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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Alessandro Aurigi
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This paper reviews worldwide activities on regional information spaces. In the US and Canada, a large number of community networks appeared in the early 1990s. As a platform for community networks, information spaces using the city metaphor are being developed worldwide. In Europe, more than one hundred digital cities have been tried. Asian countries are now actively adopting the latest information technologies for city informatization. All of the above are independent activities, and thus their goals, services, and organizations differ. In parallel, local commercial portals provided by global companies are becoming very common in major cities. Unlike regional community networks and digital cities, to increase the efficiency of gathering and maintaining local information in a large number of cities, the companies often provide uniform platforms to develop local sites. As a result, local portals look homogeneous though the information is always particular to each city. Regional community networks and digital cities must accept that they are in competition with global companies. If the cities are enough large, commercial sites can provide fresh and accurate information including events, weather, transportation, and so on. However, it does not mean that the homogeneous platforms will govern the heterogeneous activities. In fact, regional web sites are being constructed in small towns and villages. Individual volunteers are creating an enormous number of personal local sites. We observe that heterogeneity of the regional information spaces is also increasing just as local commercial portals.
Author(s): Ishida T, Aurigi A, Yasuoka M
Editor(s): van den Besselaar, P., Koizumi, S.
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Published
Conference Name: Digital Cities III. Information Technologies for Social Capital: Cross-cultural Perspectives: Third International Digital Cities Workshop
Year of Conference: 2005
Pages: 188-203
ISSN: 0302-9743 (Print) 1611-3349 (Online)
Publisher: Springer
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11407546_9
DOI: 10.1007/11407546_9
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
Series Title: Lecture Notes in Computer Science - State of the Art Surveys
ISBN: 9783540253310
