And then there are the engineers themselves, a rootless but engaging brotherhood that travels the world from rack to rack, helping to keep the electronic show on the road, and whose interactions and dealmaking does a lot to shape the geography of the electronic spider's web that now engulfs the planet.

ECONOMIST: How the internet works

Despite the cost of the equipment, the setting was modest: a 20 by 20 workroom containing a communications relay rack and several mismatched tables full of electronic equipment.

CNN: A visit to Stanford's Internet2 GigaPoP