As internet usage has grown, so too have the various online networks which connect family, friends, colleagues and people with shared interests.
Whilst it is often easy to gain a numerical overview of connections, friends or followers, this tends to add context, rather than insight – the fact remains, it can be difficult to dig that bit deeper and see how people within networks are linked.
This poses a challenge for digital communicators as we want to tap into big, social data and visualise networks; so we can see how ideas may spread, understand who knows whom and identity people that are influential within a particular context. After all, if you can understand a network, you gain insight into who people may trust, find influential and credible.
John Pearce on 16 Jun 13"We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It's very early days, but we've built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today's 3G networks or faster. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazy-and that's part of the reason we're calling it Project Loon-but there's solid science behind it. "
