Geographic Interpretations of the Internet

verfasst von: Aharon Kellerman

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : SpringerBriefs in Geography

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book introduces the Internet through a systematic geographical interpretation, thus shedding light on the Internet as a spatial entity. The book’s approach is to extend basic concepts developed for terrestrial geography to cyberspace, most notably those relating to space, structure, place, distance, mobility, and presence. It further considers the Internet by its constitution of information space, communications space, and screen space. By using well-known concepts from traditional human geography, this book proposes a combination of terrestrial and virtual geographies, which may in turn help in coping with Internet structures and contents. The book appeals to human and economic geographers, especially those interested in information and Internet geographies. It may also be of special interest and importance to sociologists and media scholars and students dealing with communication technology and the Internet.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Internet and Geography

Abstract

This, introductory chapter will introduce the thesis of the book, its relevance and importance. It will further elaborate on the literature which has attempted so far to relate to the Internet as a geographical space. The chapter will also treat several Internet-related topics, such as digital gaps, sociality, and the territorial geography of the Internet.

Aharon Kellerman

Chapter 2. The Internet as Space

Abstract

This chapter will, first, present the general notion of image space, and a scalar model differentiating among its four visual classes: virtual space (visual presentations of real space and material artifacts), cyberspace (digital communications and information media), the Internet (digital communications and informational spaces), and Internet screen-space (users’ visual interface with the Internet). This scalar model leads from the wider to the specific. This differentiation will be followed by discussions of cyberspace and Internet screen-space geography.

Aharon Kellerman

Chapter 3. Geographical Structures in the Internet

Abstract

A basic element in the geographical study of terrestrial space is the ordering and division of this space, focusing mostly on the notions of ground, place, regions, and boundaries. This chapter will attempt to explore the possible extension of these concepts to Internet space, as well. More particularly, the possibility of viewing Internet screens as ground will be discussed, side by side with the potential application of other structural geographical notions to the Internet. Thus, the possible division of websites into regions will be elaborated, maybe via the suffix of their URL addresses, presenting countries or economic sectors. By the same token, the possible existence of boundaries in the most flexible and fluid Internet will be explored. The analysis of place over the Internet has been developed along the four perspectives proposed for real space: the neo-Marxist; the humanist; the feminist; and the performative.

Aharon Kellerman

Chapter 4. Distance in the Internet

Abstract

Distance has been considered as a primal geographical notion for physical space, possibly with some declining importance in the information age. This view will, first, be elaborated on, followed by specific discussions on the possible extension of the notions of distance, distance decay, distanciation, and proximity, for the analysis of the Internet. In Internet surfing, access duration increases with growing physical distance to hosting servers. Such servers may be viewed as centers, with users located around them along increasing physical distance/access time. In website searches via search engines, the order of search results presented on Internet screens is of special significance, since users prefer the first result, which serves, therefore, as a center on the Internet screen, with declining uses of lower ranked results. From yet another dimension, communications and networking permit contacts among Internet users without regard to distance. Still, users, as centers, keep more Internet ties with physically closer people.

Aharon Kellerman

Chapter 5. Mobility Over the Internet

Abstract

Mobilities in both physical and virtual spaces, have received growing attention by contemporary scholars. The notion of cyber-mobility will be reviewed first, followed by discussions of the following specific notions, as for their relevance for Internet analysis: flow, speed, directionality, circularity, co-presence, and time-space compression. Internet co-presence evolves for all the four elements sought by individuals in space at large: fellow people, places, times and information. All the four elements, and the co-presence which they involve, will be presented in detail. Meaningful co-presence is not something that is just there, developing or occurring automatically, but it requires some activation by relevant Internet users.

Aharon Kellerman

Chapter 6. Internet Spatial Cognition

Abstract

In this chapter, the veteran notions of spatial cognition and cognitive maps, developed originally for real space, are examined for the Internet and its two classes of information and communications spaces. Whereas for real space, space and its maps are two completely separate entities, in informational cyberspace they actually converge. Internal and external mapping seem irrelevant for cognitive communications space.

Aharon Kellerman

Chapter 7. Summary and Conclusion

Abstract

This chapter will first present chapter summaries. This chapter will also discuss the geographic interpretations of the three Internet spaces in light of the geographical parameters presented in the previous chapters. It will then move to a concluding discussion which will focus on the possible combination between real and cyber spaces. By attempting to apply well-known concepts from traditional human geography to cyberspace, the book proposes, and if only a posteriori, some possible combination between these two geographies, a combination that may help in coping with Internet structures and contents.

Aharon Kellerman

Titel: Geographic Interpretations of the Internet
verfasst von: Aharon Kellerman
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-33804-0
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-33803-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33804-0