Internet Map

Chris Harrison hat tolle Karten über die Strukture des Internets online gestellt. Aussagekräftig sind vorallem die schwarzen Lächer in Afrika, während es in den USA und Europa ganz anders aussieht.

The Dimes Project provides several excellent data sets that describe the structure of the Internet. Using their most recent city edges data (Feb 2007), I created a set of visualizations that display how cities across the globe are interconnected (by router configuration and not physical backbone). In total, there are 89,344 connections. The first rendering displays the relative densities of Internet connectivity across the globe. The stronger the contrast, the more connectivity there is. It is immediately obvious, for example, that North America and Europe are considerably more connected than Africa or South America. However, it is important to note that this only reflect density of connections, and not usage. Hundreds of people may utilize a single connection in an internet cafe, often the only form of connectivity people have access to in developing nations.