Road Map to the Internet

THE FIRST MAP OF THE INTERNET Folding offset chromolithographic map (635 x 950mm), hub and spoke style showing numerous servers and individual sites, index and general information to verso; folding to octavo (225 x 98mm), very good condition, noting only some additional creasing around the folds and a faint mark to the upper edge of the rear panel. An innovative 'road map' to the technology that has come to define our age. Following the invention of the World Wide Web around 1990 internet use skyrocketed, and by the mid-1990s computing magazines were beginning to realise they were in the middle of a media revolution. PC Computing was the first to seize the moment, issuing a series of maps by Timothy Edward Downs that would act as a guide to the new information space. The uk version of PC Computing was called PC Direct, and the maps were issued in identical form for both magazines; here we offer the slightly scarcer PC Direct version. At this point in the history of the web, search engine technology was so primitive that discovering new areas of the web was really a matter of browsing and reading about which sites might be of interest. Here Downs offers a novel approach, with servers connected by lines indicating shared purpose or content, and extra information given at each node. This marks a dramatic shift in our understanding of what the internet is and what it can do. Previous maps were either arranged logically, showing the structure of the internet, or geographically, showing locations offering access. With the advent of the www these conventions became irrelevant, and new kinds of representation were needed. Just as Downs' way of representing the internet was revolutionary, it was also to be short-lived. This kind of 'image' of the internet - featuring a few hundred websites - soon became impossible as the number of sites ballooned (now well above 1 billion). As always with magazine inserts such as this, the map is very scarce. We can locate three copies in institutions: National Library of Scotland; National Library of Australia; David Rumsey Map Collection.…