The October 29, 2012 issue of The Economist has a lengthy special report on technology and geography entitled, “Location, Location, Location.” Parts of it, I believe, are behind the subsrcibers’ only paywall, but at least parts are available to all. For my students, I would call this an excellent update to Jack Goldsmith’s book Who Controls the Internet?
The introduction to the special report [A Sense of Place] asserts that it is not obvious that geography matters in cyberspace. It traces three lines of thought. First, well know to those of us following these matters in the 1990’s, is that cyber is the death of distance. “A second line of thought puts digital and physical life in separate spheres.” “This special report … emphasise[s] the third option: that the physical realm also shapes the digital one.”
The idea that geography matters more and more rather than less and less in cyberspace has enormous ramifications for public policy, law, and Internet governance. Below is video of an interview with the report’s author:
The articles included in the special report are:
In this special report
The final article, The New Local, concludes:
The physical and the digital world are becoming increasingly intertwined. … What seems certain is that life online will become more local without becoming any less global.
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