Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Web Bearings

The "Map of Online Communities" posted to XKCD (one of the few web comics I follow) is traveling through the internets this morning. Don't miss it. XKCD MapIt offers an impressive lot: playful place-names, the loose association of geographic area with online activity, and a directional orientation based on abstract magnetisms (practical/intellectual and focuses on real life or the web). Very much the sort of imaginary map you might expect to find in Harmon's You Are Here. Even though the map includes a note discouraging navigational use, I tend to think of it as appropriate for that purpose, especially for wanderers who sit in their cozy homes in the Icy North, gazing sullenly at/through Windows Live and Yahoo and wondering what's on the other side of the mountain range.

Note the TITLE text available on mouse-over of the map: I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone 'I'm from the internet', instead of laughing they just ask 'oh, what part?'

Bookmark and Share Posted by at May 2, 2007 9:50 AM to Rhetorico-Geography
Comments

When I saw this on xkcd late last night, I immediately made the image my laptop's background image. The stuff from xkcd is amazing, with great commentary on the interblags.

Posted by: Michael Faris at May 2, 2007 11:13 AM