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Student
and part-time digital artist Jay Simons has created his first version
of a Map of the Internet, where an attempt is made to cram in as much
information as possible on most often used browsers, most often used
social networks, NSA surveillance, worldwide Internet penetration, a
list of Alexa's top 500 websites, a timeline Internet history, and top
software companies. The base world map is done in old-world format and
coloring with faux names like Sea of Archives, Ocean of Information,
the country of Google and island of Bit Torrent. LinkedIn and its capital
city of Hoffman (for LinkedIn's founder,
Reid Hoffman) resides just south of the northern pole of Interface
Ocean. When you first see the Map of the Internet, it appears to be
a standard
Mercator type projection of the Earth, but upon inspection you will
realize it is a completely fabricated map of land masses and bodies
of water. I assume the sizes of features are meant to represent the
relative share of each entity's key realm. One particularly
interesting item is a counter-clockwise flowing eddy current named Garbage
Patch (70° N latitude, 130° E longitude), in the midst of Business
Ocean. Mr. Simons might have intended for it to imply the nature of
the Internet business overall, but what came to my mind was the gigantic
flotilla of refuse (known as the
Pacific trash vortex) located in the Pacific Ocean. Accord to the
insets (which are actual Earth maps), Internet Explorer dominates in
the USA, Canada, and China, while Chrome claims most of the rest of
the civilized world. Facebook owns the social media world except for
in China, where their
QZone
dominates under Communist state control, and Russia, where
VK (VKontakte) is king and also under Commie state control. The
USA, Canada, western Europe, and Australia win the Internet penetration
game. NSA surveillance is claimed to be highest in the Middle East,
India, Brazil, and Germany, China, the USA, and Russia (Snowden-derived
data?). You could download and print the map, but you can also buy it
for less than $10US.
Map of the Internet (v 1.0), by
Jay Simons
Posted February 3, 2014
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