Concepedia

Mapping DigiPlace: Geocoded Internet Data and the Representation of Place

Environment and Planning B Planning and Design · 2007 · 252 citations · 24 references

TL;DR

Web‑based services that combine spatial coordinates with online content now enable geographically referenced Internet searches. The authors characterize the resulting hybrid space as DigiPlace, defined as the use of information ranked and mapped in cyberspace to navigate and understand physical places. They review theories of hybrid physical‑virtual space, examine how code automatically generates space and shapes place representation, and present a case study of Google Maps’ DigiPlace built on the same code that powers Google’s cyberspace index. The case study demonstrates that interactions among culture, code, information, and place construct DigiPlace and influence perceptions of mapped places.

Abstract

The recent development of web-based services that combine spatial coordinates and indexes of online material allows any web user to conduct geographically referenced Internet searches. In this paper we characterize the resulting hybrid space as DigiPlace—that is, the use of information ranked and mapped in cyberspace to navigate and understand physical places. We review relevant theories of hybrid combinations of physical and virtual space, how software (code) automatically produces space, and how the politics of code (particularly map generating code) shape the representation of places. The paper concludes with a case study of the DigiPlace created by GoogleMaps that utilizes the same code which powers Google's index of cyberspace. A central argument advanced by the case study concerns how the interactions between culture, code, information, and place construct DigiPlace and shade perceptions of the places that are mapped.