Hi, this should be of interest to anyone thinknig about Internet
geographies.
cheers
martin
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2003 17:11:39 -0400
From: Anthony Townsend <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Urban Technology & Telecommunications
<[log in to unmask]>
To: Urban Technology & Telecommunications <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: My Dissertation: "Wired and Unwired: The Urban Geography of
Digital Networks"
Finished today and going into the MIT library on Wednesday.... at long
last. And yes, I'm looking for a position if anyone knows of any
openings that I might be suitable for - university, think tank,
non-profit, or private sector, I'm casting a pretty wide net.
-Anthony
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Wired / Unwired: The Urban Geography of Digital Networks
by
Anthony M. Townsend
September 2003
Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in partial
fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in Urban and Regional Planning.
ABSTRACT
This dissertation examines the development of digital network
infrastructure in the world’s great cities at the turn of the 20th
century. Drawing upon the concept of cities as information systems and
techniques of communications geography, it analyzes how the physical
components of digital networks were deployed in major urban areas
during the 1990s. It finds that historical processes and pre-existing
differences between places shaped the evolution of this infrastructure
at multiple spatial scales; global, metropolitan, and neighborhood. As
a result, rather than bringing about the “death of distance”, digital
network infrastructure actually reinforced many of the pre-existing
differences between connected and disconnected places. With the telecom
bust of 2000-2002, these differences were likely to persist for a
decade or more.
Yet just as the development of wired digital network infrastructure
slowed, wireless technologies emerged as a more flexible, intuitive,
and efficient form of connecting users to networks in everyday urban
settings. As a result, an untethered model for digital networks emerged
which combining the capacity and security of wired networks over long
distances with the flexibility and mobility of wireless networks over
short distances. This new hybrid infrastructure provided the technology
needed to begin widespread experimentation with the creation of
digitally mediated spaces, such as New York City’s Bryant Park Wireless
Network.
Thesis supervisor: William J. Mitchell
Title: Dean, School of Architecture and Planning
PDF: http://www.mit.edu/~amt/
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