Spatial conceptions of URLs: Tamil Eelam networks on the world wide web

Abstract

In its current state, the internet may be understood as a dynamic, shifting network of computers and other electronic signal receptors transmitting and/or receiving bits of digital information. Popular conceptions of the internet, however, depict this exchange of information as delimiting virtual space. Rather than recognizing the networks formed through online information exchange, the prevailing images of the internet and world wide web locate individuals, not to mention data, within spatial coordinates. Some websites use networking and exchange to describe how they disseminate data; Tamil Eelam online provides an example where spatial metaphors are eschewed and network figures highlighted. Virtual Tamil Eelam is not focused on geopolitical sites but rather on people in dispersion, as well as the spread of information regarding its history and virtual nation, in order to create recognition for state and national sovereignty.

Keywords

diaspora English language internet nation postcolonial space Sri Lanka Tamil Eelam world wide web

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