BAKIS Henry, HUH Woo-kung, LEE Jeong-rock, Welcome address — Practical information from the local organizers. Program and Introduction to the IGU Pre-Congress Meeting, Korea 2000

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Geocyberspace in the Digital Era

BAKIS Henry, Understanding the geocyberspace: a major task for geographers and planners in the next decade

Abstract.— In this paper, we will introduce the concept of geocyberspace as a result of the work of the IGU 96-C04 Commission on Networks.

Keywords.— Cyberspace, geography, geographers, geocyberspace

Résumé.— Cet article introduit le concept de géocyberespace qui s’est imposé dans le contexte des travaux de la commission UGI 96-C04.

Mots clés.— Cyberespace, Géographie, Géographes, Géocyberespace

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ABLER Ronald, Mastering Inner Space: Telecommunications Technology and Geography in the 20th Century

Keywords.— Innovations, Telecommunication, Geography, Information Society

Mots clés.— Innovations, Télécommunications, Géographie, Société de l’information

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KOCH Andreas, InterActions within telecommunicative extended spaces - a systems theoretical approach

Abstract.— Modern information and communication technologies and their rapidly increasing and diversifying service potentials are influencing the social and the spatial sphere in different ways. And, obviously, these technologies and services respectively were influenced by social and spatial changes – including economic, political, cultural and temporal impacts implicitly. However, one basic difficulty in trying to describe, model, interprete and analyze such (inter-) dependencies between technological, social and spatial impacts is the fact that relationships, causes, effects, quantitative and qualitative dimensions of influence do not have a clear and definite pattern of orientation and recognition. Consequently, it seems necessary not to search for clear and distinct statements or (statistical) tendencies of development but to accept fuzziness, contradiction and interferences. Accepting these assumptions doesn’t imply any impossibility of methodological and theoretical realizations. The theoretical frame which is used in this contribution is based directly (not completely) on the systems theory of Luhmann when social systems are in focus. This theory, however, is also a suitable starting point in constructing spaces as systems, too. Consequently, we do not have only social and technological and spatial systems respectively with their own specific rules, but also interconnected relationships between them. An example called ‘socialware’ will demonstrate this approach empirically.

Keywords.— Systems theory, Social geography, Meanings of ‘spaces’, Communications, Networks

Résumé.— Les technologies modernes de l’information et de la communication influencent la sphère du social et du spatial selon diverses façons. Le cadre théorique utilisé ici se base directement (mais pas entièrement) sur la théorie de système de Luhmann, dans la mesure où les systèmes sociaux sont concernés. Cette théorie est un point de départ propre pour construire des espaces en tant que systèmes. Par conséquent nous n’étudions pas seulement des systèmes sociaux, technologiques ou encore spatiaux avec chacun leurs règles spécifiques, mais également des relations qui existent entre ces systèmes.

Mots clés.— Théorie des systèmes, Géographie sociale, Communications, Réseaux

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FISTOLA Romano, LA ROCCA Rosa Anna, The virtualization of urban functions

Abstract.— Info-telematic technology is producing a new urban dimension: the digital city.

Information represents by now the new good for urban economy: the city produces, elaborates and transfers information. Many of the functional urban processes are progressively organizing themselves on such model. This means that in a few time, a lot of urban functions (finance, commerce, health, administration, etc.) will be transferred by the real dimension to the digital one.

Many of face-to-face relationships, once essential for getting service, will be transformed in the meeting of telematic flows that will replace large part of the urban mobility. If the city can be thought as a complex system, formed by a physical and a functional sub-system the change in action is firstly acting on this last sub-system by priming a process of modifying the urban activities (trading, financing, administration, etc.) into virtual activities (virtualization of urban functions).

The new order of the city needs the definition of new interpretative models and new procedures to measure this change. The physical and functional city will need at all managerial and town planning actions totally different from those currently carried out. It is necessary to think about new “rules” for the city in changing. Urban planners have a natural difficulty to manage with this type of matters and to envisage a system to manage the virtual dimension of the city. If we don’t adopt such different optics it will not be succeeded in checking the new phenomena of urban modernization. Furthermore, it will be lost a possibility to orient the urban system toward new more qualitative levels.

Starting from such considerations the paper tries to put focus on the following topics:

1. an updating of the urban interpretative models that allows to effectively explain the actual evolutionary phase of the city;
2. the definition of methods that allows to measure the « virtualization » level of the different parts of the city to be able to manage urban transformations;
3. the envisage of a new process of town planning considering interaction among the component sub-systems of the city (physical, functional, perceptive and communicative).

Keywords.— Urban functions, Cyberspace, Town planning, Virtual space

Mots clés.— Fonction urbaine, Ville, Aménagement, Cyberespace, Espace virtuel

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MAZZEO Giuseppe, Relations between city and territory. The ‘territorial city’ as (new) spatial pattern for the digital era

Abstract.— The transformations in progress in the Italian urban system are analyzed according to three main aspects:

1. the reduction of population in the cities, because of the townspeople movement toward the ring areas;
2. the dissemination of primary urban functions from the traditional locations (the urban centers) to the surrounding territories;
3. the small authority of the town planning set of rules, that does not match to the needs of a modern society.

Aim of the paper is to characterize the current relationships establishing between city and territory. It argues that the attention to the territorial phenomena (and, consequently, to the territorial planning) is very important also in the actual phase of strong development of the information economy society.

Infact the changes in the economic paradigms of the modern society can affect on the role of the territory in order to develop its specificities and capacities. Such development, however, must not be intended as competitive with the role of the city.

The “territorial city”, as goal of this evolution, represents the potential synthesis of a cooperative action between city and territory.

Keywords.— Territorial space; Urban space; Information society; Planning role, Digital city, Networks

Mots clés.— Territoires, Ville, Société de l’information, Aménagement, Télécommunications, Réseaux

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Case Studies

BARNETT George A., CHON Bum-Soo, ROSEN Devan, The Structure of the Internet Flows in Cyberspace

Abstract.— This paper describes the structure of international Internet traffic based on data obtained from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development for July, 1998. It also describes the relationship between the structure of the Internet and international telecommunications, as well as telephone rates, language, physical location, trade blocs, international migration, student flows, and science and structural asynchrony. The results indicate that the structure of the Internet is significantly related to the structure of the international telecommunications, trade, science and student flow networks, as well language and asynchrony. In combination, only telecommunications, trade, science and asynchrony were significant, accounting for 49.7% of the variance in the structure of the Internet.

Keywords.— Internet, International telecommunications,

Mots clés.— Internet, Flux, Télécommunications

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BORIA Edoardo, Emerging patterns in telematic flows among European countries and peculiarities of the Italian case

Abstract.— The development of the Internet in Europe has witnessed extraordinary and rapid growth over the last few years. If, in general terms, this phenomenon is common among many countries it is also true that the rhythm of Internet penetration has nonetheless been quite different. This difference is even more pronounced when the analysis is extended beyond the EU Member States to Europe in its larger context, i.e. the composite regional macroeconomic system that, for cultural and commercial reasons, joins countries in an intense and significant relationship (including, in particular, the EFTA countries, Turkey and some East European countries). The paper seeks to verify whether - and to what degree - the relationships that currently exist on the Internet among these countries are such that they show the prerequisites of a network in which it is possible to identify a series of ties that define a clear hierarchical structure to this space. In conclusion the Italian case, which due to the disparities in the regional (north and central vs. south) diffusion of the phenomenon presents important peculiarities, will be dealt with in depth. The aim is to identify the causes and evaluate whether the liberalisation processes that are presently occurring in the telecommunications sector will, in future, result in a reduction or in a worsening of this national anomaly.

Keywords.— Telecommunications, Flows, Europe, Italy

Mots clés.— Europe, Italie, Flux, Télécommunications

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HUH Woo-kung, City Networks of Korea: A Telephone-Call Flows Interpretation

Abstract.— An issue as regard to the spatial organization of urban settlements in the information era has been on the notions of city networks. The literature posits that a network city would evolve when two or more previously independent cities strive to cooperate, aided by fast and reliable corridors of transport and communications infrastructure. The present study examined if the geographical patterns of inter-urban information flows indicate some types of network relationships among cities of Korea, using the data of inter-city telephone calls during the May of 1999. The study employed the dominance flow analysis and spatial interaction models to reveal a sweeping dominance of Seoul over the entire Korea. Most cities were subordinate to the national hub in one way or another, then to their respective regional centers too. These findings imply that the hypothesis of network relationships among cities may not be a suitabe frame of explanation on the spatial pattern of urban settlements in developing countries like Korea, where a high urban primacy has persisted for long time. The study also found several clusters of local centers with significant information flows, among the cities in the eastern mountainous region and in the southern coastal band in particular, which guarantee a further examination whether there do exist network relationships within those city clusters.

Keywords.— City Networks, Korea, Spatial interaction, Telecommunications, Telephone-Call Flows

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CHÉNEAU-LOQUAY Annie, Les territoires de la téléphonie mobile en Afrique

Résumé.— Comme dans les pays développés, le téléphone mobile connaît en Afrique un succès qui dépasse les prévisions les plus optimistes, succès plus immédiat que celui d’Internet. À l’échelle d’un pays comme le Sénégal, le réseau cellulaire à la fois épouse la structure des anciens réseaux installés, mais aussi, étant donné sa configuration spécifique, permet à des zones périphériques, dépourvues de toute autre infrastructure moderne, d’accéder aux lieux centraux. Cette relative “égalitarisation” de l’espace de circulation de l’information permet une création d’usages à moindre coût dans les zones urbaines ou périurbaines pauvres. Dans les zones centrales, les usagers sont globalement les mêmes que ceux que l’on observe ailleurs dans le monde dans la première phase d’installation. Ainsi, au Sénégal le “bassin téléphonique de relation” du téléphone mobile semble être, davantage que pour le téléphone fixe, celui de la proximité, de l’intraurbain.

Mots clés.— Téléphone cellulaire mobile, Afrique, Territoire

Abstract.— Thus following the example of the developed countries, cellular networks in Africa are enjoying spectacular growth and subscriptions have overtaken the operators’ forecasts; a quicker success than the one of Internet. The network infrastructure in Senegal fits with the structure of the formal installed fixed network, but, with its specific shape, it is also allowing access in the peripheral areas of central places without any modern network. These relative equality in the area of information flows allows the creation of cheaper uses in poor urban and periurban areas. In central places, users are approximately the same we observe all over the world in the first stage of setting up. So, in Senegal, the relationship area of the cellular phone seems to be more than for the fixed one, the one of proximity and intra urban.

Keywords.— Mobile cellular phone, Africa, Territory

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Kwangju Meeting Notes

LEE Jeong-rock, An excursion to rural Korea during the conference week

HUH Woo-kung, English literature on the geography of Korea

BAKIS Henry, International Geographical Union Commission on ’Communication Networks and telecommunications’ (1996-2000)

Abstract.— During the period 1996-2000 this IGU has push forth the effort conducted during the precedent commission 1992-1996 created at the Washington IGU Congress: Organization of International meetings: (The Haye, Netherlands, 1996; Palma de Majorca, Spain, 1997; Lisbon, Portugal, 1998 Milan, Italy, 1999; Kwangyu, Korea); or national meetings (France, Germany, Israel, Sweden, USA) and the edition of a review (Netcom).

Keywords.— International Geographical Union, Telecommunication geography

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Réseaux sociaux

REDJIMI Mounir, Logiques économiques et spatiales des réseaux sociaux locaux face aux stratégies étatiques: le cas de la ‘aïla en Algérie

Abstract.— With through time, a particular social formation proved to be structuring in Algeria: the ‘aïla (basic socio-economic cell of the Algerian society, corresponding to the widened family). This paper will show the force of the local and traditional social networks facing the economic and space States projects in the recent history of Algeria.

Keywords.— Networks, Family Networks, Social Networks, Algeria

Résumé.— À travers le temps, la ‘aïla, la grande famille patriarcale, s’est avérée structurante en Algérie. Si la tribu et la fraction ont été laminées par le choc colonial et les identités locales niées par le “socialisme spécifique” de l’Algérie indépendante, la ‘aïla a su s’adapter aux différentes agressions subies par la société traditionnelle. Cette communication montrera la force des réseaux sociaux locaux et traditionnels face aux projets économiques et spatiaux des États se succédant dans l’histoire récente de l’Algérie.

Mots clés.— Réseaux, Réseaux familiaux, Réseaux sociaux, Algérie

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Notes, Informations & Documentation

VIGNERON Emmanuel, Santé, NTIC et territoires

Comptes rendus

• “La télémédecine en France - une thèse de pharmacie sur la télémédecine” par Eric Vandeputte
• “Quelques sites Internet sur la télémédecine” sélectionnés par Eric Vandeputte
• “À propos des sites web territoriaux” par Benoît Veler
• “Transports et énergie” par Manuel Appert
• “Séminaire international de l’Institut pour la ville en mouvement. Mobilités urbaines: les enjeux, les problématiques de la recherche en France et à l’étranger” par Manuel Appert

Informations

Publications