Web Geography

[Tom]

At last! I've found the url which locates a website in Cyberspace (http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/web_sites.html). The graphics are nice but the site is not as useful as I remembered. Everyone knows that it is better to place a shop at a cross-roads than in a cul-de-sac. Websites need to be at cyper-crossroads and it would be very useful to have maps showing where such places are - and how to get there.

[David]

Tom, I think this is the actual link: Mapping Cyberspace Using Geographic Metaphors (http://http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/geographic.html).

They are all very interesting images but I'm not sure just how realistic a pattern of geographic usage they give. Take this forum for example. It happens to be hosted in New York but all of the participants are resident in the UK.

I have to admit that I'm still not entirely sure what your theory is. In some senses, the web can be considered ageographical (if such a word exists).

[Tom]

David, you are right about the physical location of ISPs. It is quite fun to map them but the maps are of little interest.

What does matter is the hyperlink map. It would, presumably, show Google as the Capital City of Cyberworld. And for shoppers, it would show Kelkoo and Dealtime as important regional capitals. And it would show this forum as being at the end of a dark cul-de-sac. The discussion part of the forum should remain in the outer darkness but after our seminar on Search Engine Optimisation I hope we are going to come up with a strategy for re-positioning the www.websitearchitecture.net domain at a cross-roads. But we don't want to be at just any junction. We want to be the junction which people reach when they are deciding what direction their careers in cyberland should take next. Presumably they will be thinking about whether they want to become technical people or graphic people or content people - or website architects taking a balanced view of these issues.

If we want to find this junction to set up our stall, surely it would be useful to have a map of cyberspace. Don't maps always help people find the way? :unsure:

[David]

Ah, then perhaps a better analogy might be that of a neural network where we are attempting to imprint our domain onto some sort of collective memory (literally web search functions). The more neural links (synapse?) (literally hyperlinks) we can make, the stronger the memory will be and the closer to the surface it will be when we want to retrieve it. Obviously, these links have to be contextual so that our domain appears in the right area of memory.

[Tom]

Neural networks (http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~lss/NNIntro/InvSlides.html#what) are a little beyond my ken (maybe by 1000 miles). Why not just use geographical maps as the most appropriate analogy for finding one's way around cyberspace. The word 'cyber', after all, comes from 'steersman'. And the use of a physical analogy lets us tap into all the stuff about 'location, location and location', lowest bridging points, intersections, and Walter Christaller's Theory of Central Places. (http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/christaller.htm) I'm not trying to hijack geography - only to show its importance in a new universe of mental activity.
Note to David: I know another member of UoG staff (Noel Cambell) who would be interested in this subject. What would you think about inviting him to join the Forum? Noel is a geographer in the School of Humanities and attended the meetings which led to setting up the MA Website Architecture. If we ever get round to validating the MA Creative Web Strategy he would, I hope, be a member of the team.

[David]

Tom, I don't wish to displace Geography as an analogy for information space (I am a Geographer after all). I very much like your idea of studying Central Place Theory (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kkoo/up538handbook.html) in relation to information space although the Christaller model seems rather simplistic for the web. Maybe you should look at the developent of Christaller by Auguste Losch (http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/losch.htm).

Hmm, this is starting to sound interesting...

[Tom]

The Losch reference is an exceptionally clear example of writing for the web - but his applets did not work in my browser. (No doubt they would in Mozilla.)

Mental maps (http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa121597.htm) provide another useful comparison for web mapping. They are maps of how different people conceive geography. I remember a cartoon of Lyndon Johnson's map of the US, with Texas taking up 90% of the land area. Information space is a little like this in that each of is acquainted only with a tiny part of the universe and we all have our favoured equivalents of the map and compass.

People talk about 'voting with their feet' or 'voting with their wallet'. One could add 'voting with their mice' but it is not a click as such which determines the map of hyperlink space. It is the links we all put in. Google owes its Central Place to a number of factors:

- many people link to them from their websites
- many people link to them from their browser toolbars and favourites
- Google links to everyone

Down below Google we all depend on links. Entering the following into Google produces the answer 'about 92 links': link:www.cadtutor.net (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=link%3Awww%2Ecadtutor%2Enet) (a surprisingly low number given the site's high rank). What I like about the idea of people 'voting with their links' is that everyone gets a say in defining which parts of cyberspace are central and which peripheral. Money can help of course but there are many opportunities for everyman to be number one.