In previous blog posts, we’ve mapped the availability of online labour in 2016 [1] and in 2017 [2] using the data provided by the Online Labour Index (OLI) measuring the utilization of online labour platforms [3]. The OLI is based on tracking all projects and tasks posted into a selected sample of platforms, using API access… Read More »
The relative cost of being connected to the internet underpins the global digital divide. This visualization illustrates the unevenness of the geographies of broadband affordability, the ramifications of which can be seen in some of the other visualizations created by our project, such as the cartogram of the world online and the archipelago of disconnection.… Read More »
The previous post in this mini-series, Who can access the internet?, looked at internet penetration in country context. In this post, we compare world regions and their access to the internet. This box plot visualization shows the distribution of per-country internet penetration, i.e. the percentage of the population of countries that has accessed the internet… Read More »
This map shows internet penetration, i.e. the percentage of the population of countries that has accessed the internet within a 12 month period, from any device (click for full size). It is an update of our earlier visualizations on this topic. Digital connectivity is often viewed as a vital resource for successful participation in the… Read More »
I have a new paper out in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers with Andrea Ballatore and Shilad Sen. In it, we ask (and empirically answer) questions about the the local-ness versus foreign-ness of content that Google serves up to people around the world. You can access the full paper below. Ballatore, A., Graham,… Read More »
We have a new publication out: Ojanperä, S., Graham, M., Straumann, R. K., De Sabbata, S., & Zook, M. (2017). Engagement in the knowledge economy: Regional patterns of content creation with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Information Technologies & International Development, 13, 33–51. It is open access, so please navigate to the journal site to download the… Read More »
This chapter outlines how one might utilize the massive amounts of web-based, geographically-referenced digital social data for geographical research. Because much of these data are user-generated and produced through social media platforms, we also focus on the pitfalls associated with such sources and the benefits of a mixed methods approach to these data. Not only… Read More »
The ways in which we envision and talk about the internet matter. This is especially the case in the context of plans and projects to use the internet for human development, and at a time when charismatic Silicon Valley champions of new technologies are popularising narratives about its impact. This is a point that Charlotte… Read More »
I was asked by my colleague and friend Oliver Belcher to act as a discussant in a session that he put together at the 2016 meeting of the Association of American Geographers: ‘Historicizing Big Data and Geo-information’. The session contained a set of truly excellent and provocative talks by Louise Amoore, Matthew Hannah, Patrick McHaffie,… Read More »
A new publication of ours in now out in The African Technopolitan. Graham, M., and Foster, C. 2016. Geographies of Information Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa, The African Technopolitan. 5 78-85. The piece draws on some of our previous empirical research to reflect on what connectivity means to inclusion in the ‘network society.’ Connectivity certainly isn’t a sufficient condition… Read More »