THE CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH CYBER-CARTOGRAPHY
- Determining the spatial geometries of cyberspace is a difficult task for two principal reasons:
First, Cyberspace consists of many different domains, each one within its own form and structure
Second, the spatial geometries and forms of Cyberspace are entirely produced.
- At a technical level Information Computer Technologies (ICT’s) are relatively easy to map; the physical architecture and topology of networks can be mapped onto geographic space and the traffic through this network can be represented using an appropriate forms of visualisation.
- Similarly the physical location and characteristics of hardware, software and human users (wetware) can be mapped using traditional cartographic methods.
- Cyberspace, however, provides a much greater challenge: the effective mapping of visual spatial forms, and the use of spatialisations to provide comprehensibility for non-spatial or immaterial information that is difficult to navigate through and understand due to its complexity and mutability.
- Another important issue is that Cyberspaces are transient landscapes – spaces that are changing constantly but where the changes are often ‘hidden’ until encountered.
- Geographic visualisations of geographic spaces are out of date as soon as they are published, as the landscape portrayed is modified.
- Furthermore, unlike geographic space, there are no agreed conventions in relation to how a space is designed or how it is transversed, providing a diverse set of spaces which differ in form, geometry and rules of interaction.
- They must find ways to map spaces with differing spatial forms and geometries, including some with no recognisable geometric properties.
"Cyberspace is not limited to three dimensions, since any two-dimensional plane or point may unfold to reveal another multi-dimensional spatial environment…There are no ground rules concerning scale consistency in a virtual environment. Furthermore the scale of the environment, relative to the user or viewer, may be altered at will…Cyberspace can be non-continuous, multidimensional and self-reflexive…In general, all principles of real space may be violated in cyberspace and the characteristics and constraints are only determined by the specifications that define the particular digital space."
Memarzia (1997)
Memarzia (1997)
- Determining the spatial geometries of cyberspace is a difficult task for two principal reasons:
First, Cyberspace consists of many different domains, each one within its own form and structure
Second, the spatial geometries and forms of Cyberspace are entirely produced.
- There are no physical places in Cyberspace, only individual digital traces that are all equally distant and accessible. Every location is each others’ next door neighbour; everything is on top of everything else; everywhere is local.
- At a technical level Information Computer Technologies (ICT’s) are relatively easy to map; the physical architecture and topology of networks can be mapped onto geographic space and the traffic through this network can be represented using an appropriate forms of visualisation.
- Similarly the physical location and characteristics of hardware, software and human users (wetware) can be mapped using traditional cartographic methods.
- Cyberspace, however, provides a much greater challenge: the effective mapping of visual spatial forms, and the use of spatialisations to provide comprehensibility for non-spatial or immaterial information that is difficult to navigate through and understand due to its complexity and mutability.
- Another important issue is that Cyberspaces are transient landscapes – spaces that are changing constantly but where the changes are often ‘hidden’ until encountered.
- Geographic visualisations of geographic spaces are out of date as soon as they are published, as the landscape portrayed is modified.
- Furthermore, unlike geographic space, there are no agreed conventions in relation to how a space is designed or how it is transversed, providing a diverse set of spaces which differ in form, geometry and rules of interaction.
- The wider challenge to cyber-cartographers, then, is to construct dynamic maps and spatialisations of a variety of cyberspaces, some with no explicit spatial relationships, some with an inbuilt relational (topological) geography and to map out the intersections between virtual and geographic spaces.
- They must find ways to map spaces with differing spatial forms and geometries, including some with no recognisable geometric properties.
No comments:
Post a Comment