Chapter 9 continued Telecommunications Figure 9 23 Evolution

Chapter 9, continued Telecommunications • Figure 9. 23 – Evolution of communications and computer technologies; integration of systems • Uneven spatial development of telephone technology – replacement of wired systems with satellite systems – spaces simply skipping the wired phases • Backbone connections via fiber-optic cable in both local and global networks

Telephone Lines per 100 People Lines overlook the Explosion of cell-phone & PDA Technolgies

The inexorable rise in processing power Pentium IV Do these break points Correspond to beginnings Of Kondratief Long-waves? Cash Registers, Calculators

Global Figure Optic Network: paralleled by Regional and Local Networks

The explosion of telecommunications capacity Note Scale!

IT & “The Death of Distance” • What is the impact of all this connectivity on the location of economic activity? • Will people be able to just work from their office or home or the beach? • Or will their jobs disappear and move off to low labor cost platforms, like India? • Yes and no, but a rapidly moving target due to the pace of change in IT and business concepts • Telework – call centers, back offices (often suburban)

Geographies of the Internet • The most dramatic development in IT since the development of the PC and the development of low-cost networks • Text has good discussion of the history and explosion of use of the Internet • Key discussion on p. 331 last paragraph on how evolution in connectivity is changing the level of use of the Internet • Figure 9. 31 – increase in Internet use has exploded in the last decade, and the next slide shows that it still is….

Update on Internet Use Data in Table 9. 2 are for 2005

International Internet Flows: predictable high-income nation flows, but: contrast this to Fig 9. 32, and within nation flows are dominant

The Digital Divide • We at the UW are on the + side of access to the Internet and its resources • Those not connected – poor, isolated, less educated, unable to buy connectivity, lack of education programs, etc. • What to do about these inequities? • How do we rethink the nature of educational systems?

Social Implications of the Internet • Causes a rethinking of how people connect with each other – this is still a topic ripe for research • What do we use it for? How does this vary between “business” and “home” • How has it repositioned what we receive in the way of stimuli? (politics, retailing, porno…. • What has it caused us to have to react to? Firewalls and theft in a new environment

E-Commerce • The Internet has wiped out some lines of work: traditional travel-agents • It has created all sorts of opportunities for new businesses -. com, . org, . edu, . gov, etc. • What IS e-commerce? The difference between information on-line and transactions on-line. • Rapid pace of change here: text overlooks Google’s remarkable profitability from advertising related to searches • Online services: ranging from education to gambling • EDI – firm based modes of data connection

E-Stats from Census Bureau Share of total sales by selected industry From 2009 E-Stats report

Future Impacts of IT • Huge uncertainty here • Smart Cities – do we know how connectivities will restructure interaction? • Community-based Applications – on-line service opportunities, but what are the limits? • Government – new forms of “city halls, ” maybe even voting? • Business, Education, and Health care: reducing direct costs, but impact on quality?