Fast talking in space

The feeling of distance in cyberspace depends on bandwidth because it controls communication speed, according to research in the United States.

Guoray Cai, assistant professor of information science and technology and assistant professor of geography at Penn State University, says in his report, Mapping the Geography of Cyberspace Using Telecommunications Infrastructure Information, that spatial relations of virtual communities in cyberspace do not correspond to geographical relations in a simple way.

"Variations in the access bandwidth generate feelings of distance because the higher the bandwidth, the shorter the time to wait in large transactions."

The concept of near or far between two entities in cyberspace depends on the maximum capacity of the communication channel they can set up for exchanging information, the report says. The faster the communication between them, the closer they feel.

Details: www.geog.psu.edu/faculty/GuorayC.html