The Death of Distance Revisited: Cyber‐place, Physical and Relational Proximities

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of physical distance and different relational proximity types on the formation of the Internet infrastructure. Although there is some anecdotal evidence on the “end of geography” effect of the Internet, the relationship between physical space and the Internet has not been yet scrutinized. Our paper builds upon recent studies in economic geography and relational proximities, and aims to study whether physical distance survives in virtual geography even after controlling for relational proximities. In order to do so, a unique and extensive database with geo‐coded IP links and spatial interaction models with panel data specifications in combination with network analysis are utilized. Our results indicate that physical distance, but also different relational proximities, have a significant impact on the structure of the Internet infrastructure, highlighting the spatiality of the Internet.

Digital Urban Network Connectivity: Global and Chinese Internet Patterns

“…As discussed elsewhere (Tranos and Nijkamp 2013) the European subset of the global IP network, as captured by the DIMES agents, fails to form a clear power law. On the contrary, CDF for Europe is ruled by a power law with a cutoff, which means that the power function does not fit the overall distribution, but only the most-connected nodes (Figure 2).…”

“…Firstly, physical distance between cities is expected to have a negative impact on the pair-level IP connectivity. As discussed elsewhere (Tranos and Nijkamp 2013), physical distance (distance) maintains its importance even in the frame of the digital infrastructure. Similarly, the spatial continuity (continuity) between countries which host the cities included in the analysis, is expected to have a positive impact on digital connectivity.…”

“…In spatial terms, this reflects the existence of two parallel phenomena: one the one hand, an agglomeration effect of IP connectivity in a limited number of regions which act as hubs; on the other hand, the exponential tail reflects the existence of a cluster of less-connected regions, which is more homogeneous in terms of IP connectivity than if a hierarchical and clear SF topology were present. Source: (Tranos and Nijkamp 2013) structural differences between the digital network in China and Europe reflect, to a certain extent, spatial configuration differences. Various mechanisms, which may relate to national policies and borders, prevent the formation of a network with a power law degree distribution in Europe.…”

“…However, such an instrumentation is not an easy task given the complexity of the CP and the lack of prior empirical research in this area. Therefore, a two-way fixedeffects estimation is introduced here (Tranos and Nijkamp 2013). This specification is differentiated by the usual FE because it addresses unobserved effects at two dimensions (Baltagi 1995).…”

Digital oases and digital deserts in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…They build upon concepts defined by Batty (1997) of "virtual geography" and the projection a "cyberspace" on traditional space. Tranos and Nijkamp (2013) postulate that physical distance, but also different relational proximities, have a significant impact on the structure of the Internet infrastructure, highlighting the spatiality of the Internet. According to their findings, Internet infrastructure appears to be strongly curved by agglomeration forces.…”