Topix.net, a news and forum site, has a map of the United States that shows the online discussions taking place across the country. Each location is symbolized by a circle. The size of the circle indicates the size of the forum and the colour indicates the recency of the latest posting. Clicking on a dot draws up a list of the current ongoing disucssions. Users can also enter a zip code to find discussions in a particular location. Simple and effective.

By way of information aesthetics