Supranet is a term coined by Gartner, an American technological research firm, at the turn of the 21st century to describe the "fusion of the physical and digital worlds."

History

At its inception in 2000, the term alluded to the ongoing convergence of the Internet, mobile communications, always-on connectivity, sensors and human-computer interaction. Subsequent definitions were expanded to include electronic tagging (via, for example, RFID), geotagging, and electronic geo-mapping (i.e., mapping internet coordinates to geodetic coordinates), further fusing the physical and virtual.

Paradigm

The publications that collectively coined the term anticipated the following trends, all subsumed under the Supranet heading:

Uses

A common example of Supranet is geotagging as seen in online photo services such as Flickr, Panoramio, or Picasa. The concept of Supranet has continued to be discussed in the media, in scientific research, and in product development. One prominent example of a large-scale project demonstrating the functionality of the Supranet is Virtual Australia. This initiative is described as "a virtual model containing and representing all non-trivial objects and their contextual environment—from blue sky to bedrock—in real-world Australia," highlighting its comprehensive scope and innovative approach to modeling. In some of his subsequent works, one of the original Gartner authors made it clear that there were several precursors to the concept of Supranet, crediting David Gelernter, G.W. Fitzmaurice and J.C. "Supranet".