Ralph Straumann has earned his PhD in Geography from the University of Zurich with foci in geographic information science and cartography. He specialises in research about geographies of the Internet and user-generated content.
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Ralph Straumann is a geographic information scientist with Ernst Basler + Partners in Zurich, Switzerland. He has a background in geography, cartography and political science, with a PhD in geographic information science from the University of Zurich. In his PhD he investigated geomorphological landform terms and their ontological structure. Using fuzzy set approaches he devised algorithms to characterise the extent and nature of such fiat entities using quantitative approaches and digital elevation data.
After his PhD, he moved into the research field of Internet geographies. He is particularly interested in user-generated content, knowledge-sharing, social media and mapping platforms and, particularly, in the developmental, political and societal questions that arise from these. He has worked on platforms and services such as Twitter, Flickr and Wikipedia. In his approach he likes to combine the fields of spatial analysis, statistical modelling, network analysis and information visualization. He maintains a blog and an online presence at http://www.ralphstraumann.ch.
Research interests
user-generated content, social networks, open data, information science, visualization, geography
Positions held at the OII
- Visitor, April 2015 –
Current projects
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Where the Internet Lives: This Map Shows Which Countries Have Most People Online
13 July 2015 VICE Motherboard
Using 2013 World Bank data from, Mark Graham and Ralph Straumann have created a reconfigured map based on what percentage of populations across the world are connected to the Internet.
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Malay is among top 10 Internet language.
12 July 2015 The Rakyat Post
Using 2013 World Bank data from, Mark Graham and Ralph Straumann have created a reconfigured map based on what percentage of populations across the world are connected to the Internet.
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World wide web? Map resizes countries by number of internet users
10 July 2015 The Guardian
Using 2013 World Bank data from, Mark Graham and Ralph Straumann have created a map showing what percentage of populations across the world are connected to the Internet.
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MAP: Where people are online around the world
9 July 2015 The Washington Post
Using World Bank data from 2013, Mark Graham and Ralph Straumann have created a map showing what percentage of populations across the world are connected to the Internet.
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Carte: combien pèse votre pays sur Internet?
9 July 2015 Jeune Afrique
Using 2013 World Bank data from, Mark Graham and Ralph Straumann have created a reconfigured map based on what percentage of populations across the world are connected to the Internet. (French language)
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How Many People Are On The Internet In The World? This Map Shows You, And It’s Eye-Opening
9 July 2015 Bustle
The online new site features the map created by Mark Graham and Ralph Straumann reconfiguring countries based on what percentage of their population is connected to the Internet
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Micro-travailleurs de tous les pays, unissez-vous!
1 July 2015 Usbek et Rica
Under the title, Micro-workers of the world unite, the French magazine explores the world of micro-working. It quotes Mark Graham, who says that micro-workers can often be victims of abuse. (French language article)