Opte Project

Last updated
Visualization from the Opte Project of the various routes through a portion of the Internet in 2005 Internet map 1024.jpg
Visualization from the Opte Project of the various routes through a portion of the Internet in 2005

The Opte Project, created in 2003 by Barrett Lyon, [1] seeks to generate an accurate representation of the breadth of the Internet using visual graphics. [2] [3] Lyon believes that his network mapping can help teach students more about the Internet while also acting as a gauge illustrating both overall Internet growth and the specific areas where that growth occurs. [2] It was not the first such project; others predated it, such as the Bell Labs Internet Mapping Project.

Lyon has been generating image maps using traceroute, and later switched to mapping using BGP routes. The generated images were published on the Opte Project website. In 2021, Lyon created different video animations, using his mapping technique: shedding light on internet growth between 1997 and 2021, the Iranian internet shutdown of 2019, the United States Department of Defense's place on the internet as well as the few entry points into the Chinese internet.

The project has gathered notice worldwide having been featured by Time, [4] Cornell University, [5] New Scientist , [6] and Kaspersky Lab. [7] In addition, Opte Project maps have found homes in at least two art galleries and exhibits such as The Museum of Modern Art [8] and the Museum of Science's Mapping the World Around Us permanent exhibit. [9]

Opte images are licensed under a Creative Commons license [10] and while use of The Opte Image is free for all non-commercial applications, a license fee is required for all others. [1] [11] [12]

Related Research Articles

Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. Video art can take many forms: recordings that are broadcast; installations viewed in galleries or museums; works streamed online, distributed as video tapes, or DVDs; and performances which may incorporate one or more television sets, video monitors, and projections, displaying live or recorded images and sounds.

Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright licenses, known as Creative Commons licenses, free of charge to the public. These licenses allow authors of creative works to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy-to-understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Content owners still maintain their copyright, but Creative Commons licenses give standard releases that replace the individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and licensee, that are necessary under an "all rights reserved" copyright management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Network mapping</span> Study of a computer networks physical connections

Network mapping is the study of the physical connectivity of networks e.g. the Internet. Network mapping discovers the devices on the network and their connectivity. It is not to be confused with network discovery or network enumerating which discovers devices on the network and their characteristics such as. The field of automated network mapping has taken on greater importance as networks become more dynamic and complex in nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creative Commons license</span> Copyright license for free use of a work

A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that the author has created. CC provides an author flexibility and protects the people who use or redistribute an author's work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.

Linux malware includes viruses, Trojans, worms and other types of malware that affect the Linux family of operating systems. Linux, Unix and other Unix-like computer operating systems are generally regarded as very well-protected against, but not immune to, computer viruses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lev Manovich</span>

Lev Manovich is an artist, an author and a theorist of digital culture. He is a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Manovich played a key role in creating four new research fields: new media studies (1991-), software studies (2001-), cultural analytics (2007-) and AI aesthetics (2018-). Manovich's current research focuses on generative media, AI culture, digital art, and media theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Kaspersky</span> Russian specialist in the information security field

Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky is a Russian cybersecurity expert and the CEO of Kaspersky Lab, an IT security company with 4,000 employees. He co-founded Kaspersky Lab in 1997 and helped identify instances of government-sponsored cyberwarfare as the head of research. He has been an advocate for an international treaty prohibiting cyberwarfare.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary. Approximately 250 scientists, professors, staff, and students work in a variety of programs devoted to the Lab's mission: interpreting and conserving the Earth's biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds. Work at the Lab is supported primarily by its 75,000 members.

Wikimapia is a geographic online encyclopedia project. The project implements an interactive "clickable" web map that utilizes Google Maps with a geographically-referenced wiki system, with the aim to mark and describe all geographical objects in the world.

Carrie Mae Weems is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photographic project The Kitchen Table Series. Her photographs, films and videos focus on serious issues facing African Americans today, including racism, sexism, politics and personal identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaspersky Internet Security</span> Internet security suite developed by Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Internet Security was an internet security suite developed by Kaspersky Lab compatible with Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Kaspersky Internet Security offers protection from malware, as well as email spam, phishing and hacking attempts, and data leaks. Kaspersky Lab Diagnostics results are distributed to relevant developers through the MIT License.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet Mapping Project</span> Collecting network paths

The Internet Mapping Project was started by William Cheswick and Hal Burch at Bell Labs in 1997. It has collected and preserved traceroute-style paths to some hundreds of thousands of networks almost daily since 1998. The project included visualization of the Internet data, and the Internet maps were widely disseminated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrett Lyon</span> American businessman (born 1978)

Barrett Gibson Lyon is an American Internet entrepreneur, security researcher, and a former hacker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaspersky Lab</span> Russian multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider

Kaspersky Lab is a Russian multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider headquartered in Moscow, Russia, and operated by a holding company in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1997 by Eugene Kaspersky, Natalya Kaspersky and Alexey De-Monderik. Kaspersky Lab develops and sells antivirus, internet security, password management, endpoint security, and other cybersecurity products and services.

Burak Arıkan is a Turkish contemporary artist. His work is based on complex networks and thereby generates data and inputs in the custom abstract machine. Arikan is the founder of Graph Commons, a platform for mapping, analyzing and publishing data-networks. Graph Commons workshop for artists, activists, critical researchers, and civil society organizations are being conducted internationally.

Keith A. Smith is an American artist and author. He has taught at the Visual Studies Workshop, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Illinois. He is a recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, a National Endowment of the Arts grant and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. Smith creates books as works of art, as well as instructional texts on how to make books. Permanent collections which hold works by Smith include the National Gallery of Art, Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Center for Creative Photography.

Flame, also known as Flamer, sKyWIper, and Skywiper, is modular computer malware discovered in 2012 that attacks computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. The program is used for targeted cyber espionage in Middle Eastern countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alamy</span> British stock photography agency

Alamy is a British privately owned stock photography agency launched in September 1999. Its headquarters are in Milton Park, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It has a development and operations centre at Technopark in Trivandrum, Kerala, India and a sales office in Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Stamen is a data visualization design studio based in San Francisco, California. Its clients include National Geographic, Facebook and The Dalai Lama.

Kamau Amu Patton is a multidisciplinary American artist and educator. He makes works independently and as part of the performance collective founded by Terry Adkins, Lone Wolf Recital Corps. Patton is also an Assistant Professor in the Visual & Critical Studies department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and on the Bard MFA faculty.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Opte Project - FAQ". www.opte.org. LyonLabs LLC, Barrett Lyon. Archived from the original on August 24, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  2. 1 2 "The Opte Project - About". www.opte.org. LyonLabs LLC, Barrett Lyon. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  3. "Visual Complexity - Opte Project section". www.visualcomplexity.com. VisualComplexity.com. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  4. "See What the Internet Actually Looks Like". Time. July 13, 2015. Archived from the original on August 21, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  5. "The Opte Project and Visualizing the Internet". blogs.cornell.edu. Cornell University. September 13, 2016. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  6. "Internet mapping project weaves colourful web". www.newscientist.com. New Scientist, Ltd. November 28, 2003. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  7. "7 amazing maps of the Internet". www.kaspersky.com. Kaspersky Lab. November 3, 2015. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  8. "MOMA - Opte Project item". www.moma.org. Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  9. "Mapping the World Around Us". www.mos.org. Museum of Science. Archived from the original on June 24, 2012. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  10. "Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license". creativecommons.org. Creative Commons. Archived from the original on August 7, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  11. "The Opte Project - Licenses". www.opte.org. LyonLabs LLC, Barrett Lyon. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  12. "Barrett Lyon Website - Philanthropy section". Barrett Lyon. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.