Tuesday, October 17, 2006

[Week7] Geographical centrality

The findings of Zook that geographic locality plays a significant role in the current shape of Internet industry is sound but not surprising (After all, the name Silicon Valley has not faded at all). First of all, unlike the Internet itself, industries are located in physical buildings and are run by people with physical bodies who interact in a real space. Steve Jobs' keynote speeches may be available on Youtube, but you should go to San Francisco to actually experience the infamous 'reality distortion field'. It may be about the Internet, but it is still industry. In that sense, Zook's mention of 'tacit knowledge' is more than valid. Moreover, on a global scale it isn't even tacit knowledge but simply the problem of money. Heavily wired cities in more 'developed' countries are the central regions. Because it takes a significant level of infrastructure to use the Internet inexpensively and on a daily basis in the first place.

Then, the question arises: how will it change overtime? Will the centers become more central, or will they be distributed (or simply shifting from one center to another)? Or a more fundamental one: is this kind of centrality adding up to a form of geographical digital divide, or simply the result of it?

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