[Air-l] networks

[Ted Friedman]

What struck me most at Maneul Castell's talk at AOIR last year was his
emphasis on examctly the opposite of this "distributed networking"
happening with respect to business locations. Cities like SF and NYC,
and regions like Silicon Valley, were growing denser and denser, just as
the technologies they were developing seemed to promise to obliterate
distance in time and space. As I remember, Castells concluded that there
was some fundamental level of "human capital" that was necessary for the
face-to-face engagement that's still at the core of even postmodern
business deals. So, the more spread out the world gets, the more
centalized these "nodes" must be, to serve the periphery.

At the time, it seemed ironic, almost nostalgiac; now, it does seem
doomed. I imagine corporate headquarters becoming the same kinds of
paramilitary "gated communities" described in Davis's City of Quartz and
Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash. 
 
Of course, Castells also hyped the wonders of Cisco's business model,
just before their stock tanked. Any other thoughts on how the attacks
may change the geography of America?

-- 
Ted Friedman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication
Georgia State University
(404) 463-9522
tedf at gsu.edu; ted at tedfriedman.com
http://www.tedfriedman.com