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Origins, Growth, and Geographies of the Global Internet

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Global Geographies of the Internet

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Geography ((BRIEFSGEOGRAPHY,volume 1))

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Abstract

To appreciate the complexity, implications, and geography of the internet, it is vital to understand where it came from and how it came to be. Toward this end, this chapter sketches the broad outlines of the world’s internet in several stages. It opens with an overview of the seminal technologies that make the internet possible, fiber optics and satellites, which together comprise the infrastructure of cyberspace. Second it traces some of the highlights of the internet’s history, from its origins with the U.S. military to its explosive growth and commercialization today. In the process, it charts the uneven geographies of growth over time and space. The third section addresses the digital divide, or sociospatial inequalities in internet usage, which are found to one extent or another across the planet. Finally, the chapter concludes with a brief regional survey of internet usage in various world regions to highly the spatially uneven character of its deployment and implications.

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Barney Warf

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Warf, B. (2013). Origins, Growth, and Geographies of the Global Internet. In: Global Geographies of the Internet. SpringerBriefs in Geography, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1245-4_2

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