WHAT DO YOU SEE WHEN YOU SEE CYBERSPACE?

In 1998, we decided to explore other business models. We had received a National Science Foundation grant to explore the concept of an "Internet Atlas." Rather than transition that research into a venture-funded startup, we handed the grant off to our co-researchers at the University of San Diego and went off to start a company called Invisible Worlds. Invisible Worlds has since gone the way of many other .com startups, but while we were there we started a web zine called Mappa.Mundi about what it means to visualize cyberspace. When we left the .com world to come back to our roots in the world of public works and open source, we were able to negotiate rights to the magazine back.

Mappa.Mundi featured an eclectic set of interviews and essays about navigation and visualization. The material ranged from random commentary to visionary statements to insightful essays. After the magazine stopped publishing, we archived the material, but the domain name seemed too good to waste. Mappa.Mundi will soon become the home of our Core Technologies Program, a home for our basic technology development efforts.

URL: http://mappa.mundi.net/