AUSTRALIA&apos;S INFORMATION LANDSCAPES

If you have found this article useful and you think it is important that researchers across the world have access, please consider donating, to ensure that this valuable collection remains Open Access.

Prometheus is published by Pluto Journals, an Open Access publisher. This means that everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles from our international collection of social science journals. Furthermore Pluto Journals authors don’t pay article processing charges (APCs).

scite_

Smart Citations

Citing PublicationsSupportingMentioningContrasting

View Citations

See how this article has been cited at scite.ai

scite shows how a scientific paper has been cited by providing the context of the citation, a classification describing whether it supports, mentions, or contrasts the cited claim, and a label indicating in which section the citation was made.

Header Abstract Content Author and article information NOTES AND REFERENCES Comments

Prometheus

Volume 11, Issue 1

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

AUSTRALIA'S INFORMATION LANDSCAPES

Published

research-article

Author(s): P. W. Newton

Publication date (Print): June 1993

Journal: Prometheus

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: Information and communication technology, information economy, infrastructure, telematic services, information industries, urban hierarchy

Bookmark

Abstract

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (publisher-id): cpro20

Journal ID (archive): CPRO

Title: Prometheus

Subtitle: Critical Studies in Innovation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 0810-9028

ISSN (Electronic): 1470-1030

Publication date (Print): June 1993

Volume: 11

Issue: 1

Pages: 3-29

Affiliations

Article

Publisher ID: 8629133 Coden ID: Prometheus, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1993: pp. 3–29

DOI: 10.1080/08109029308629133

SO-VID: fcb49940-7fcb-4faa-9d66-4d90f94b26be

License:

All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Page count

Figures: 0, Tables: 0, References: 39, Pages: 27

NOTES AND REFERENCES

Beniger J. R.. 1986. . The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society . , p. 24 Cambridge , Massachusetts : : Harvard University Press. .
Lamberton D. M.. 1987. . “‘The Australian information economy: a sectoral analysis’. ”. In Challenges and Change: Australia's Information Society . , Edited by: Barr T.. Melbourne : : Oxford University Press. . The Cost of Thinking
Goddard J. B.. 1989. . Geography of the Information Economy . , Edited by: Hepworth M. E.. p. xvi London : : Belhaven Press. .
Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) Critical Connections: Communications for the Future, OTA, Washington DC, 1990, p. 112.
Drennan M. P.. 1989. . ‘Information intensive industries in metropolitan areas of the United States of America’. . Environment and Planning . , Vol. A((21)): 1603––18. .
P.G.W. Keen, Shaping the Future, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1991; D.W. Edwards, J.J. Elam, and R.O. Mason, Securing an Urban Advantage: How US Cities Compete Through IT, International Centre for Information Technologies, Washington DC, 1989.
Loveland J.. 1990. . “‘Minneapolis’. ”. In The New Urban Infrastructure . , Edited by: Schmandt J., Williams F., Wilson R. H. and Strover S.. New York : : Praeger. .
F. Bar, ‘Telecommunications networks: exploring new infrastructure concepts’, paper presented at a Symposium ‘Regulation, Innovation and Spatial Development’, Cardiff, 13-15 September, 1989, p. 10, cited in G. Urey, ‘Information in space and time: a planning exploration’, in R.E. Klosterman (ed.), Proceedings, Second International Conference on Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management, Volume 1, Institute for Computer-Aided Planning, The University of Akron, Ohio, 1991.
P. W. Newton, ‘The new urban infrastructure: telecommunications and the urban economy’, Urban Futures, Special Issue No. 5, February, 1992, pp. 54–75.
Newton P. W.. 1991. . “‘Telematic underpinnings of the information economy’. ”. In Cities of the 21st Century: New Technologies and Spatial Systems . , Edited by: Brotchie J. F., Batty M., Hall P. and Newton P. W.. Melbourne : : Longman Cheshire. .
J. H. Holmes, ‘Telephone traffic dispersion and nodal regionalisation in the Australian States’, Australian Geographical Studies, 21, 1983, pp. 231–50; Newton, 1992, op. cit.
Newton, 1992, op. cit.
Lazak D.. 1987. . “‘Evolution of teleports and telematic cities’. ”. In Information Networks and Data Communication . , Edited by: Khakhar D.. Amsterdam : : Elsevier. .
ibid., p. 229.
D. G. Zamanillo, ‘Connection of facsimile terminals in an ISDN field trial environment’, in Y. Perry (ed.) Data Communication in the ISDN Era, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1985.
J.R. Crawford, S. Ioannou, M. Katz-Even, P. Penford, P. Newton, M. Cavill, and J. Connor, Pharmacies GIS Study for ISBN: Report I Melbourne: Report 2 — Sydney, Telecom Research Laboratories, Melbourne, June, 1991.
See Newton, 1992, op. cit.
M. Taylor and N. Thrift, Multinationals and the Restructuring of the World Economy, Cropm Helm, London, 1986.
For an example in relation to the construction sector, see P.W. Newton, B.G. Wilson, J.R. Crawford and S.N. Tucker, ‘Cad Conferencing’, Technical Computing, 77, 1993 (in press).
The National government, through its Federal Airports Corporation and Civil Aviation Authority, regulates this sector of industry.
D. F. Batten, ‘The fourth logistical revolution: implications for Australian cities’, Urban Policy and Research, 9(4), 1992, pp. 233–237.
J. Flood, C. Maher, P. W. Newton and J.R. Roy, The Determinants of Internal Migration in Australia, Indicative Planning Council (IPC), Canberra, 1991; M.G. Wulff, J. Flood and P.W. Newton, Population Movements and Social Justice. An Exploration of Issues, Trends and Implications, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Bureau of Immigration Research, Canberra, 1993.
A. Kellerman, ‘Telecommunications and the geography of metropolitan areas’, Progress in Human Geography, 8(2), 1984, pp. 222–246; WR. Johnson, Anything, anytime, anywhere: the future of networking, in D. Leebaert (ed.), Technology 2001: The Future of Computing and Communications, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1991.
P. Keen, Competing in Time: Using Telecommunications for Competitive Advantage, Ballinger, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1986.
M.E. Orlowska, A.M. Lister and I. Fogg, ‘Decentralising spatial databases’, in P. W. Newton, P.R. Zwart and M.E. Cavill (eds), Networking Spatial Information Systems, Belhaven Press, London, 1992.
Keen, 1986, op. cit.
S. Robinson, Analysing the information economy: tools and techniques’, Information Processing and Management, 22, 1986, pp. 183–202; H-J. Engelbrecht, ‘Analysis of structural change using an information sector perspective’, Asian Economies, 58, 1986, pp. 22–46; N.D. Karunaratne, Analytics of information and empirics of the information economy’, The Information Society, 4, 1986, pp. 313–31.
Beniger, op. cit.
C.P. Lion and G. Van Der Mark, ‘Los Angeles’, in J. Schmandt, F. Williams, R.H. Wilson, and S. Strover (eds), The New Urban Infrastructure, Praeger, New York, 1990.
T. Noyelle and P. Peace, The Information Industries: New York's New Export Base, Columbia University, New York, 1988.
M. Porat, The Information Economy: Definitions and Measurement, Special Publication 77-12(1), Office of Telecommunications, US Department of Commerce, Washington DC, 1977; M.E. Hepworth, Geography of the Information Economy, Belhaven Press, London, 1989.
Newton, 1992, op. cit.
GIS can be used to powerful effect in developing visualisation tools for examining how organisations are currently structuring their operations (who does what, where) and what communications networks are being used to support the various business functions of the organisation. A persistent problem confronted by research of this nature in the spatial sciences has been, first, the difficulty of adequately representing the structure of major organisations and their networks and, secondly, locating those operations within the wider social space framework which provides the geographical context of the organisation and its activities. Geographic information systems (GIS) now provides us with the means of doing both. GIS possesses the functionality for configuring the communication network of a particular organisation, given data on each node and link in the network. Each node can be further characterised by the principal type(s) of economic activity undertaken at that location and each link can be differentiated in several ways according to the service type (e.g., ISDN, packet switched, PSTN/modem etc), network speed and volume of traffic. Clearly, an organisation's communications network should not be viewed in vacuo. Additional layers of information relating to such features as workforce location patterns — as indicative of labour market access; spatial pattern of personal taxable income — as indicative of disposable income; and metropolitan network infrastructure, can assist in understanding why organisations locate their operations in a particular fashion. GIS permits an overlay of an organisation's communication network onto a variety of landscapes: transport and communication networks (for distribution and access), suburb income (purchasing power), area occupational structure (labour market), industry profile (agglomeration potential) etc. GIS is a methodology offering an organisation-by-organisation approach for studies of the geography of business operations; as well as opportunities for aggregation and synthesis across organisations or comparative evaluation between firms within the same business sector; and the monitoring of change over time in the evolution of organisations and their communications networks (see P. W. Newton, J.R. Crawford, S. Ioannou, P. Bouchier and M. Katz-Even, ‘GIS supports corporate network analysis’, Business Geographies, 1(1), 1993, pp. 40–42, for more details).
Keen, op. cit.; G. J. Mulgan, Communication and Control: Networks and the New Economics of Communication, The Guilford Press, New York, 1991.
See T. Forester, ‘The electronic cottage revisited’, Urban Futures, Special Issue 5, February, 1992, pp. 27–33.
Telecom Australia, Development Forecasting Group, Melbourne, personal communication, 1993
Newton, 1991, op. cit.; Newton, 1992, op. cit.
M. Moss, ‘Telecommunications: shaping the future’, in G. Sternleib and J. Hughes (eds), America's New Market Geography, Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers State University, New Jersey, 1988.
J. B. Goddard, The Geography of the Information Economy, PICT Policy Research Paper 11, CURDS, November, 1990.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Beniger J. R.. 1986. . The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society . , p. 24 Cambridge , Massachusetts : : Harvard University Press. .

[2] Lamberton D. M.. 1987. . “‘The Australian information economy: a sectoral analysis’. ”. In Challenges and Change: Australia's Information Society . , Edited by: Barr T.. Melbourne : : Oxford University Press. . The Cost of Thinking

[3] Goddard J. B.. 1989. . Geography of the Information Economy . , Edited by: Hepworth M. E.. p. xvi London : : Belhaven Press. .

[4] Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) Critical Connections: Communications for the Future, OTA, Washington DC, 1990, p. 112.

[5] Drennan M. P.. 1989. . ‘Information intensive industries in metropolitan areas of the United States of America’. . Environment and Planning . , Vol. A((21)): 1603––18. .

[6] P.G.W. Keen, Shaping the Future, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1991; D.W. Edwards, J.J. Elam, and R.O. Mason, Securing an Urban Advantage: How US Cities Compete Through IT, International Centre for Information Technologies, Washington DC, 1989.

[7] Loveland J.. 1990. . “‘Minneapolis’. ”. In The New Urban Infrastructure . , Edited by: Schmandt J., Williams F., Wilson R. H. and Strover S.. New York : : Praeger. .

[8] F. Bar, ‘Telecommunications networks: exploring new infrastructure concepts’, paper presented at a Symposium ‘Regulation, Innovation and Spatial Development’, Cardiff, 13-15 September, 1989, p. 10, cited in G. Urey, ‘Information in space and time: a planning exploration’, in R.E. Klosterman (ed.), Proceedings, Second International Conference on Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management, Volume 1, Institute for Computer-Aided Planning, The University of Akron, Ohio, 1991.

[9] P. W. Newton, ‘The new urban infrastructure: telecommunications and the urban economy’, Urban Futures, Special Issue No. 5, February, 1992, pp. 54–75.

[10] Newton P. W.. 1991. . “‘Telematic underpinnings of the information economy’. ”. In Cities of the 21st Century: New Technologies and Spatial Systems . , Edited by: Brotchie J. F., Batty M., Hall P. and Newton P. W.. Melbourne : : Longman Cheshire. .

[11] J. H. Holmes, ‘Telephone traffic dispersion and nodal regionalisation in the Australian States’, Australian Geographical Studies, 21, 1983, pp. 231–50; Newton, 1992, op. cit.

[12] Newton, 1992, op. cit.

[13] Lazak D.. 1987. . “‘Evolution of teleports and telematic cities’. ”. In Information Networks and Data Communication . , Edited by: Khakhar D.. Amsterdam : : Elsevier. .

[14] ibid., p. 229.

[15] D. G. Zamanillo, ‘Connection of facsimile terminals in an ISDN field trial environment’, in Y. Perry (ed.) Data Communication in the ISDN Era, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1985.

[16] J.R. Crawford, S. Ioannou, M. Katz-Even, P. Penford, P. Newton, M. Cavill, and J. Connor, Pharmacies GIS Study for ISBN: Report I Melbourne: Report 2 — Sydney, Telecom Research Laboratories, Melbourne, June, 1991.

[17] See Newton, 1992, op. cit.

[18] M. Taylor and N. Thrift, Multinationals and the Restructuring of the World Economy, Cropm Helm, London, 1986.

[19] For an example in relation to the construction sector, see P.W. Newton, B.G. Wilson, J.R. Crawford and S.N. Tucker, ‘Cad Conferencing’, Technical Computing, 77, 1993 (in press).

[20] The National government, through its Federal Airports Corporation and Civil Aviation Authority, regulates this sector of industry.

[21] D. F. Batten, ‘The fourth logistical revolution: implications for Australian cities’, Urban Policy and Research, 9(4), 1992, pp. 233–237.

[22] J. Flood, C. Maher, P. W. Newton and J.R. Roy, The Determinants of Internal Migration in Australia, Indicative Planning Council (IPC), Canberra, 1991; M.G. Wulff, J. Flood and P.W. Newton, Population Movements and Social Justice. An Exploration of Issues, Trends and Implications, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Bureau of Immigration Research, Canberra, 1993.

[23] A. Kellerman, ‘Telecommunications and the geography of metropolitan areas’, Progress in Human Geography, 8(2), 1984, pp. 222–246; WR. Johnson, Anything, anytime, anywhere: the future of networking, in D. Leebaert (ed.), Technology 2001: The Future of Computing and Communications, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1991.

[24] P. Keen, Competing in Time: Using Telecommunications for Competitive Advantage, Ballinger, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1986.

[25] M.E. Orlowska, A.M. Lister and I. Fogg, ‘Decentralising spatial databases’, in P. W. Newton, P.R. Zwart and M.E. Cavill (eds), Networking Spatial Information Systems, Belhaven Press, London, 1992.

[26] Keen, 1986, op. cit.

[27] S. Robinson, Analysing the information economy: tools and techniques’, Information Processing and Management, 22, 1986, pp. 183–202; H-J. Engelbrecht, ‘Analysis of structural change using an information sector perspective’, Asian Economies, 58, 1986, pp. 22–46; N.D. Karunaratne, Analytics of information and empirics of the information economy’, The Information Society, 4, 1986, pp. 313–31.

[28] Beniger, op. cit.

[29] C.P. Lion and G. Van Der Mark, ‘Los Angeles’, in J. Schmandt, F. Williams, R.H. Wilson, and S. Strover (eds), The New Urban Infrastructure, Praeger, New York, 1990.

[30] T. Noyelle and P. Peace, The Information Industries: New York's New Export Base, Columbia University, New York, 1988.

[31] M. Porat, The Information Economy: Definitions and Measurement, Special Publication 77-12(1), Office of Telecommunications, US Department of Commerce, Washington DC, 1977; M.E. Hepworth, Geography of the Information Economy, Belhaven Press, London, 1989.

[32] Newton, 1992, op. cit.

[34] Keen, op. cit.; G. J. Mulgan, Communication and Control: Networks and the New Economics of Communication, The Guilford Press, New York, 1991.

[35] See T. Forester, ‘The electronic cottage revisited’, Urban Futures, Special Issue 5, February, 1992, pp. 27–33.

[36] Telecom Australia, Development Forecasting Group, Melbourne, personal communication, 1993

[37] Newton, 1991, op. cit.; Newton, 1992, op. cit.

[38] M. Moss, ‘Telecommunications: shaping the future’, in G. Sternleib and J. Hughes (eds), America's New Market Geography, Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers State University, New Jersey, 1988.

[39] J. B. Goddard, The Geography of the Information Economy, PICT Policy Research Paper 11, CURDS, November, 1990.