Mapping Globalization Project
Princeton University and the University of Washington have a joint project going called the Mapping Globalization Project, which uses maps, narratives, and other data to look at some of the aspects of globalization, including global trade networks and migration.
One of the main components of the project is the use of NetMap Analytics to explore “ways to visualize international trade as a network. Network maps can often seem like nothing more than random lines, but using the technology developed by NetMap Analytics, we have developed some techniques for exploring contemporary trade visually.”
The site is organized as a wiki, with links to the maps and other data analyses that make up the Mapping Globalization Project.
Via Archinet
One Reply to “Mapping Globalization Project”
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Examination of globalization reminds me of two papers I did at Penn State – one was an analysis of global trading balances, using thematic mapping and graduated arrows, and the later one, tied into this, was on how the Internet would change global communications and how that correlates with other things, such as business and commerce.
I took lat/long values of various global locations along with the connected host locations, and then analyzed the network, based on the connectivity (number of hops) and communications volume, and using those lat/longs as seed values, had my algorithm iteratively distort the map based on connectivity and communications, until a new picture emerged.
Considering that in 1988, the “World Wide Web” and browsers did not yet exist, and the “internet” still consisted of BITNET, ARPANET and other consituent pieces, and had a total of less than 100,000 hosts online, it was definitely ahead of its time. I read recently that another similar effort was undertaken (though we are now in the hundreds of millions of hosts) – and I would be interested in seeing how things have changed over the last nearly 20 years.