The Dictionary of Human Geography

birth date is usually taken to be 1985, when
the US National Science Foundation created
NSFNet, allowing universities access to five
supercomputer centres. Other networks
existed at that time (e.g. the UK’s Joint
Academic Network and CompuServe’s net-
working capabilities for corporate clients),
but NSFNet was TCP/IP enabled: it used
the protocols underpinning the Internet
today, directing ‘packets’ of data to computers
by assigning unique addresses to host
networks and machines (e.g. IP address
68.142.226.55 is yahoo.com).
The Internet emerged as a public utility due
to the popularity of the World Wide Web
(WWW) – a series of interconnected docu-
ments (web pages). This development is cred-
ited to Tim Berners-Lee, who fused the
concepts of hypertext (e.g. the ability to hyper-
link pages) with the architecture of the Internet
and developed the first web browser, in 1991.
Amazon.com began in 1995, the same year that
the Java programming language was integrated
with a web browser. Google started life as a
research project in 1996 – the year in which
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was incorpor-
ated into Windows.Wikipedia, the free online
encyclopaedia (and invaluable resource for this
Dictionaryentry), was launched in 2001.
Clearly, the Internet and WWW have grown
rapidly in both use and scope. Whilst future
trajectories and their long-term socio-economic
effects are difficult to judge, recent history is
suggestive. The ‘dot.com bubble’ may have
peaked in 2000, but e-commerce (including
online banking and music downloads) is still
growing (e.g. downloads contributed 6 per
cent of total worldwide record sales in the
first half of 2005 – a 350 per cent increase in
value from 2004: http://www.ifpi.org)..) If cyber-
space develops as a dominant transaction
space, then undoubtedly it will impact upon
service- and retail-sector employment, and
perhaps also on the landscapes of commerce.
(Will the iconic ‘high street’ of shops and ser-
vices be threatened by e-commerce or benefit
as specialist shops are able to extend their
global reach?) The Internet also contributes
to alternative workspaces and practices, in-
cluding home-working and ‘hot-desking’,
and the collaboration of geographically sep-
arated persons in virtual meeting rooms and
e-seminars (technologies that are being used
to facilitate e-learning, taking traditionally
place-bound universities into global education
markets and ‘knowledge economies’).
It is likely that the WWW will continue to be
the primary point of access to more and more

information in online repositories, archives

and data warehouses. Who should control or

own this information? Google’s Book Search

facility allows the full text of books to be

searched but has involved digitizing the

book collections of some libraries, raising

copyright concerns amongst some publishers

and authors. Other parties may want to restrict

access to certain information for various

reasons, including anti-terrorist protection or

to close down undesirable websites. When

Google.cn was launched in 2006, Chinese

regulators required that ‘sensitive information’

be removed from its search results. This occa-

sionally happens in France, Germany and the

USA too (source: Google official blog).

Finally, whilst the Internet–WWW network

can confidently be predicted to expand, it is

unlikely to be perfectly ubiquitous. There are

digital divides globally in terms of communi-

cation infrastructures, as there are nationally

(e.g. broadband access is uneven across the

UK, generally to the detriment of rural

areas). Other geographies of cyberspace reflect

on who owns the various components of the

Internet–WWW (including IP addresses, con-

tent and service provision), raising social and

geopolitical questions (seegeopolitics). rh

Suggested reading

Dodge and Kitchin (2002); Gillies and Cailliau

(2002).

interoperability The ability for something

to work or interface between separate oper-

ations or systems without error or changed

meaning. For example, digital downloads

from online music stores to portable storage

devices are facilitated by interoperability

standards such as MP3 audio compression.

The converse to interoperability is proprietary

data formats locking the user into particular

software. This was a problem with GIS,

addressed by the Open Geospatial (formerly,

Open GIS) Consortium leading the develop-

ment of standards for geospatial and location-

based services (www.opengeospatial.org) –

including the Geography Markup Language

(GML), a schema for the modelling, transport

and storage of geographical information. rh

Suggested reading

Lake (2004).

intervening opportunities A concept dev-

eloped by the American sociologist

S.A. Stouffer (1940) to explainmigration

patterns and subsequently applied in studies

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_I Final Proof page 392 31.3.2009 7:05pm

INTEROPERABILITY