Stefano’s work at the Oxford Internet Institute focuses on the analysis and visualisation of the geographies of the Internet. The project aims to study the contemporary geographies of knowledge and the ways that those information landscapes are changing over time. In particular, he is interested in studying how geography influences information access, production, and representation, and how geographic places are discussed and represented on the Internet.
Stefano’s PhD project at GIVA unit of the University of Zurich aimed to develop a generic approach to the abstract problem of the assessment of Geographic Relevance. This is a rather recent concept that can be defined as a quality of an entity in geographic space or its representation in an information system, i.e. an object, document, or image. This quality is expressed as the relation between an entity (or its representation) and the actual context of using the representation. More pragmatically, Geographic Relevance aims to assess the relevance of an object that is a representation of a geographic entity within a computer system or information database. This object can be a collection of documents or an entry in a database describing a point of interest. Still, even if the object is a single document, the objective is to approximate the relevance of the entity, not to judge the relevance of a geo-referenced document or a document reporting geographic information. Considering this facet, Geographic Relevance is rather far from the current understanding that underlies Geographic IR, Mobile IR and IR systems in general.
Internet geographies, geographic relevance, information retrieval, location-based services, data mining
This research project is examining the geographies, drivers, and effects of Sub-Saharan Africa's emerging information economies at a time of changing connectivity and Internet access across the region.
This project maps and measures the geographies of information on the Internet.
Urban decision makers are nowadays faced with both unprecedented challenges as well as new opportunities as the environment around them grows ever more complex.
27 January 2019
22 June 2017
15 March 2017
3 December 2016
Slate, 06 November 2013
Slate magazine looks at the methods behind the maps of the world internet domains, created by Stefano de Sabbata, Mark Graham and Matthew Zook.
Epoca, 30 October 2013
An Empire called Google: Brazilian magazine Epoca features a map by the OII's Mark Graham and Stefano De Sabbata depicting the world's "Internet empires" highlighting popular websites in each country.
De Bild, 07 October 2013
Work by the OII's Mark Graham and Stefano De Sabbata depicts the world's "Internet empires" in a map highlighting the most popular website in each country.
