What does the Internet look like?

Image by: iStock/Yacobchuck/Various

A long time ago, Tim Bernes-Lee developed a way computers could communicate with each other. It became the Internet. For many of us the way cyber-communications work is still a mystery. In an effort to understand the nature or the Internet, many people have tried to map-out or represent graphically the "network of networks."

According to the Atlas of Cyberspace by Martin Dodge and Rob Kitchin, the maps or representations can be of many categories: artistic (The Matrix), geographical, conceptual and topological among others. The latter are created using a combination of special software, math, and imagination.

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Below, we are featuring some of what you could find at the Atlas of Cyberspace. Click on the maps to learn more about the method of creation and the people who are behind them.

CONCEPTUAL MAPS

Tim Bernes-Lee 1989 presented the following map as a visual representation of the Informational Management Proposal to CERN: "This document was an attempt to persuade CERN management that a global hypertext system was in CERN's interests. Note that the only name I had for it at this time was "Mesh" -- I decided on "World Wide Web" when writing the code in 1990."

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