
Stefano de Sabbata's research focuses on Internet and information geographies, as well as on geographic and mobile information retrieval. He is currently collaborating with Mark Graham on research into geographic bias in search engines.
Dr Stefano De Sabbata
Research Associate
Profile
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.
Research interests
Internet geographies, geographic relevance, information retrieval, location-based services, data mining
Positions held at the OII
- Research Associate, October 2015 –
- Researcher, May 2013 – September 2015
Research
Past projects
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GeoNet: Changing Connectivities and the Potentials of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Knowledge Economy
Participants: Professor Mark Graham, Dr Stefano De Sabbata, Nicolas Friederici, Dr Christopher Foster, Sanna Ojanperä, Dr Mohammad Amir Anwar, Dr Fabian Braesemann, Michel Wahome
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.
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Internet Geographies: Data Shadows and Digital Divisions of Labour
Participants: Professor Mark Graham, Joshua Melville, Dr Stefano De Sabbata
This project maps and measures the geographies of information on the Internet.
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Urban Data 2 Decide
Participants: Dr Stefano De Sabbata, Dr Jonathan Bright, Dr Bharath Ganesh
Urban decision makers are nowadays faced with both unprecedented challenges as well as new opportunities as the environment around them grows ever more complex.
Videos
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Geographies of Knowledge in Wikipedia
Recorded: 15 January 2016
Duration: 00:13:12
Presentation on Stefano De Sabbata's Wikipedia research, on the occasion of Wikipedia's 15th Birthday.
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Stefano De Sabbata: The Illustrated Web
Recorded: 30 March 2014
Duration: 00:09:18
Stefano De Sabbata shares his visualizations (with Mark Graham) that reveal certain information / behavioral patterns on the Internet which have important political implications.
Blog
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Collaborative Visualizations for Wikipedia Critique and Activism (new publication)
10 April 2015
Author: Stefano De Sabbata
Arzu, Kathryn, Scott, Ralph, and I wrote a short extended abstract for the workshop Wikipedia, a Social Pedia: Research Challenges and Opportunities at ICWSM 2015, ...
Read More Collaborative Visualizations for Wikipedia Critique and Activism (new publication)
Press
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Map Shows The World’s Internet Population
23 September 2014 Huffington Post Tech
The map of the world demonstrating internet population and penetration created by Mark Graham and colleagues is featured in Huffington Post.
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The world wide SPREAD: Map shows what the world would look like based on then number of internet users in each country
22 September 2014 Mail Online
Following reports there are now more than a billion websites, researchers Mark Graham and Stefano de Sabbata have created an interactive map that reveals just how far and wide these sites penetrate the globe.
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The internet’s population, mapped by nationality
22 September 2014 Boingboing
The map of global Internet penetration created by Mark Graham and Stefano de Sabbata is analysed in a short article in Boingboing.
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The world wide SPREAD: Map reveals the extent of internet use around the globe – and the countries that are still not online
22 September 2014 Daily Mail
The map of global use of websites created by Mark Graham and Stefano De Sabbata is reported in the Daily Mail. The data visualisation shows each country sized according to its internet-enable population.
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Does Kenya’s National Broadband Strategy Position it for Second-World Status?
28 April 2014 Government Technology
The technology site reports on broadband in Kenya quoting Mark Graham extensively. Unbridled optimist about new technology in Kenya is both good and bad he says.
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Infographic: A freelance working week revealed
24 April 2014 Wired.co.uk
Wired.co.uk reports on Mark Graham’s work on mapping patterns of work as part of a project on virtual labour. He will be visiting eight countries in Asia and Africa over two years to carry out the essential field work.
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Internet Mapping
23 April 2014 Nikkei
The Japanese business newspaper highlights Mark Graham's research. (Japanese original)
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Talk about a series of tubes: Undersea Internet cables mapped like the London Underground
4 April 2014 Washington Post
The 'Switch' blog of the Washington post discusses the graphic visualisation of the submarine fibre-optic cable network using the London tube map as a template.
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London Underground map depicts Internet’s backbone
3 April 2014 ITV
London Underground's iconic map design has been used by researchers at Oxford University to explain the Internet's complex network of submarine fiber optic cables.
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The Tube-Style Map Of The Internet’s Backbone
2 April 2014 Sky News
The fibre-optic cables that criss-cross the globe have been visualised by the OII's Stefano De Sabbata and Mark Graham.
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Interactive: which countries have the most Google search results?
18 March 2014 The Guardian
Does the number of pages returned by Google tie up closely with the size of a country's population? The OII's work on Internet geographies is featured.
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Why the wealthiest countries are also the most open with their data
14 March 2014 Washington Post
Coverage of an OII visualization of the state of open data in 70 countries around the world, showing a prominent global "openness divide".
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Internet : à quel point votre pays est-il connu sur Google?
14 March 2014 Jeune Afrique
Coverage of OII work on the geographies of information.
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There Are More Wikipedia Articles About This One Small Part of the World Than the Rest of It Combined
25 February 2014 The Atlantic
Analysis by Mark Graham and colleagues of over 3 million Wikipedia articles in the 44 most popular languages reveals that the majority of references are about an area occupying only 2.5 percent of the world's land mass.
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Die Kolonialmächte des Internets
8 November 2013 Die Zeit Data Blog
The colonial power of the Internets. Die Zeit features maps of internet users and domain owners created by OII researchers. (German)
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Why You Won’t Find Tuvalu on a Map of the World’s Internet Domains
6 November 2013 Slate
Slate magazine looks at the methods behind the maps of the world internet domains, created by Stefano de Sabbata, Mark Graham and Matthew Zook.
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The US, Germany, and Britain still dominate the Internet
6 November 2013 Washington Post
Wonkblog, part of the Washington Post featured the maps created by Mark Graham, Stefano De Sabbato and Matthew Zook which demonstrate the geography of top-level domain names.
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Um império chamado Google
30 October 2013 Epoca
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 the most popular website in each country.
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Here’s Where The 6 Billion Photos On Flickr Come From
12 October 2013 Business Insider
The Australian site features the map by Mark Graham et al which uses Flickr to demonstrate which parts of the world are visually most represent online.
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42% of the world’s Internet users live in Asia
11 October 2013 Yahoo Finance Singapore
Singapore’s financial news uses OII maps on internet use in Asia to illustrate the point that Asia is the world’s biggest continent and also the world’s biggest internet market.
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World’s online population mapped
11 October 2013 Stuff.co.nz
The New Zealand technology site highlights the findings of the Information Geographies project map of the world's online population.
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Die meistbesuchten Webseiten der Welt
7 October 2013 De Bild
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.
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Awesome map shows every country’s favourite website
7 October 2013 Herald Sun
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.
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‘Age of Internet Empires’ toont de populairste websites wereldwijd
6 October 2013 De Morgen
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.
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Google most popular site globally: Report
6 October 2013 Times of India
Tech News in Times of India reports on the map created by Mark Graham and Stefano De Sabbata which reveals the most popular websites across the world.
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Google dominates around the world
5 October 2013 Television New Zealand
Google is the most popular website used in New Zealand and around the world, with over one billion people visiting it, according to new research conducted by the OII's Mark Graham and Stefano De Sabbata.
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Google, Facebook rule Age of Internet Empires
5 October 2013 India Today
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.
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Google rules the West but Japan still prefers Yahoo: Map reveals how different internet giants dominate countries across the globe
4 October 2013 Daily Mail
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.
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Google vs. Facebook vs. Baidu: Battle of the Internet empires
4 October 2013 ZDNet
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.
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Cuáles son los sitios web más populares del mundo en cada país
4 October 2013 La Nacion
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.
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Age of Internet Empires: One Map With Each Country’s Favorite Website
4 October 2013 The Atlantic
Stefano De Sabbata and Dr Mark Graham have created a map which shows the most popular website in each country, using a design that pays homage to the Age of Empires video game series.
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Google rules the West but Japan still prefers Yahoo: Map reveals how different internet giants dominate countries across the globe Read more: Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
4 October 2013 Daily Mail
A map of most visited websites across the world created by OII researchers show that Google dominates in the west followed by Facebook.
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Google Vs. Facebook: A Map Of Global Conquest
4 October 2013 NPR
NPR take a look at the OII maps of global internet use.
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And The World’s Most Popular Websites Are…
3 October 2013 CBC News
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.
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Facebook or Google: which website rules the world?
3 October 2013 Guardian Online
Stefano De Sabbata and Dr Mark Graham from the Oxford Internet Institute have created a map which shows the most popular website in each country, using a design that pays homage to the Age of Empires video game series.