Today we're out exploring some of the many maps of the Internet, websites, virtual worlds, and spatializations of non spatial data. This is just a small sample of what is out there. For more cool maps see Martin Dodge's Atlas of Cyberspace. I found many of the maps below through his site.

Cut and paste the text below into a notepad or word document, answer the questions, and the cut and paste your answers into an e-mail message and send me your answers. Due Next Tuesday at 1:20 p.m.. You will probably need to spend some time out of class finishing it up depending upon your pace of exploration. There are quite a few things to play with on this virtual field trip so feel free to play with and explore the sites below.

Maps for Shopping

Time to go shopping. Here we take a look at how spatialization might make shopping online a bit easier and faster. Ever visit Amazon.com and get bored waiting for pages to load? Maps might help eliminate some of the tedium of online shopping. Take a look at the Hyperbolic Tree Grocery Shopping Demo (This is similar to the WWF Site Lens in plate 5A of Mapping Cyberspace). Start by familiarizing yourself with the interface. See if you can find the "aisle" for Insect Repellent. (Important--don't explore the beverages area yet!) Play with the buttons on the lower left hand corner of the screen. Once you're familiar with the interface go on to the next step.

For this part you'll need a partner. Each of you should try the exercise (with one person timing and one searching.) Now get out a stop watch if you have it, or just use the clock at the bottom right of the screen (double click the time and you'll get the Date/Time Properties and make note of the time you start and stop). Have a partner time you as you try to find some Maxwell House Coffee. Note--don't let your partner watch you. Instead give an audible signal. If they watch you and learn the path to the coffee then your results will likely be biased.

1. How long did it take you to find the coffee?

2. How long did it take your partner to find the coffee?

Now go to Your Grocer.com Click on the "Browse Isles" Button. Have your partner time you. Find some Maxwell House Coffee.

3. How long did it take you to find the coffee?

4. How long did it take your partner to find the coffee?

5. Which method was faster?

6. What made one method easier and/or faster to navigate than the other?

Spatializing Data

7. Play around with Smartmoney's Map of the Market. What sector of the market is doing well today?

8. How do you know it is doing well (What graphical elements clue you into the fact that a sector is doing well)?

9. Why is this a successful or unsucessful spatialization of data?

Think this is cool? I found something that is even more awesome. Turns out other data can be spatialized using the same technique. Check out the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History History Wired web site. The map here contains 450 objects and while you could use either a traditional search engine or a simple text listing of the objects to the method presented here is much more fun, and perhaps more efficient. You can browse the objects here by object categories, by date, or by themes. Note that as you move your mouse over the map, orange lines connecting to the themes at the top of the interface appear. When you click on the themes buttons the objects related to that them are highlighted in orange. You can pick out more specific theme categories using the drop down list on the left. Play around with this map a bit to figure out how it works and then answer the following questions:

10. Who made Dizzy Gillespie's Trumpet?

11. Use the sliders at the top right and left (above the dateline) to zero in on the year 1844. What object in the collection associated with the Theme communications dates from 1944?

12. What object was "still there" in 1813?

Imagine surfing our library's catalog using such an interface. Now that some of our books are stored away only accessible by robot, such an interface might partially recreate the experience of browsing in the physical library.

Website Analysis Information Landscape Maps

When you run a website you often want to know a bit about who your visitors are, how many are surfing your site, which pages they are looking at and, where they come from. Now you could just run a program that collects and presents this data in the form of tables, but looking at a map might be more fun. Surf to the screenshots page for VisitorVille. If you want more information you can check out this Wired News article.

13. What metaphor does VisitorVille use to represent traffic on a web site?

Pretty nifty eh?

Interactive Web Site/Directory Maps

Go to The Brain and wait for the Java applet to load. It shouldn't take long. At the top of the page is an interactive map of the web site. You navigate to various pages on the website by clicking on the text on the brain interface. Play around with it a little bit then see if you can find your way to the Web Brain page. Once there activate the Web Brain by cliking on the "Try Webbrain now" link (on the right hand side of the page). This is a interactive map for navigating the Open Directory internet directory which is a human edited open source (meaning volunteer run) web directory. Because it is a human constructed directory coverage is a bit spotty and the links are not necessarily current. Still it is a good demonstration of the concept.

See if you can navigate to the category for the city of Valparaiso. There are multiple paths to get there and many of them may not be obvious. Hint, Valparaiso is a locatlity in Indiana. For some help with the interface see the about page. You may need to use some of the jump categories on the left. If you are spending more than 5 minutes on this go ahead and cheat and do a search for Valparaiso to answer the questions.

14. To confirm that you have reached this category, what site is the number 4 link on the page for Valparaiso?

15. Navigate from the City of Valparaiso cateogry until you find a directory category with a link to "The official website of the Chiefs intramural hockey team." (Note that both the team and the website no longer exist, though you know at least one former team member....) Under what parent category did you find it?

16. What do you think are some of the advantages and disadvantages of navigating a directory using an interactive map like the Brain?

Virtual Worlds Maps

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games have their own cartographers. Take a look at the Ever Quest Atlas. Look at the map for East Antonica. This is an image map--click on the city of Freeport. Then click on one of the district maps. Pretty nifty!

Just so I know you looked at these maps answer the following question

17. What two races do you find in Freeport?

Oooh! Ahhhh

Because I know that you'll have probably spent most of your time shopping for coffee and hunting around for objects in the vaults of the Smithsonian, we'll make this last one short. Go to the Internet Mapping Project Page and view some examples in the Internet Mapping Project Map Gallery. Take a look at some of the maps (Similar to plate 4 in Mapping Cyberspace). Sit back in your chair and say "Oooooh! Ahhhhh!" And just so I know you've browsed this site answer the following questions:

18. What is a pookie?

That's all folks! Hope you enjoyed the trip.