This book introduces the Internet through a systematic geographical interpretation, thus shedding light on the Internet as a spatial entity. The book’s approach is to extend basic concepts developed for terrestrial geography to cyberspace, most notably those relating to space, structure, place, distance, mobility, and presence. It further considers the Internet by its constitution of information space, communications space, and screen space. By using well-known concepts from traditional human geography, this book proposes a combination of terrestrial and virtual geographies, which may in turn help in coping with Internet structures and contents. The book appeals to human and economic geographers, especially those interested in information and Internet geographies. It may also be of special interest and importance to sociologists and media scholars and students dealing with communication technology and the Internet.
Prof. Aharon Kellerman was born in 1945 in Haifa, Israel. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Geography and Jewish History at the University of Haifa, in 1969. In 1971, he received a High School Teaching Certificate from the same institution. He then went on to complete his Master’s degree in Geography, with honors, at the Hebrew University in 1972. In 1976, he completed his Doctoral degree, also in Geography, at Boston University in the United States.
Prof. Kellerman has advanced from teaching assistant to Full Professor at the University of Haifa, Israel. In the past, Prof. Kellerman held an assortment of visiting and affiliate academic positions: Bar-Ilan University, Israel (16 years); University of Maryland, College Park, U.S. (six times); Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; University of Miami, U.S.; Boston University, U.S. He served as Vice President of Administration at the University of Haifa, 1995–2004, and is currently Professor Emeritus of Geography. In Fall 2004, he was affiliated with the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK, followed by two years of service (2005–2007) as Director of the conversion project of the College for Israel from an extension of American universities into an Israeli college. In 2007–2014, he served as President of Zefat Academic College.
Prof. Kellerman also served as Vice-President of the International Geographical Union (IGU) 2008–2014, and he acts as Honorary Chair of its Commission on the Geography of the Information Society, which he established and chaired. Earlier he served as Vice-Chair of the Commission on Telecommunications and Geography. He further served as President of the Israeli Geographical Society, as well as Chair of the National Geography Commission of the Israeli Academy of Sciences. As of 2011 he is a Member of the European Academy.
Prof. Kellerman's current specialties include the geography of information, notably of the Internet, and mobilities, notably personal ones. His list of publications includes eight books; five monographs; over 70 refereed articles; 40 book chapters; proceedings; book reviews, etc. He has gained extensive experience in paper presentations (some 120). He has further earned many awards and grants during his career such as those from the Fulbright Foundation; Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture; Ben-Shemesh Award (Jewish National Fund); the Moshkovitz Foundation; the Burda Foundation; and the Association of American Geographers (AAG).
