial and separate from geography

• challenge the ‘death of distance’ notions• mapping is much wider than the OS, Times Atlas and A-Z

street maps• it hard to do though

– cyberspace is new, its rapidly evolving, its fluid and its diverse. a lot of it is (increasingly) private space

– breaks Euclidean conventions – we have very few good examples!

• there is no one true map of cyberspace

Why map cyberspace?• why are these maps interesting and significant?• maps of cyberspace are important because they can

tell us things about cyberspace • and cyberspace is becoming increasingly important in

our lives• the human desire to explore the unknown• cyberspace is one of the most significant terra

incognita of the 21st century• revealing what is hidden. making the invisible visible.

enhancing our understanding• maps as a census of cyberspace. feeding into

government policy and business decisions

Why map cyberspace?• maps shape our perception and knowledge of

cyberspace. maps frame space• maps also tell us things about the people who made

them, and how they view cyberspace• power, money and control

– property maps of cyberspace – military and policing– what you can see, you can control and exploit– cartography redux

• increasingly our lives involve visual, CMC, screen-based interaction. who controls the ‘geography of the screen’?

Maps of information spaces

Conventional information interfaces

Navigating cyberspace, 2d maps• improving ways to navigate online content by

appropriate visualisation• is there a middle ground between current textual

/ list type interfaces versus the immersive 3d (cool) interfaces of Hollywood?

• from feedback received, it seems like many people are seeking better navigation tools and interfaces

• experience from cartography can help• examine the potential of information mapping

the ‘classics’ of information mapping

John Snow’s ‘Cholera’ Map, 1854

‘Tube’ map, based on the designof Harry Beck in 1930s

Charles Minard’s ‘Napoleon’ map, from

1861

• spatialisation – turning text into maps• various algorithms• key spatial properties:

– area– position– proximity– scale

+ the graphic properties of colour, shape, labeling, etc

Making information maps

popu

l ar i

t y

time

Area (size) Position (x,y)

Proximity (distance) Scale (more detail)

the power of information maps

• the missing ‘up button’ on the browser• intelligent summarisation and

generalisation• 3 key advantages:

– a sense of the whole (the ‘birds eye view’ / ‘big picture overview’)

– revealing hidden connections – support interactive, unstructured

browsing Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?Where is the knowledge that we have lost in information T.S. Elliot, The Rock (1934)

Smartmoney.com – map of the market

htt

p:/

/ww

w.s

mart

mon

ey.c

om

/mark

etm

ap

/

ODP – typical hierarchical directory of websites

Antarctica Systems’ Visual Net : Map.net demo

htt

p:/

/ww

w.m

ap

.net/

;

htt

p:/

/map

s.m

ap

.net/

Zooming into the Middle East

• how helpful are the current info maps• are the maps just eye candy?• major usability issues, need evaluation• effectiveness in most cases is questionable

misleading more than informing• ‘killer map’ is yet to be drawn• key question: can the ‘killer map’ be made?

Mapping people:visualising social

cyberspace

mapping people• understanding the formation of virtual

groups formed via shared interaction• asynchronous - email groups, listserv, news,

bulletin boards• what structures do the communities build • can mapping the social life help the

community• many important privacy issues. ethics of

identifying individuals and social surveillance

Mapping chat

Chat Circles, Sociable Media Group, run by Judith Donath (MIT Media Lab)

http://chatcircles.media.mit.edu/

problematic maps

• who makes the maps? and what do they want to show and choose not to show?

• all maps are authored, subjective frames of space• maps as interfaces to cyberspace are very

powerful • examine more their social implications • what are the ethics of the maps, the map-maker

and their mapping practices • is it ethical to record and map someone’s web

surfing and email interactions?

• maps claim to be objective• most obvious being through - data selection/omission- ‘theory of silences’ (Brian Harley)- projections• how are maps of cyberspacedeceiving? • many ways to project cyberspaceonto a map

“how to lie with maps”

Maps as authored frames of space

This is layout of London in your head?

Interfaces as authored frames of virtual space

“Exclusively for Everyone” (except Mozilla users)

virtual maps make virtual space

• the map determines what we see and what we can do

• we never know virtual space for ‘real’ • the interface is the space• map and the territory are one• no such thing as a true map of cyberspace

• those who make the map, make the space…

Reading for this lecture• key article: Andre Skupin and Sara Fabrikant (2003)

"Spatialization methods: A cartographic research agenda for non-geographic information visualisation", Cartography and Geographic Information Science

• browse the Atlas of Cyberspaces website www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/casa/martin/atlas

• book Atlas of Cyberspace [Science GEOGRAPHY H 92 DOD]

Reading for this lecture• Supplemental articles: available online at the

course website

• Judith Donath, et al. (1999), "Visualizing Conversations", Proceedings of HICSS-32

• Marc Smith (2002), "Tools for Navigating Large Social Cyberspace", Communications of the ACM

• Sara Fabrikant (2000), "Spatialized Browsing in Large Data Archives", Transactions in GIS

Next steps• Friday’s practical is the first site visit of the course. going to

see Internet infrastructure ‘in action’ in the IS service rooms

• meet at 12.15 (TBC) on the front steps of the Kathleen Lansdale building on Gower Place (just along from health/dental centre)

• please be prepared to ask questions• reading - Hayes article, “The Infrastructure of the

Information Infrastructure”

• next lecture: cyberspace and and the rise of the surveillance society

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