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This book offers a comprehensive overview of recent research on the internet, emphasizing its spatial dimensions, geospatial applications, and the numerous social and geographic implications such as the digital divide and the mobile internet.
Written by leading scholars in the field, the book sheds light on the origins and the multiple facets of the internet. It addresses the various definitions of cyberspace and the rise of the World Wide Web, draws upon media theory, as well as explores the physical infrastructure such as the global skein of fibre optics networks and broadband connectivity. Several economic dimensions, such as e-commerce, e-tailing, e-finance, e-government, and e-tourism, are also explored. Apart from its most common uses such as Google Earth, social media like Twitter, and neogeography, this volume also presents the internet's novel uses for ethnographic research and the study of digital diasporas.
Illustrated with numerous graphics, maps, and charts, the book will best serve as supplementary reading for academics, students, researchers, and as a professional handbook for policy makers involved in communications, media, retailing, and economic development.
List of contents
1. Introduction PART I Conceiving the history, technology, and geography of the internet 2. Is cyberspace there after all? 3. The World Wide Web as media ecology 4. Robustness and the internet: a geographic fiber-optic infrastructure perspective 5. The history of broadband 6. The mobile internet 7. Geographies of the internet in rural areas in developing countries 8. Geographies of global digital divides PART II Political economy of the internet 9. The geography of e-commerce 10. Online retailing 11. Finance and information technologies: opposite sides of the same coin 12. E-tourism 13. The state and cyberspace: e-government geographies 14. A geography of the internet in China PART III The internet in everyday life 15. Google Earth 16. Augmented Reality: an overview 17. Twitter 18. Neogeography 19. Ethnographic research and the internet 20. Cyber-spatial cartographies of digital diasporas 21. Wearable internet for wellness and health: interdigital territories of new technology 22. The Internet of Things
About the author
Barney Warf is a Professor of Geography at the University of Kansas. His research and teaching interests lie within the broad domain of human geography, particularly telecommunications and the internet.
Summary
This book offers a comprehensive overview of recent research on the internet, emphasizing its spatial dimensions, geospatial applications, and the numerous social and geographic implications such as the digital divide and the mobile internet.
