"Digital dandelions" popped up all across the Internet almost
exactly two years ago, when computer science researchers from UC
San Diego presented a paper at 2007 SIGCOMM called, “Orbis:
Rescaling Degree Correlations to Generate Annotated Internet
Topologies.” The big idea: What looks like the head of a digital
dandelion is a map of the Internet generated by new algorithms
from computer scientists at UC San Diego. This map features
Internet nodes – the red dots – and linkages – the green lines.
But it is no ordinary map. It is a (mostly) randomly generated
graph that retains the essential characteristics of a specific
corner of the Internet but doubles the number of nodes. Now, the
digital dandelions have been set in stone...literally. The
Computer Science Department at University College London liked
the depictions of Internet topology and their resemblance to
“digital dandelions” so much that they commissioned artist
Hannah Griffiths to create a mosaic based on these depictions
and have it on display in the