Globalization is a complex process in all senses of the word: it involves potentially millions (if not billions) of actors, has existed in different forms for thousands of years, encompasses a varied set of human relationships from exchanges to conquest, and may produce "emergent" properties that cannot be predicted based on the characteristics of its component parts. How then to understand it without speaking of banal generalities or becoming engrossed in details not relevant to the overall structure? We suggest that using graphics and cartography may represent one productive method. For the past decade, several of us have been working on how to create portals that would assist in the understanding of and research on globalization.