Knowledge, Information and Urban Space in the 21st Century

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Knowledge,Information and Urban Space in the
21st Century
Presentation by Joel KotkinSenior Fellow, New
America FoundationJISC International
ColloquiumLondon, United KingdomJune 21,
2005www.joelkotkin.com
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• there is no sin but ignorance

Christopher Marlowe,1576
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Geography, Cities and Knowledge

• Earliest cities emerged as centers of knowledge
• Information about how to govern nature through
  calendars
• Earliest writing to help with commerce
• Alphabet emerges in Phoenician cities, precursors
  of modern commercial urbanity

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Earliest Libraries Ancient Temples
3rd-1st Millennia BCE

• Cities grew around temples, places that were
  sacred (Ur, Sumer, Harrapa )
• Great temples developed first large collections
  of books (example Temple of Nabu in Babylon)
• Distinctions between religion and science
  blurred at the time, yet the importance of
  accumulated knowledge well-understood in advanced
  civilizations

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The Greek Cities and Knowledge

• The country places and the trees dont teach
  me anything, and the people in the city do.

Socrates
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The First Great Knowledge Revolution
(600BC -500 AD)

• Greeks begin to construct libraries in key cities
• Alexandria develops worlds first mega-library,
  establishing city as center of learning and
  knowledge in classical world (crown of all
  cities) rivals like Pergamum follow suit
• Rome develops own libraries, then re-creates them
  around their vast empire
• Private collections become more commonplace
  through Greco-Roman period

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Decline of Libraries Root of Dark Ages in Europe

• Destruction of two great libraries at Alexandria,
  272 AD and 391 due to growing religious
  intolerance
• Knowledge becomes dispersed, even lost
• Origins of Dark Ages, as books are burned, banned
  and dogmatism reduces remaining libraries to
  theologically acceptable texts

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The Chinese Knowledge Revolution (200 BCE-1700 AD)

• Confucian and other classics stored at Palace
  libraries First Emperor burns classics
• Wealthy individuals begin to collect books
  themselves
• Invention of printing by 9th Century accelerates
  development of libraries and Confucian academies
• Libraries develop further under strong dynasties,
  (10,000 volumes in early Ching palace library)
  and in monasteries weaken as they decline due
  to pillaging and fires

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The Islamic Knowledge Revolution
(632-1500)

• Arabs inherit remaining Greek, Roman knowledge
• Muslims develop own literature, add influences
  from Persia and India
• Great Libraries built in key cities (Baghdads
  9th Century House of Wisdom, Cairos 11th
  Century House of Learning,with 1.6 million
  volumes, in Cordoba, Delhi, others)
• Libraries under assault or decay as Sultanates
  decline in late Islamic Spain, Egypt, Ottoman
  Egyptpattern to today

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The Renaissance Knowledge Takes a Great Leap

• Rediscovery via Islamic sources of ancient Greek
  and Roman texts
• Printing (1452) initiates literacy revolution
• Great libraries developed both by Vatican and
  Italian City states (Venices 16th Century
  Library)
• Rapid growth of literacy and libraries in
  northern Europe (societies with broad
  information, such as Holland and Britain, defeat
  book-burning cultures such as in
  Spain---Cervantes Inquisition of the Books

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The Enlightenment Science, Knowledge
Boundaries Expanded

• Scientific Knowledge becomes systematic
• Translations of Indian, Persian, Chinese and
  Arabic texts integrated into collections
• Beginnings of mass literacy in northern Europe
  and the Americas
• Private collections become commonplace in
  expanding middle class

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A Renaissance Observation

• Why should man live if he cannot study?

--Willibald Pirckheimer, friend of the artist
Durer, 1517
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The Cosmopolitan City
The miracle of toleration was to be found,
wherever the community of trade convened.
French historian Fernand Braudel on Venice,
Antwerp, Amsterdam and London in the early
Modern Period
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The Expansion to Outsider Groups

• the honor that knowledge will give us will
  be entirely ours, and it will not be taken from
  us by the thiefs skillor by the passage of
  time.

Louise Labé 16th Century French Author
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New Attitudes and Knowledge Shift the Global
Balance of Power

• In 1601, Britains revenues were less than a
  tenth of Mogul Indias within two hundred years,
  the relationship was totally reversed in
  Englands favor by a similar margin

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The Crisis of the Industrial City

• Cities grow with enormous rapidityin 1850
  Britain first country with an urban majority
• Industrialization makes pollution and other
  health hazards critical
• Middle Class and aristocrats look for a way out
  while cultivating their knowledge and the arts
• Value of artisans skills decline and
  dissatisfaction rises among new proletariat

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Industrial cities boosted crowding dramatically
Urban Land Use 1400-1850 Square meters/Person
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Urban Disaster

• The cottages are very small, old and dirty,
  while the streets are uneven, partly unpaved, not
  properly drained and full of ruts. Heaps of
  refuse, offal and sickening filth are everywhere
  interspersed with pools of stagnant liquid. The
  atmosphere is polluted by the stench and is
  darkened by the smoke of a dozen factory
  chimneys.

Frederick Engelson Manchester in 1844
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The 20th Century the Spread of Knowledge and
Reform of Urban Space

• European, American and Australian cities begin to
  reform their physical environments
• Universal education enacted, including for males
  in early 20th Century Japan
• Knowledge is democratized to an unprecedented
  extent and distributed over an ever wider area

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The Democratization of Libraries
First Landmark The Boston Public Library

• Founded in 1848, first in nation to be
  municipally supported and allow people to borrow
  books and materials
• Today has 27 branches and over six million books
• Critical part of intellectual environment of
  Athens of America

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Second Great Landmark The New York Public
Library

• New York had private libraries, such as the Astor
  and Lenox, but started work on first public
  library in 1902completed in 1911 with one
  million books
• Establishment of nations largest branch system,
  operating with 39 Carnegie funded libraries now
  has 85 in system with 11.6 million items
• System now visited by 10 million people annually
  and over 2.3 million cardholders, largest system
  in nation

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Spreading the Wealth
The Carnegie Libraries

• First one built in 1894 in Pennsylvania
• 1895 The Carnegie Library opens in Pittsburgh
• Over the next few decades, Carnegie donated 2,806
  libraries throughout the English speaking world,
  including many small towns and villages

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Town and city will be in truth, terms as
obsolete as mail coach.
The British Vision of Urbanity The Garden City

• Town and country must be married and out of
  this joyous union will spring a new hope, a new
  life, a new civilization.

Ebenezer Howard
-H.G. Wells, Anticipations of the Mechanical
Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought
(1902)
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Enter the Digital Age

• Libraries and publishers become a portal for new
  information technology
• The processing of digitized information critical
  to individuals and companies
• Traditional Information hierarchies threatened

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Cities, Place and the Information Age

• Information revolution allows smaller places and
  emerging economies greater leverage
• Urban growth taking place largely in regions with
  least access to knowledge
• Developing countries become new players in
  science and technology
• The critical issue Those left behind

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An Urbanizing World
People in Urban Areas
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Growth in Urban Population
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The European Era
Largest cities1900 London New York Paris
Berlin Chicago Vienna Tokyo St.
Petersburg Philadelphia Manchester Birmingham
Moscow
Source Villes et Campagnes, Paris, 1988
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Urbanity Shifts towards Asia

• Largest Cities 1950
• New York
• London
• Rhineland (Germany)
• Tokyo
• Shanghai
• Paris
• Buenas Aires
• Chicago
• Moscow
• Calcutta
• Los Angeles
• Osaka

Source Villes et Campagnes, Paris, 1988
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European Cities Gone from the Top

• Largest Cities 1994
• Tokyo
• New York
• Sao Paulo
• Mexico City
• Shanghai
• Mumbai
• Los Angeles
• Beijing
• Calcutta
• Seoul
• Jakarta

Source World Bank
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Technology Shifts the Locational Paradigm

• New technology could telescope the distance
  between communities
• Corporate functions can be more efficiently
  dispersed to suburbs
• Technology turns former backwaters into potential
  global hubs

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Suburbia Triumphant The American Pattern
United States 1950-2000
Source Demographia
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Since 2000 Seeking Smaller Places
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The Declustering Trend Alas, Paris and London,
too
Source Demographia
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The Asian Dimension

• Tokyo goes horizontalboth jobs and residents
  1970-1995

Source A. Sorenson
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Declustering US Job Growth Remains Centered in
Low- and Moderate-density Areas
Average Employment Growth ()1990-1998
County Population Density
Low
High
Source Joint Center Tabulations of the Regional
Economic Information System (REIS) database
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Central City Suburban Office SpaceDevelopment,
1986-99
Millions of Square Feet
100
Downtown
Suburban
80
60
40
20
0
99
98
97
96
95
94
93
92
91
90
89
88
87
86
Source Milken Institute
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The New Economy Covers More Than Traditional
High Tech
ALL industries are transforming themselves into
information industries dependent on knowledge
dissemination

• Examples
• Fashion industry (design, marketing, media)
• Entertainment (Digital Effects, Synthespians)
• Warehousing (Just-in-time information systems)
• Financial Services (on-line brokerages,
  banking,insurance)
• Aerospace (electronic warfare)
• Healthcare (genetic engineering, information
  sharing, biomedicine)
• Agriculture (plant technology, biotech, cloning)

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Non-Financial Business
Tangible Assets as a Percent of All Assets, 1955
- 2001
Percent
80
75
70
65
60
55
50
00
95
90
85
80
75
70
65
60
55
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Increasing Insecurity in NYC
Source Securities Industry Association
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Declustering Tracking the Bubble
Information Industry Employment 2000-2003
Analysis by David Friedman
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Declustering
Business and Professional Services Employment
(1998-2003)
Analysis by David Friedman
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Smaller cities and towns already plug into
dispersed digital networks

• You look ahead and you can see the possibilities
  of a lot of vibrant communities in these places.
• You have a low cost of living, a great quality
  of life --- theres a population there that wants
  to be there but can still participate in cutting
  edge, substantial work.

Doug Burgum, Great Plains Software
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Virtuality is Coming
I leave my house in the country and drive 17
miles through the blue grass. But when I open my
computer I am at my center, it feels like I am
back in San Jose. It's a kind of virtual Silicon
Valley. Alan Hawse Director of CAD
DevelopmentCypress Semiconductor
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Global DeclusteringTelecommunications Changes
Everything

• Monthly Cost of leasing a line from Bangalore to
  Los Angeles

sourceOncept,Inc.
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Up and Comers and those Left Behind?

• Large sections of the population, even in
  advanced countries have less access to new
  technology at home
• Many countries in developing world are lagging in
  use of information
• A return to the Carnegie paradigm? The Brazilian
  Lighthouse

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Internet Users by Regions A Shift to Asia
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Vast Differences on a Global Level
Internet Users Per 1000
Source Nationmaster.com
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Huge Gaps within One Critical Region The Middle
East
Internet Users per 1000
Source Nationmaster
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A Regional Tragedy

• The whole Middle East stands in danger of
  being left behind again in the information age
  just as had occurred in the industrial era

--- Syrian scholar Sami Khiyami, 2003
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Solutions and Opportunities

• Wireless transmission could make dispersion of
  knowledge less expensive
• New delivery systems could allow for communal use
  in remote or underdeveloped places
• A new Knowledge era would make the work of those
  who create information --- and make it accessible
  --- ever more critical

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One Possible Solution

• The Curitaba Lighthouses of Knowledge Knowledge
  Terminals, open to the public.
• Over 50 in this Brazilian industrial city
• Combine the Alexandrine Lighthouse and Library

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Future Scenarios for the Information Age

• A Broader Spreading of Knowledge ? a Global
  Renaissance in both cities and countryside
• Increased division between have and have not
  nations ? a global digital divide
• A diverse urbanized archipelago with hot spots
  of knowledge, warm areas with promise and
  cold regions doomed to irrelevance