The Geography of the Internet

This timely book presents a wide range of quantitative methods, including complex network analysis and econometric modelling, to illustrate how the Internet both follows, and at the same time challenges, more traditional geographies.

Emmanouil Tranos explores the spatiality of the Internet, its physical infrastructure, and the geographic and socio-economic factors that shape its spatial distribution. He shows that although the Internet is a technical system with strong topological attributes, an almost 'hidden' spatial dimension also exists. The scattering of Internet Backbone Networks across European city-regions is compared with the aviation network in order to better understand the topology of the digital infrastructure. Finally, a causality analysis demonstrates the significant positive effect of the Internet infrastructure in the economic development of regions characterized by high absorptive capacity.

This book will prove a highly fascinating read for those with an interest in Internet geographies, ICTs, regional development and infrastructure, digital economy, network analysis, and regional science. Practitioners working on local and regional development, as well as those focusing on ICTs, digital economy and smart cities, will also find this book to be an invaluable reference tool.

Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. The Fundamentals of the Internet Infrastructure: A Cross-discipline Review 3. Methodology and Research Framework 4. The Network Nature of the Internet Infrastructure 5. Internet Backbone and Aviation Networks: A Comparative Study 6. An Explanatory Analysis of the (Unequal) Distribution of the Internet Backbone Networks 7. Internet Infrastructure and Regional Economic Development: A Causality Analysis 8. Conclusions References Index