The information city
Mark E. Hepworth
This paper outlines the economic and technical dimensions of the information city and discusses its implications for urban planning. it presents a new conceptual approach to anaiysing the role of information-related activities in the economic base of metropolitan areas. Examples of applying this methodology are provided for Greater London and metropolitan Toronto. The technical infrastructure of the information city is described in terms of computer network innovations, as wide area (intercity), metropolitan area and local area systems. New directions in urban pianning are suggested under the rubric of informatics in local economic deveiopment. Mark E. Hepworth is with the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, the University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU. ‘P. Hall, ‘The geography of the fifth Kondratieff’, in P. Hall and A. Markusen, eds, Silicon Landscapes, Alien and Unwin, London, 1985. ‘D. Bell, ‘The social framework of the information society’, in M. Dertouzos and J. Moses, eds, The Computer Age, The MIT Press. Cambridae. MA. 1979. 3M. Casteils, ‘High technology, economic restructuring, and the urban-regional process in the United States’, in M. Castells, ed, High Technology, Space and Society, Sage, Beverly Hills, 1985. “P. Daniels, Service Industries, Methuen, London, 1985. 5J. Gottmann, The Coming of the Transactional City, University of Maryland Institute for Urban Studies, Monograph Series No 2, College Park, 1983. 6T. Noyelle and T. Stanback, The Economic Transformation of American Cities, Allanheld Osmun, Totowa, NJ, 1983. ‘J. Rees, ‘Manufacturing headquarters in the post-industrial context’, Economic Geography, Vol54, 1979, pp 337-354. ‘F. Machlup, The Production and Distribution of K&w/edge in the United States, Princeton Universitv Press. Princeton. NJ. 1962. ‘D. Bell, The Coming of Post-industrial Society, Basic Books, New York, 1973.
0264-2751/87/030253-10$03.00
Information and new information and communication technologies are at the centre of structural changes in the economy and in society and have major implications for all areas of research and policy. These structural changes are widely perceived to signify the ‘dawn’ of a new historical era. According to some observers, we are witnessing the early stages of the next ‘long wave’ (the fifth Kondratieff cycle) of capitalist and, for others, advanced economies are making the development.’ transition to a post-industrial ‘information society’.’ Metropolitan cities are the principal loci of the ‘information revolution’.’ In order to differentiate the urban development process by the life span of new information and communication technologies. I propose to use the term ‘information city’. For definitional purposes. this type of city has a two-dimensional characterization: it is a metropolitan economy which specializes mainly in the production, processing and distribution of information, and, its dominant infrastructure is comprised of the converging technologies of computers and telecommunications. The purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive outline of the information city, in terms of these economic and technical dimensions, and to suggest its implications for urban planning.
Information
in the economic base
Information-related activities dominate the economic base of today’s metropolitan city. This structural feature has been the focus of several strands of geographical research on the role of services in urban economies.’ For example, the ‘transactional’ economy approach focuses on the urban centrality of information-based quaternary services;’ metropolitan studies of the ‘new service’ economy highlight the growing importance of producer services. which are essentially information conveyed through some physical medium;” research on the urban dimensions of the ‘post-industrial’ economy centres on the role of knowledge-intensive and (head office) managerial activities.’ Most of this research makes use of conventional sectoral and/or occupational classifications, which are inadequate for measuring the full extent of information-related activities in the metropolitan economy. Some new tools for measuring the economic dimension of the ‘information revolution’ have, however, emerged over the last two decades. Their origins lie in Machlup’s pioneering study of the ‘knowledge’ economyX and Bell’s later work on the ‘post-industrial’ society.” Drawing extensively upon this existing body of research, which focused on the growing importance of information resources (informa-
0 1987 Butterworth
& Co (Publishers)
Ltd
253
‘OM. Porat, The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement, Special Publication 77-12(l), Office of Telecommunications, US Department of Commerce, WashIngton, DC, 1977. “Measurzment of the secondary information sector is undermined by the general absence of official data on the depreciation of ‘information capital’ by individual industries. Also it should be noted that Porat’s total model cannot be applied at the urban or regional level, for reasons explained by M. Hepworth, ‘The Geography of the Information Economy’, unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 1987. ‘%ee, for example, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, ‘Information activities, electronics and telecommunications technologies’, OECLJ/CCP Series, No 6, Vol2, 1981.
tion and information handling technologies) as a basic feature of structural change in modern economies. Porat”’ provided a methodology for defining and measuring the extent of information-related activities which remains the cui’rent state of the art in this area of economic analysis. The information economy. according to Pot-at. is a type of economy in which wealth and employment originate primarily from the production. processing and distribution of information, or what he dubs ‘information activity’. Two complementary measures of the extent of information activity, or the size of the information sector of the economy. are offered: the value share in national income and output of information goods and information services, including the latter‘s ‘in-house’ component; and the labour force share of information occupations, defined as all occupations which primarily involve producing, processing and distributing information. Information occupations include a wide array of individual occupations, from scientists and managers to teachers and telephone operators; in Porat’s analysis, they are classified into four major groups of information producers, processors, distributors and infrastructure workers (Table 1). These types of occupations. which can be readily identified from census of population definitions, are distributed throughout all industries. and, as a basic indicator of economic structure, they are aggregated into a single, heterogeneous information sector of the labour force. The information economy framework has been applied mainly at the national level of aggregation and empirical results are restricted to estimates of the ‘primary’ information sector (marketed goods and services) and the labour force share of information occupations.” Recent studies carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) confirm the secular growth of information jobs, which, by 1981. accounted for between 40% and 50% of the labour force in OECD member countries.” Further evidence on technological trends within manufacturing industry indicates that even production processes are becoming increasingly information-intensive, Table 1. Taxonomy of information occupations. Information producers
Information processors
Scientific and technical Examples: chemists and engmeers
Admwstrattve and managerial Examples: productlon managers and senior CIVII servants
Market search and coordinabon Examples: salesmen and buyers
Process control and superwsory Examples: factory foremen and office superwsors
Information gatherers Examples: surveyors and quality inspectors
Clerical and related Examples: clerks and bank tellers
ConsultaGve services Examples: accountants Health-related consultaWe Examples: doctors
and lawyers services
information distributors
Information infrastructure
Educators Examples: school teachers and unwerslty lecturers
Information machine workers Examples: computer operators and printing pressmen
Public information disseminators Examples: librarians and archwsts
Postal and telecommunications Examples: mail carriers and telegraph operators
Communication workers Examples: newspaper editors and televtslon directors
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j3G. Warskett, ‘The role ot information activities in total Canadian manufacturing: separability and substitution’, OECD/CCP Series, No 6, Vol 2, 1981. ‘%. Jonscher, ‘Information resources and economic productivity’, information Economics and Policy, Vol 1, No 1, 1983. 15M. Hepworth, ‘The geography of technological change in the information economy’, Regional Studies, Vol 20, No 5, 1986. j6M. Hepworth, A. Green and A. Gillespie, ‘The spatial division of information labour in Great Britain’, Environment and Planning A, Vol 19 (forthcoming), 1987. “M. Hepworth and G. Dobilas, ‘The city and the information revolution’, Urban Resources, Vol3, No 1, 1985.
as measured by the changing composition of the capital deployed.” The general implication of the OECD’s findings is that the impact of new information and communication technologies on national economies will be considerable and wide ranging. in so far as the innovation process will affect the majority of the labour force and all industries, including the manufacturing sector. Indeed. the results of econometric studies by Jonscher“’ point to the diminishing job generation capacity of information occupations in the USA, which is attributed to the differential impacts of the new technologies on labour productivity in information and non-information occupations. The findings of subnational applications of Porat’s framework, for CanadaI and the UK”, indicate that the information economy exhibits a strong regional bias. Further, and more significantly for the present discussion, information-related activities have been shown to dominate the economic base of certain metropolitan cities.” This is evident, for example, in information occupation data on the labour force of Greater London and Metropolitan Toronto, calculated for the latest census year (Tables 2 and 3). In 1981, information occupations accounted for 55.2% and 58% of the labour force in the metropolitan region of Toronto and the Greater London area respectively, with these shares being far greater than the national average for both Canada and the UK. To illustrate how the occupational taxonomy can be applied. the Toronto information labour force is shown by its occupational composition. and the Greater London figures show the information component of broad industry sectors, including producer services. What we can conclude from these examples is not only that metropolitan economies are Table 2. The occupational composition of the information labour force: Toronto Census Metropolitan Area and Canada, 1981. Occupation
Toronto CMA (%I
group
Information producers Scientific and technical Market search and coordination
2.6 13.2 1.3
4.2 10.3 3.0 11.1 1.4
11.4 9.6 33.7
9.4 11.3 33.6
Information distributors Educators Public information disseminators Communication workers
7.0 0.3 1.1
9.0 0.4 0.6
Information infrastructure InformatIon machine workers Postal and telecommunication
5.0 1.a
3.3 2.0
information gatherers Consultative services Health-related consultative
4.1
0.0
services
Information processors Managers and administrators Foreman supervisors Clerical and related
Source: M. Hepworth and G. Dobilas. ‘The city and the information revolutton’, Urban Resources, Vol3, No 1, 1965.
Table 3. Share of information occupations the UK, 1981.
Yndustries are classified by the taxonomy suggested by J. Singlemann, From Agriculture to Services, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, 1977. Source: M. Hepworth et al. ‘The spatial division of information labour in Great Britain’, Enwronment and Planning A, Vol 19, forthcomrng. 1967.
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Canada W)
in the labour force by sector: Greater London and
Industry Sector’
Greater London WI
Agnculture Extractive and transformative Distributive services Retail services Non-profit services Producer serwces Mainly consumer services Public administration
13.2 47.8 61.5 48.9 51.7 86.7 45.2 69.1
6.7 36.8 53.3 42.9 46.4 84.5 36.6 53.0
but also they are dependent
information-based.
on information
generation during a period of rapid technological unemployment in most OECD countries.
The new infrastructure technologies
of information
change
for job and high
and communication
The last decade, in particular, has witnessed a massive injection of new information and communication technologies into the metropolitan city. All corporate and government sectors of the urban economy affected by these process innovations and the new computer telecommunications activities,
technologies
are and
will have an impact not only on office
but also on factory. shop, school and other types of land uses.
Cityscapes
are rapidly
changing,
and.
in the case of ‘world
cities’,lx
intelligent buildings, teleports, fibre optic networks and other leading edge technologies are part of the new built environment. These types of technological
developments,
whose
impact
on the metropolitan
nomy will last well into the 21st century, infrastructure of the information city.
constitute
eco-
the emerging
In contrast with these accelerating processes of technical change, research on the information city has been slow to develop.“’ Most studies are outdated in terms of their technical focus, being principally concerned with the impact on office locations of the ordinary telephone;‘”
further,
there
is little
evidence,
even
in
the
recent
literature, of researchers attempting to model the synergistic effects of technological convergence in computers and telecommunications when analysing
changes
technical
focus,
in urban
and
systems, is provided technological change. the ‘wired
city’,‘3
form.”
concentrating
The
systematic
studies can be carried
256
adopting
this
network of of
out on the urban
but also the important
new
forms of data. facsimile and video communications.
In turn, a more reliable basis can be established on a widening array of so-called ‘tele-’ activities,
“J. Friedmann and G. Wolff, ‘World city formation: an agenda for research and action’, international Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol 6, No 3, 1982. ‘Telecommunications and “R. Meier. urban development’, in J. Brotchie, P. Newton, P. Hall and P. Nijkamp, eds, The Future of Urban form, Croom Helm, London, 1985. *“R. Abler and T. Falk, ‘Intercommunications, distance and geographical theory’, Geoorafiska Annaler, Series B, Vol 62, 1980, pp 59-67. “See. for examole. A. Kutav. ‘Ootimum office location and the compa;ative statics of information economies’, Regional Sfudies, Vol 20, No 6, 1986. *‘M. Hepworth, ‘Information technology as Progress in Human spatial systems’, Geography, Vol 11, No 2, 1987. 23J ?&tin, The Wired City, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1978. 24M. Hepworth, op tit, Ref Il.
for
on computer
by Hepworth.” By applying this model which takes us closer to Martin’s conception
impact of not only voice communications. computer-mediated
rationale
attention
for empirical research which are expected to
have a profound impact on the spatial structure of the metropolitan city - namely. tele-banking. tele-shopping, tele-working, tele-conferencing and so on. All of these activities
are computer
network
applications.
Some new empirical research shows that computer networks have powerful capabilities for changing the basic spatial and temporal parameters distribution
of the economic and managerial
system through their use as production, innovations by multilocational firms.2’
Metropolitan cities. as the (computer) centres network systems, are the main concentrations
of national or global of these innovation
processes. The Canadian example of this high level of technology concentration at the regional and national level is presented for 1983 (Table 4). From an urban systems perspective, information cities can be treated as higher order nodes on a global grid of private and public computer networks respectively operated by firms and governments and telecommunications carriers. The private networks, shown in Figures 1 and 2, are examples of the individual elements of this global electronic grid of information-related activities; these multicity systems are operated by a Toronto-based computer service bureau and the London Stock Exchange’s
share price information
service, Topic Incorporated.
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Table 4. Concentration
of computer
population
in Canada by selected
National
computer
metropolitan
areas, 1983.
population
Share (%)
Provincial
computer
population
Concentration’
Share (%)
Concentration
Bntlsh Columbia Vancouver
a.4
149
72.0
145
The Prairies Calgary, Alberta Edmonton, Alberta Regina, Saskatchewan Saskatoon. Saskatchewan Winnipeg, Manitoba
5.7 4.9 1.5 0.9 3.5
188 156 189 129 143
47 0 40 4 49.6 29.3 90 9
157 130 239 164 152
Ontario Ottawa-Hull Toronto
6.0 25 0
187 174
12.8 53.1
149 139
Quebec Montreal Quebec City
11.9 1.8
100 84
70.3 10.9
140 125
1.8 0.5 0.8
177 116 135
71.4 32.5 73.4
215 172 219
Atlantic provinces Halifax, Nova Scotia St John, New Brunswick St Johns, Newfoundland
‘Concentration index calculated by dtvlding metropolitan share of provincial/national computer population by metropolitan share of provincial/national labour force. Source: M. Hepwotth, ‘The Geography of the Information Economy’, unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Geography, Unlverslty of Toronto, 1987.
Other examples
250p cit. Fief 15. 26 H. Bakis, ‘The
geographical impact of telecommunicationssystems used within firms’, paper presented at the meeting of the Commission on Industrial Systems, InternationalGeographical Union, Universiteit Nimegen, August 1982. *‘M. Moss, ‘Telecommunicationsand the
including
CC o
-
Computer
centre
(branch
office)
communications
Figure 1. The IP Sharp network. Source: M. Hepworth ‘The Geography University
of Toronto,
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applications
research
in different
and development.
sectors manufac-
networks
(their
geography)
discussed in terms
empirical
are graphically
represented
or otherwise
of metropolitan cities or smaller urban areas. evidence produced by this research of computer
(incl. data bases)
Small minicomputer Packet-switched
network
publishing,
turing industry and financial services - are provided by Hepworth.‘5 Bakis” and Moss.” In all of these studies, the topologies of computer
The
El
of computer
newspaper
supporting
local sub-network.
Access from
other
cities through
public
network
link
of the
Information
Economy’,
unpublished
PhD
dissertation,
Department
of Geography,
1987.
1987
257
Belfast 9 Dublin 9
04 lew York City JSA) Bournemouth
ET
Jersey
Figure 2. The London change Topic network.
Stock
Ex-
Source: M. Hepworth, ‘Producer services in the international network marketplace’, paper presented at the annual conference of the Association of American Geographers, Minneapolis, MN, May 1986.
future of cities’, paper presented at the Landtronics Conference, London, June 1985. “J. Nilles. F. Carlson, P. Gray and G. Hanneman, The TelecommunicationsTransportation Trade-off, Wiley Interscience, New York, 1976. ?See the bimonthly publication Transnational Data and Communications Report published by Transnational Data Reporting Servrce Inc, for regular developments. 30M. Moss, ‘The new urban telecommunications infrastructure’, Computer/Law Journal, Vol 6, No 2, 1985. 3’C Hamelink, finance and Information, Ablex, Norwood. NJ, 1983.
258
0CC 0 -
Computer centre (incl. on-line data bases) Multiplexer/s
supporting
Telecommunications
12 Topic terminals each in local subnetwork
link
networks illuminates a number of key concepts, such as the telecommunications-transport trade-off’” and transborder data flows,‘” and shows that the new technologies enable multilocational enterprise to penetrate (previously inaccessible) regional markets and restructure their basic operations at ever increasing spatial scales. For example, focusing on New York City’s mounting infrastructure of teleports, roof top earth stations and fibre optic cable systems. Mos?’ suggests that the ‘global reach’ of private computer networks operated by transnational corporations will lead to the consolidation of economic power in a few ‘world cities’. which have developed as the major control points of the new Z4hour global capital marketplace.3’ More generally, computer network innovations are changing the shape of both factor (capital and labour) markets and final goods and services markets, with metropolitan cities being principally affected by this changing geography of the information economy. Indeed, the future of individual metropolitan areas, and overall patterns of urban growth and decline in the new system of ‘networked’ cities. will be determined by the geography of technological change in the information economy. Increasingly, the metropolitan distribution of jobs, markets and decision making power will depend on the spatial configuration of computer networks implemented as an electronic infrastructure of production, distribution and managerial control. Within information cities. the technical infrastructure of new technology is (or will shortly be) comprised of not only the local subnetworks of
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32V. Cheong and R. Hirschheim, Local Area Networks, Wiley, New York, 1983. 33R. Sharma, ‘Some architectural considerations for local area networks’, Rockwell International Staff Paper, Dallas, TX, IEEE reprint, CH193105183, 1983. 34For a detailed argument, see op cif, Ref 17. 35For examples, see W. Blazar, M. Spector and J. Grathwol, ‘The sky above, the teleport below’, Planning, December 1985, pp 22-26: A.-M. Hjalager, ‘Local economic development in wired communities’, paper presented at the annual conference of the International Institute of ComEdinburgh, September, munications, 1986. 36For an interesting discussron of the salient issues, see for example 0. Gandy Jr, Beyond Agenda Setting: Information Subsidies and Public Policy. Ablex, Norwood, NJ, 1982; P. Elliot, ‘Intellectuals, the information society and the disappearance of the public sphere’, Med/a, Culture/ and Society, Vol 4, 1982, pp 243-253.
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intercity computer networks (see Figures 1 and 3). but also metropolitan area and local area networks (respectively MANS and LANs). LAN systems, as site specific installations, are designed to provide the advance communications and information processing capabilities for factory and office automation; their incorporation into the urban fabric. as PBX-based (Private Branch Exchange) and ‘intelligent’ cable systems. has created a new element in the office stock. namely ‘smart buildings’.” The impact of local area networking on urban economies. particularly, in combination with intercity or wide area systems. is likely to be far reaching. given that (typically) 60%) of all communications traffic takes place with an office building or local complex - with only 8% of user traffic going beyond 500 miles.3’ Further, for specifying the process of technical change in future urban studies, the interconnection of LANs through wide area computer networking will provide large organizational users with multilevel. hierarchical systems for managing. controlling and integrating their dispersed operations and diverse functions at a metropolitan or international scale. Recent trends toward upgrading the metropolitan telecommunications infrastructure have arisen, in the same way as LAN innovations, from the needs of large corporate users for greater information handling capacity in the ‘local loop’.” While the intercity ‘electronic highways’ of the information economy have been created out of the massive digitalization programmes of national telecommunications carriers, it is only recently that network modernization has been extended to the basic telephone-oriented infrastructure of urban economies. At the same time, further pressures for the implementation of MANS derive from city administrations, who perceive this computer network infrastructure as a vital element in forward looking local economic development strategies.35 The technical infrastructure of the information city is. therefore. a complex grid of computer networks, implemented as wide area. metropolitan area and local area systems. These technologies are not simply information ‘transport’ networks, but are integral components of electronic production and management systems used by private companies and government agencies located within the information city. As such, their role in the metropolitan economy is different and more expansive than transport systems (road and rail); but analysis of the impact of computer networking is more difficult and complex.
Informatics in city planning The term informatics derives from the French ir?formutiyuc which is the study of information and its handling, especially by means of the new information and communication technologies. Under the rubric of informatics planning, I refer to a heterogeneous set of research and policy measures initiated by local governments to promote and monitor development in the information city. The following outline of the basic elements of informatics planning does not, however, consider the use of new technologies by city authorities for internal administration. Little emphasis is placed on the political issues surrounding data protection legislation or ‘freedom planners an important
of information’ acts, which could afford urban role in interpreting the significance of these
policy and institutional
developments
The first element
of informatics
for their local constituencies..‘”
planning.
as a basic prerequisite
of
policy development, involves creating a comprehensive information base on economic and technical trends at the metropolitan level. In the absence of local output and income data. quantitative studies of the changing economic base would focus on the primary information sector (see Note 11). including its ‘high tech’ and producer services components, and information occupational trends in the labour force. which reveal process-related changes in the character of production in all industries. Although local input-output accounts are generally unavailable, large scale surveys of corporate and government transactions would be used to identify and quantify the informational linkages (interand intraorganization flows of information goods and services) of the metropolitan economy. The objective of this fact gathering research would be to create a new economic framework for use in urban planning by identifying the key elements of structural change in the information city. Parallel with this line of economic research should be background studies of the impact of technical change. Based on surveys and case studies of individual organizations, the technical focus of these studies would be computer networks, as wide area, metropolitan area and local area systems; part of the research challenge would be to interrelate and identify the combined effects of these systems of different spatial scale. in terms of economic restructuring at the metropolitan level particularly, the impact on local jobs, markets for local firms and local taxation revenues. These background studies, as policy inputs. would need to examine international and local forces of economic and technical change. and, when assessing the land use implications of these forces, attention should be given not only to office-based activities. but also to the impact of the new technologies on other land use classes-for example, industrial uses (as they are affected by factory automation systems) and retail uses (‘tele-shopping’ systems). In turn, sectoral studies of the impact of so-called ‘tele-’ activities on patterns of urban land use would feed into the important area of metropolitan transport planning and policy. The second and more active element of informatics planning covers five types of local government initiatives. These include:
37See special issue of Facilities, Vol 4, No 4, 1986. 38For example, see A. Llewelyn, ‘CADCAM answer to North-South division’, North East Business News, Vol2, No 4, 1987. 3qhis type of initiative is illustrated in Technology Networks, Greater London Enterprise Board, London, 1983. 40Examnles of this initiative are provided by the’ Scottish Development Agency (Glasaowl and the MARI-Citv of New&l&Newcastle University joint project, both of which involve using data bases/telecommunications services as instruments for promoting local economic development.
260
of information technology centres to promote the 1. the creation generalized diffusion of specific innovations in established local firms - from office automation technologies. such as shared tenant telecommunications systems.” to factory automation processes implemented in individual firms or small industrial complexes;3x 7 the establishment of technology networks, linking together the city’s L. academic institutions, financial agencies, community groups, trade councils and local government departments, to promote the development and marketing of product innovations by new small firms;“” 3. the creation of (electronic) public data bases on locally produced goods and services to foster and reinforce linkage creation in the metropolitan economy; public awareness programmes, including demonstrations, would be initiated to promote the more intensive use of public data bases on scientific, technical and marketing information, also with the basic objective of improving the ‘information environment’ in which local firms operate and make decisions;4” 4 the promotion of user training and retraining programmes in the new ’ technologies, in order to create the necessary skills base for a growing urban information economy; educational programmes in schools and
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The tt~Jortt~~~/ot~
<‘II>’
colleges would seek to raise awareness of the potential benefits of the technology. as well as raising the overall applications of information level of ‘computer literacy‘. .-II j. local governments could establish and self-operate a city wide value added network. achieving economies of scale and scope in information processing and transmission through multifirm and multiapplication resource sharing of the system’s hardware and software in this case, the objective would be not only to components; maximize local linkage creation, but also to minimize information handling costs. as a production overhead, for all user firms in the economy. This same system could be developed to support a wide range of computer network applications, from government-firm messages (eg notices of planning meetings and property tax and rate notices) to community projects. such as neighbourhood training schemes designed to raise ‘computer literacy’ and order entry for delivery services operated for the disabled. Basically, the network would function as a public utility for the information city’s resident population and small firms.J’
“‘The educational aspects of informatics policy are thoughtfully discussed in Making a Business of Information, Cabinet Office, HMSO, London, 1983. 42For examples of partial approaches, see L. Malmborg, ‘Telecommunications and the local infrastructure’, Staff Paper, Planning Department, Kalmar Municipality, Sweden, November 1986; Director of Economic Development and Estates, ‘Value added networks and advanced telecommunications systems’, report to the City of Edinburgh Council, 20 May 1986. %ee, for example, R. Jacobson, ‘Telephone deregulation’, Consultant’s report to the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce, Californian Legislature, 14 February 1983. 44J. Kugelmass, ‘Telecommunications and local government: the policy challenge’, mimeo, obtainable from the author, PO Box 914, Mendocino, CA 95460, USA.
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The third element of urban informatics planning consists of advocacy at the local, regional and national level. Examples of these ‘softer’ but vital types of initiatives include seeking to influence the locational, investment and purchasing strategies of larger multilocational firms, as they affect the supply or use of locally produced information goods and services; ‘target areas’ for advocacy planning. in the public sphere, include telecommunications regulatory decisions and international trade talks on information services and transborder data flows. More broadly. within the entire domain of national and regional policy. the representation of local interests is crucial in the early stages of agenda setting for the information economy. In this case, individual cities may find it mutually beneficial to ‘join forces’ in a collective (and perhaps, regional) effort to influence national policy making - for example, in the area of telecommunications infrastructure development.” The final element of informatics policy is more wide ranging in its intent and even ‘softer’ in terms of the issues it addresses. It consists of disseminating information on the information economy and its social implications to the individual. Some new and important social issues are emerging. the implications of which are not well understood by the majority of the population. For example. the implications for personal privacy of computer-based record keeping have not been adequately explained in government publications. nor has there been a publicized consideration of the threats and opportunities presented by the uses of new technologies in local government.“’
Conclusions The rise of the information city constitutes a new paradigm for urban planning and policy. Our knowledge of the role of the city in the emerging information economy, and the ways and means by which the new ‘technologies are changing urban form is still extremely limited. This paper has attempted to provide a brief elaboration of these fast moving economic and technical dimensions of structural change, while suggesting what implications are arising for the scope and direction of local government initiatives. Clearly, the feasibility of pursuing these types of initiatives will differ
261
between countries and will ultimately depend on the specific political and economic conditions under which local government decisions are made and action taken. For most governments. the policy questions thrown up by technical and economic change relate to rapid structural adjustment, rather than the creation and management of an entirely new type of city built from the ‘bottom up’ - the ‘technopolis’ plans being pursued, for example. in Japan and Italy. There is, however. a great deal of policy-oriented urban research to be carried out, if we are to become more knowledgeable about the information city and its implications for social and economic life. Instead of speculating on the likely shape of cities in the year 7000, urban planners should confront the real challenge of identifying the and significance of the so-called ‘information scope, directionality revolution’ through systematic empirical research and innovative policy analysis.
262
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