Two students from Computers and Telecommunications Engineering at University of Aveiro, Portugal, want to determine the number of Internet users from all around the world, within a month. The project is called MapMyName and will also be able to name and pinpoint the geographic location of these web users.
Active since last week, the MapMyName initiative was presented via a short video posted on YouTube, where the creators explain the main steps of the process. According to João Ribeiro and Sérgio Veiga, when a user signs up, he refers three friends, who in turn can do the same, creating a chain. This way, based on a mathematical formula, it will be possible to determine the number of web users existing in the world within a month.
After the final count it will be possible to view the number and profile of the web users, finding how many users exist with the same name and being able to plot the course of someone in Aveiro who wants to contact another person in Tokyo, for example. Later, the registered users of MapMyName can use their "information balloon" to identify themselves in blogs and photo and video sharing websites.
Video: How many people use the Internet?
Link: Home Page
News source: Portal do Cidadão (in Portuguese)
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