DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT PERMISSION OF AUTHORS

DEATH OF DISTANCE/RISE OF PLACE:

THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET ON LOCALITY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION

By

Mark I. Wilson, Kenneth E. Corey, Charles Mickens, and Helen Pratt Mickens

Paper Prepared for Presentation

At the

INET 2001: A Net Odyssey

Mobility and the Internet

The Internet Global Summit

The 11^th Annual Internet Society Conference

5-8 June 2001

Stockholm, Sweden

ABSTRACT

The proclamation of cyberspace as a frictionless realm of social and economic interaction applies to the ability to move data globally. While the power of distance has been eroded, it should not be confused with the diminished meaning of place. The daily reality of Internet use is that the topography of world institutions continues to emerge dramatically and powerfully through the seemingly seamless web of cyberspace. The paper includes discussion of these two emerging dimensions, locality and spatial organization, from the perspective of institutions such as government, the law, and business. The paper/presentation illustrates the ways that place based institutions impose a geography on Internet access and use, and emphasize the importance of understanding how existing institutions, such as government, law, and corporations shape ICT development. This discussion is both conceptual and prescriptive, and intended to inform corporate, public and citizen decision makers.

Mark I. Wilson: Urban & Regional Planning Program, 201 UPLA Building, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA; e-mail: wilsonmm@msu.edu

Kenneth E. Corey: Office of the Vice President for Research & Graduate Studies, 241 Administration, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1046, USA; e-mail: kenneth.corey@ssc.msu.edu

Charles Mickens: State of Michigan, Office of Information Technology Solutions, Lansing, Michigan, USA; e-mail: mickensc@state.mi.us

Helen Pratt Mickens: Thomas Cooley Law School, 217 South Capitol Avenue, Lansing, Michigan 48901, USA; e-mail: mickensh@cooley.edu

INTRODUCTION

Rumors of the death of distance are greatly exaggerated (cf., Cairncross 1997). The proclamation of cyberspace as a frictionless realm of social and economic interaction applies to the ability to move data globally. While the power of distance has been eroded, it should not be confused with the diminished meaning of place. The daily reality of Internet use is that the topography of world institutions continues to emerge dramatically and powerfully through the seemingly seamless web of cyberspace. Both popular and academic discussion of the societal impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) generally has emphasized the global dimensions and the seeming decreasing importance of distance and place. As ICTs become more ubiquitous and permeating, however, the actual importance of locality and spatial organization emerges.

The spatial structure underlying the Internet and the geographic analysis of cyberspace are receiving growing attention. Over the past decade, the literature on the spatial dimension on cyberspace has informed our understanding of this phenomenon. Important contributions to our analysis include Hepworth's (1990) Geography of the Information Economy, Brunn and Leinbach's (1991) Collapsing Space and Time, Kellerman's (1993) Telecommunications and Geography, Batty's (1993) geography of cyberspace, Bakis, Abler, and Roche (1994) on global corporate networks, and Castells' trilogy (1996, 1997, 1998) on the information age. More recently, Wilson and Corey (2000) address the geographic context for cyberspace, while Dodge (2000) tackles the challenge of mapping the intangible nature of the Internet. The urban dimension has received attention from Rheingold's (1993) Virtual Communities,to Graham and Marvin's (1996) Telecommunications and the City, Castells' (1989) Informational City, Mitchell's (1996) City of Bits, and Horan’s (2000) Digital Places.

Geography offers many insights into spatial form and function. There are the geographies of the physical infrastructure that allows electronic interaction, of the flows of information and finance that rely upon electronic infrastructure, and of the economic activities that depend and derive from information technologies. From another perspective, geography offers the perspective of hierarchy. From micro-scale to global-scale, the hierarchy includes: intelligent corridors; cyber communities; cyber conurbations; intelligent megalopolitan development; national-scale information infrastructures; regional-scale information infrastructures; and the global-scale intelligent "ecumenopolis." (Doxiadis and Papaioannou 1974) As access to, and use of, cyberspace becomes increasingly important for work as well as leisure, what patterns of hubs and hub hierarchies emerge among these electronic geographies? The networks connecting these hubs are conduits of information flows that also represent different levels and hierarchies

The geographic aspects of cyberspace include spatial variations and disparities. Comparisons, in this context, might be made between boundaries identifying "have" from "have not" areas in virtual space and in real space. One might see this as a geography of inequity, and at various scales ranging from such patterns inside cities at neighborhood scales to large regional variations across the globe producing "information colonies." Such disparities exist, and they need measurement, mapping, spatial analysis and interpretation for full understanding.

Geography is concerned with demarcation of places and interaction. What is the role of boundaries and borders in cyberspace? Some perceive cyberspace as without boundaries, yet jurisdictional borders do, in fact, play a role in political space, and therefore in real space. For example, the current debate in the United States about taxing the sale of goods bought over the Internet has raised these issues to high-profile discussions among inter-governmental officials and business leaders. The spatial organization of regulation, taxation, and enforcement of law in cyberspace demands the perspective and attention of researchers and scholars training in spatially oriented disciplines.

Each of these spatial organizational examples lend themselves to the geometric approach of seeking pattern among electronic activities as they are analyzed to conform to points, areas, lines, flows, shapes, distance, direction, and so on. These variations over space – as well as over time – represent one of the fundamental conceptual building blocks to systematically identify the spatial organization of cyberspace. This paper discusses locality and spatial organization in cyberspace, from the perspective of institutions such as government, the law, and business. This discussion is both conceptual and prescriptive, and intended to inform corporate, public and citizen decision makers.

LOCALITY, SPATIAL ORGANIZATION, AND THE LAW

In a bill to take effect January 1, 2002, the State of Michigan’s House of Representatives passed House Bill 4140, creating a cyber court.

These two characteristics, resolution of disputes online, and the practice of law in the new cyber court by persons not licensed to practice law in the State of Michigan are significant. The relation of geographic location to the legal resolution of disputes is the idea of jurisdiction.

What is Jurisdiction?

State courts within the United States can only exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant if standards of fairness and justice justify the state court’s exercise of that jurisdiction. In the United States, the Constitution’s 14^th Amendment requires "Due Process." This is a consideration of the fairness of requiring nonresident defendants to defend themselves in court because they purposefully availed themselves of the benefits of doing business in the state where they were not resident. Whether a party can be held subject to personal jurisdiction, under federal and state law in the United States, requires either the physical presence of the defendant (in some form) in the jurisdiction, or certain "contacts" with the forum state that justify jurisdiction. State laws which govern jurisdiction over nonresidents are called "long arm" statutes.

The seminal case in the United States concerning jurisdiction over defendants who are not physically present in the jurisdiction is International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310 (1945). In this case, the court explained two ways for a court to exercise personal jurisdiction. The first is called"general" jurisdiction, where personal jurisdiction exists if the defendant’s contacts with the forum are systematic and continuous, so the defendant might anticipate defending any type of claim there. The second type of personal jurisdiction is called "specific" personal jurisdiction, which is based upon the defendant’s "minimum contacts" with the state.

As the court explained in International Shoe: "Due process requires only that in order to subject a defendant to a judgment in personam, if he be not present within the territory of the forum, he have certain minimum contacts with it, such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend ‘traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.’"

Why is Jurisdiction Important to Internet Users?

In a fascinating article on Internet jurisdiction, as well as the non-geographic basis of Internet "communities," and the ability of current jurisdictional statutes, case law, and policies to accommodate jurisdiction in cyberspace, Allan R. Stein notes, "As long as there have been political communities, they have primarily been organized around place." However, the Internet changes the emphasis on "place."

The worldwide distribution of information via the Internet can unknowingly subject an Internet user to the jurisdiction of courts far beyond traditional geographic or political boundaries.

Use of the Internet has been the jurisdictional basis of numerous legal claims ranging from contract disputes, to trademark and copyright infringement, to tort and libel. A court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over a dispute which originated on the Internet could subject a defendant to the expense and trouble of having to litigate a matter in courts, literally, on the other side of the world. If a court’s jurisdiction is usually based upon a defendant’s physical presence -- such as maintaining an office or having salespersons -- in a state, or "minimum contacts" with a jurisdiction -- such as soliciting business and sending products into the stream of commerce in a state -- these requirements do not fit easily or well with electronic commerce. (Or, perhaps they fit frighteningly well!)

Geographic location has also been important in determining who can argue a case before a traditional court. The legal system in the United States has required that persons be licensed in each individual state in order to practice law in the state. Persons found engaging in the unauthorized practice of law could find themselves subject to civil or criminal penalties. Michigan’s Cyber Court will dramatically change this licensing requirement.

Other states in the United States and other international jurisdictions have considered and taken moves toward establishing cyber courts to facilitate internet business dispute resolution. An article entitled, Telekom Malaysia: Multimedia Futures, discusses the development of Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor and

Other forums for cyber-dispute resolution, in addition to proposed governmental courts, have developed. The National Arbitration Forum (NAF) is one. "NAF is one of the four dispute resolution providers assigned by the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names (ICANN) [in 1999] to resolve complaints. Domain name registers, which register names ending with .com, .org, and .net are bound by the decisions."

NAF and the other dispute resolution providers are not courts as such but in many ways, they are prototypes of a cyber court. They have some of the features of the cyber-court—their jurisdiction is borderless and they have expertise to handle a specialized IT issue. . . . And they work at top speed.

One of the websites currently acting as a private version of cyber court is Square trade, —"an American site that has refereed domestic and international wrangles over online business in over 40 countries, including Britain." Square Trade is just one in a number of start-ups offering to pacify Net transaction disputes. Some of the biggest names in the digital world—including Microsoft, America Online and IBM—have formed the Electronic Commerce and Consumer Protection Group. And a service called Web Dispute, www.webdispute.com, will arbitrate e-commerce disputes for up to $600. A Canadian site called eResolution, also offers to adjudicate domain name disputes for $750.

ClickNSettle, www.clicknsettle.com, will mediate a divorce. "Cybersettle arbitrates insurance claims—personal injury, property damages, worker compensation. It is now used by

insurance claim adjusters and in two years has resolved cases worth more than $20 million."

Cybercourt.org, a German run project, is looking for sponsors. IRIS Mediation a French program, is a free service geared toward noncommercial transactions. Trustmark programs run by European consumer organizations and private-sector groups—Trusted Shops GmbH, a subsidiary of Germany’s insurance group—offer arbitration in disputes involving business partners including Amazon.co.uk and Bertlesmann Online, bol.de.

Why would individuals in business want to bring an internet or e-business dispute to a cyber court or cyber court-like website?

John Engler, Governor of the State of Michigan, in announcing the creation of the State’s Cyber Court, said that court would:

As discussions of and establishments of cyber courts emerge in other countries such as India, the Pacific Rim countries of Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand, and in the European Union, as well as states in addition to industry-wide groups in the United States, both governmental and private-sector responses will emerge.

Of course, change from face-to-face courtroom dispute resolution to virtual resolution through cyber courts brings conflicts between geographic and location-based rules and traditions and new technologies’ desire for resolutions that transcend geography and location. The legal profession and the judiciary have always been guided by tradition. Cyber courts, open across geographical boundaries challenge traditional rules of jurisdiction and the licensing and regulation of lawyers.

Annabel Hepworth, in Slow Start for Cybercourts, notes "Australia’s legal fraternity has been slow to adopt the cybercourts concept despite policy statements from law reform bodies and the judiciary promoting it."

Certainly, the United States’ legal profession, through the American Bar Association—a national association of lawyers—and state bar associations have been slow to give up location-based requirements. Currently, attorneys must be licensed in each state in which they wish to practice law (or be specifically admitted for a particular case). Strict adherence to location-based jurisdiction rules have only begun to be challenged by e-business and technology’s push to resolve disputes. The President of the State Bar of Michigan recently commented on changes being considered by the American Bar Association and the State Bar of Michigan.

As governments tackle the job of adapting services and disseminating information to citizens via the Internet, jurisdictional issues are a core problem that must be resolved. Other issues such as who can represent parties in online dispute resolution forums and the public’s trust in the new forums will be tested. It is certain that as businesses and individuals rely more on transactions over the Internet, governments, their laws, and legal practitioners will be forced to adapt and change.

LOCALITY, SPATIAL ORGANIZATION, AND GOVERNMENT

Perhaps the most powerful, geographically based, institution is government, shaping regulations, legal jurisdiction, and determining the scale and scope of public action. One element of the role of government is the delivery of citizen services. Traditional methods of service delivery have been called into question by an Internet informed citizenry who have asked the question, "Why can’t government provide its information and services via the Internet?"

Many government services are currently available electronically through fax, enhanced call processing and interactive voice response systems. These systems are used to provide information to citizens and are not integrated into back-end databases for executing transactions. Government has taken advantage of the World Wide Web to enhance these basic electronic service delivery mechanisms. Now it is fairly commonplace to have government information made available on a website. Notice of public meetings, legislative changes, election results, public gaming information, taxpayer filing forms, and license application forms are just a few of the myriad of government documents that are currently available over the World Wide Web.

The public’s experience with e-commerce provided an impetus for government to assess its current practices and look to the multitude of private sector examples for guidance in creating a vision for the delivery of government services over the Internet. Many have been critical of government’s pace and ability to change. In this instance the perceived lack of inertia on the part of government’s move to the Internet may be an advantage in the long run. With the benefit of some of the shortcomings experienced by other entities, including government, such as hacking of websites and disclosure of private information, government is in a better position to carefully plan its way into electronic service delivery over the Internet. As a public fiduciary, government is held to a higher standard. Government is a public body. To maintain the public’s confidence, government must proceed with some caution when changing direction.

e-Michigan

Governor John M. Engler issued Executive Order # 2000-6 on April 6, 2000, which was the States’ official launch of an electronic service initiative. The 21 departments and numerous agencies within the State of Michigan had, up to this point, been responsible for their own electronic service delivery initiative. Governing Magazine publishes a biannual report card on each state and gives each state a grade for their performance in the following areas: Financial Management, Capital Management, Human Resources, Managing For Results, and Information Technology. The 2001 report card found the State of Michigan with an average grade of A minus. (Governing Magazine, February 2001.) The e-Michigan initiative should be fully operational by late 2002 so as to have its impact assessed in the February 2003 Governing Magazine Report Card.

The e-Michigan initiative will provide the basis for a number of services to be made available to citizens over the Internet. Currently e-Michigan applies to all executive branch agencies in the State exclusive of the judicial and legislative branches. There is a trust environment created by e-Michigan with its attention to all aspects of security. Following the aftermath of the November 2000 national election in the United States it is likely that there will be some modification to election law in the individual states. The secure environment created by the e-Michigan initiative could provide the necessary environment for voting over the Internet. Greater citizen interaction with the government – the State of Michigan – in the e-Michigan environment could also manifest direct citizen participation in the legislative process. Senators and representatives could communicate directly with their constituents and receive direct feedback on issues.

LOCALITY, SPATIAL ORGANIZATION, AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

In 1991, geographers Stanley Brunn and Thomas Leinbach compiled and had published a volume of original essays on the geographic impacts of ICT (1991). This was an early assessment of the computer age on places on earth and in earth space. The book was entitled Collapsing Space and Time. A decade later, Leinbach and Brunn, in their new volume Worlds of E-Commerce (2001), have surveyed and thereby updated our collective understanding of the e-commerce component of ICT. The place and spatial organizational aspects of e-commerce also require our collective attention. This paper elaborates on these contemporary geographic dynamics and their interdependencies with e-commerce. For definitions of e-commerce and its regional and economic development implications, see Fletcher, Moscove and Corey 2001.

In the information age and knowledge economy of today, the conventional wisdom says that geography, distance and location do not matter any more. Peter Drucker has written

Indeed, e-commerce and ICT in general are changing the popular perception of geography and the spatial aspects of the tangible physical world. However, this "new electronic space" does not mean that geography is, or has been eliminated. It means simply that e-commerce has produced a different geography (cf., Glater January 7, 2001).

Empirically, the forces of globalization, facilitated by ICT, have created the new geography of cyberspace. Cyberspace has changed our collective perception of earth space. Israeli geographer David Newman has written,

Professor Newman sees borders as changing and flexible. "But we should not be naïve or deterministic in automatically assuming that a globalized world is a world without borders" (The Chronicle of Higher Education May 2, 2000). Similarly, globalization dynamics do not necessarily generate settlement homogeneity or a uniform distribution of economic and urban development.

Place matters. The idiosyncratic richness of a locality is a resource with e-commerce potential that remains to be tapped. The value of the unique qualities of individual places and the variation of such qualities from place to place have been recognized since the beginning of human history (cf., Yeoh and Kong 1995). This is just as true in today’s Internet era. The challenge facing place-based e-commerce strategic planners is to exploit the development potential of a locality’s richness and unique attributes to the collective benefit of its people and institutions.

Spatial organization helps us understand the variations and similarities among places and areas. Lo and Marcotullio (2000) have observed that world city formation is a divergent and multifaceted process in the Asia-Pacific region. They describe the emergence of a large urban corridor that extends from Japan to Indonesia. Within this corridor,

This kind of micro spatial variation within macro spatial pattern has applicability beyond the Asia-Pacific region. For example, how are locality and spatial organization of the Internet and e-space patterns evolving and to be described in the region of the European Community?

There are few prescriptive spatial organizational models for localities to follow in planning for e-commerce as an important part of an urban area’s and region’s development strategy. Singapore is an exception. It is planning for the delivery of most public and many other services online. Singapore ONE’s master plan is the model for incorporating the entire country’s set of households and firms into a fiber optic and cabled network system. This kind of full spatial and areal technological coverage is the ultimate in geographic delivery of Internet, video and multimedia services. This strategy is laid out in a master plan (Online. Available HTTP: http://www.s-one.gov.sg/mainmenu.html). This approach can serve as a best practice and benchmark for spatial planning and for the comprehensive multi-thematic planning that is required for contemporary ICT and e-commerce strategies for localities and regions (Tan and Subramaniam April 28, 2000).

The local internal space strategy for the planned comprehensive spatial organization of Singapore ICT and e-commerce is possible, in part, because of the country’s small size or scale. Beyond its internal space, Singapore’s action plan in support of e-commerce has a four-pronged approach. Two of these are spatial and geographical in nature: (1) developing e-commerce leadership in Singapore and the Southeast Asian region; and (2) e-commerce leadership in international policy development. The e-commerce master plan for Singapore includes several additional core thrusts that are spatial in nature. The city-state has the goals to: become internationally linked; develop into an e-commerce hub; and harmonize cross-border e-commerce laws and policies (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore 2000).

Spatial organizational and localization dynamics also play out at the corporate level. In commenting on his company, elance.com, which facilitates the matching of freelance computer skills electronically and globally, the founder and chief executive officer Beerud Sheth has stated, ‘We’re making geography irrelevant in the buying and selling of service’ (Piller February 24, 2000: 2). However, Piller observed

once in a while (Piller February 24, 2000: 2).

Conceptually, the recency of e-commerce to date has produced spotty spatial attention from the research and policy communities. In particular, in the first generation of e-commerce scholarship and news coverage, the locational and spatial organizational aspects of this emergent social, economic and technology dimension barely have been mentioned. The exception, often heard, is the statement that real space and distance are nearly irrelevant factors of doing ICT-based business nowadays.

Regional scientists, geographers, urban and regional planners, and some regional economists probably are best positioned to make research and conceptual contributions to the collective understanding of the place and spatial aspects of e-commerce. By drawing on theories and concepts from the past and by inventing new conceptualizations, e-commerce spatial organization research path-breaking can begin; the results of which can be a fuller expansion of knowledge of, and strategic planning for, the principal dimensions of e-commerce and related ICT-influenced activities.

Some spatial organization and spatial synergies, in fact, have been identified from empirical analyses as critical elements in the planning and implementation of ICT policies and programs. Recently, one form of spatial organization research was conducted in the context of ICT communities development planning (Corey 2000). That paper included an analysis and forecast of the role of intelligent hubs, clusters, technology corridors and trans-border economic triangles strategies (Thant and Tang 1996; and Thant, Tang and Kakazu 1998) as evolving forms of ICT-based spatial organization ranging in scale and process from localization to regionalization to globalization. Poot (2000) too has noted the emergence of urban corridors, i.e., ones that cross national borders.

Extending current ICT spatial organizational forms into the future, a hierarchy of digital development has been identified (Corey 2000; Markusen, Lee and DiGiovanna 1999). From micro-scale to global-scale, the hierarchy includes: cyber communities; intelligent corridors; cyber conurbations; intelligent megalopolitan development; national-scale information infrastructures; regional-scale information infrastructures; and the global-scale intelligent "ecumenopolis" (Doxiadis and Papaioannou 1974). This initial attempt at identifying spatial organization in local-to-global ICT development is merely one simple example of analyzing and forecasting spatial patterns driven by information and communication technologies. Similar or analogous spatial organizational analyses and planning strategies are needed for a more robust understanding of e-commerce.

The spatial aspects of e-commerce include locational variations and disparities. Comparisons, in this context, might be made between boundaries identifying technological "have" from "have not" places and areas in virtual space and in real space. One might see this as a geography of inequity, and at various scales ranging from such digital divide spatial patterns inside cities at neighborhood scales to large regional variations across the globe producing "information colonies." Such disparities exist, and they need measurement, mapping and depth analysis for full understanding and policy attention. As e-trading and related e-commerce activities might become more geographically centralized in particular cities and within districts of cities, i.e., Silicon Alley in New York City, what patterns of hubs and hub hierarchies emerge among these e-commerce geographies? The networks connecting these hubs are conduits of information flows that also represent different levels and hierarchies. To what extent do bandwidth and response time play a role in e-commerce spatial organization? What are the mobility and information flow implications of broadband, wireless handheld and portable personal devices between and within financial and e-commerce districts?

What is the role of boundaries and borders in e-commerce? Some perceive cyberspace as without boundaries, yet jurisdictional borders do, in fact, play a role in political space, and therefore in real space. The current debate in the United States on how to tax the sale of goods bought over the Internet has raised these issues to high-profile discussions among inter-governmental officials and business leaders (Bonnett February 2001). The spatial organization of regulation, taxation, and enforcement of law in e-commerce needs the research attention of regional scientists and political geographers, as well as legal and regulatory experts.

Townsend has made the point recently that city planners invariably use, as points of intervention, areas such as the neighborhood, the city, and the region, as well as institutions; he also observes that

The use of mobile phones and other portable electronic communication and computational devices by individuals enable instantaneous, as well as highly deconcentrated human behavior. Such mobile technologies are additional transformers of our collective perception of the interdependencies between space and time (cf., Kopomaa 2000). There now are real-time cities and regions that function increasingly at the individual scale and in decentralized locational ways, thereby providing untapped opportunities for entrepreneurs and planners to use and steer these new time-space forces in their business plans and locality and regional plans respectively.

Each of these spatial organizational examples lend themselves to the geometric approach of seeking locational patterns among e-commerce activities as they are analyzed to conform to points (e.g., individuals), areas, lines, flows, shapes, distance, direction, agglomeration and so on (Bunge 1966). These variations over space—as well as over time—are the fundamental conceptual building blocks for beginning the systematic identification of the spatial organization of e-commerce. This challenge needs attention from the community of entrepreneurs, regional science and geographical researchers, and urban and regional planners (National Research Council 1998). Such attention will serve to advance the state of knowledge and practice of electronic space, geography and regional science; but more importantly, such attention should serve to make a contribution to a better operational understanding of the new geography of the new society and the new economy of the information age and the knowledge economy (Wilson and Corey 2000); see www.electronicspace.org.

As ICTs become increasingly ubiquitous, a recent spate of books and articles has emerged on the locational and spatial organizational dimensions of these technologies and their societal and economic dynamics of globalization, regionalization and or localization. See: Bertuglia, Lombardo and Nijkamp 1997; Bonnett 2000; Cox 1997; Dodge and Kitchen 2000; Fujita, Krugman and Venables 1999; Hirotada, Nijkamp and Poot 2000; Kopomaa 2000; Kotkin 2000; Kotkin and Siegel 2000; Krugman 1999; Malecki 1997; Morley and Robins 1995; Nijkamp and Poot 1998; Pool 1997; Rosecrance 1999; and Storper 1997. These references are representative of the range of current thought and findings on the various facets of the new geography of electronic space. They should be used to fashion one’s own new e-commerce geography for the future. Also see some representative Web sites cited below that enable one to monitor the evolution of new geography and e-commerce dynamics.

The place and spatial implications of e-commerce are enormous. Research into this is needed. E-commerce geography demands different models and different ways of thinking about location, distance and agglomeration. E-commerce poses the challenge of becoming a new frontier in the way business and e-government are conducted, where they are conducted, and when they are conducted. The topic offers opportunities to pioneer new strategies and theories by economists, geographers, businesspersons, lawyers, government and non-profit officials, and others.

In the Internet age, urban areas and regions around the globe have a unique advantage; they are local. Michael Porter has concluded that local high-technology clusters are advantaged also because spatial proximity supports relationships that are less robust because of distance. He has written:

Local leaders know their people, the local society and local economy. So, in an era of globalization and concerns over homogenization of local cultures through music, movies and television, local area and regional leaders and opinion setters need to know what they want by way of e-commerce, and to pursue it. Conducting futuring and visioning locally is a "must" task. Strategic planning and the development of business plans, to enable the implementation of e-commerce initiatives locally, are imperative so as to be able to control their own futures as much as possible. Seeking to stay ahead of these powerful external global forces will require a great deal of local vision, focus and effort. From some of the local applications of the locational and spatial organizational dimensions of e-commerce development planning cited above, e.g., Singapore and others, it is clear that visionary leadership, combined with systematic intelligence-based and effective program planning at multiple levels and scales, can produce a difference, that is a supportive e-commerce-development environment. Such an environment may be optimized by explicit concern for the unique attributes of the locality and its spatial organization.

CONCLUSION

Cyberspace has many dimensions, and the spatial realm of place and locality provides one way of understanding how the Internet functions. The conquering of distance in electronic terms brought for many the dream of low cost and efficient access to people and information worldwide. The death of distance, however, is too simplistic a claim because it misses so many of the nuances of the structure and character of electronic interaction. Often associated with the concept of the death of distance is the mistaken assumption that it also refers to the declining importance of place. The Internet has certainly made it easier for residents of different places to interact, exchange information, and undertake commerce, but at the same time it has also brought different places into a common realm where differences matter. As Harvey (1989, p.124) notes "The problem of space is not eliminated but intensified by the crumbling of spatial barriers."

REFERENCES

Bakis H, Abler, R, and Roche EM 1994 Corporate Networks, International Telecommunications and Interdependence : Perspectives from Geography and Information Systems. London: Wiley.

Batty M 1993 "The geography of cyberspace." Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design. 20:615-6161.

Bertuglia, C.S., S. Lombardo, and P. Nijkamp. (Ed.) 1997. Innovative Behavior in Space and Time. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

Bonnett, T.W. 2000. Competing in the New Economy: Governance Strategies for the Digital Age. Philadelphia: Xlibris Corporation.

Bonnett, T.W. February 2001. "Internet Taxes: Stalemate as Status Quo," Civic.com.

Brunn, S.D., and T.R. Leinbach. (Ed.) 1991. Collapsing Space and Time: Geographic Aspects of Communication and Information. London: HarperCollinsAcademic.

Bunge, W. 1966. Theoretical Geography. Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup, Publishers.

Cairncross, F. 1997. The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Castells M 1989 The Informational City : Information Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban-Regional Process. New York: Blackwell.

Castells M. 1996 The Rise of the Network Society. New York: Blackwell.

Castells M. 1997 The Power of Identity: The Information Age - Economy, Society and Culture. New York: Blackwell.

Castells M. 1998 End of Millennium. New York: Blackwell.

Corey. K.E. 2000. "Intelligent Corridors: Outcomes of Electronic Space Policies." Journal of Urban Technology, 7 (2): 1-22.

Cox, K.R. (Ed.) 1997. Spaces of Globalization: Reasserting the Power of the Local. New York and London: The Guilford Press.

Crang, M., and N. Thrift. (Ed.) 2000. Thinking Space. London and New York: Routledge.

Dodge, M., and R. Kitchen. 2000. Mapping Cyberspace. New York and London: Routledge.

Doxiadis, C.A., and J. Papaioannou. 1974. Ecumenopolis: The Inevitable City of the Future. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Drucker, P. October 1999. "Beyond the Information Revolution." The Atlantic Monthly, 284 (4): 47-57.

Fletcher, R., B. Moscove, and K.E. Corey. 2001. "Electronic Commerce: Planning for Successful Urban and Regional Development," in International Urban Settings: Lessons of Success, edited by J. Williams and R. Stimson. Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd.

Fujita, M, P. Krugman, and A.J. Venables. 1999. The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions and International Trade. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England.

Graham S and Marvin S 1996 Telecommunications and the City : Electronic Spaces, Urban Places. London: Routledge.

Glater, J.D. January 7, 2001. "Hemming in the World Wide Web." The New York Times: 5 Week.

Hepworth M 1990 Geography of the Information Economy London: Guilford.

Hirotada, K., P. Nijkamp, and J. Poot. (Ed.) 2000. Regional Cohesion and Competition in the Age of Globalization. Cheltenham, U.K. and Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar.

Horan, T.A., et.al. 2000. Digital Places: Building Our City of Bits. Washington, D.C.: Urban Land Institute.

Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. 2000. "The E-commerce Blueprint." Ideas Issue One: 29-34.

Kellerman A 1993 Telecommunications and Geography. London: Wiley.

Kopomaa, T. 2000. The City in Your Pocket: Birth of the Mobile Information Society. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.

Kotkin, J. 2000. The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution is Reshaping the American Landscape. New York: Random House.

Kotkin, J., and F. Siegel. 2000. Digital Geography: The Remaking of City and Countryside in the New Economy. Washington, D.C.: Hudson Institute.

Krugman, P. 1999. Development, Geography, and Economic Theory. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The MIT Press.

Leinbach, T.R., and S.D. Brunn. (Ed.) 2001. Worlds of E-Commerce: Economic, Geographical and Social Dimensions. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lo, F.C., and P.J. Marcotullio. 2000. "Globalization and Urban Transformations in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Review." Urban Studies, 37 (1): 77-111.

Malecki, E.J. 1997. Technology and Economic Development: The Dynamics of Local, Regional and National Competitiveness. Second Edition. Essex, England: Longman.

Markusen, A.R., Y.S. Lee, and S. Di Giovanna. (Ed.) 1999. Second Tier Cities: Rapid Growth Beyond the Metropolis. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

Michigan, House Bill 4140, http.//www.michiganlegislature.org (last visited April 24, 2001).

Michigan. Comp. Laws Ann. § 600.916 (West 1996 & Supp. 2000).

Michigan, Legislative Analysis. House Bill 4140 Legislative Analysis, complete to Feb. 13, 2001, http://www.michiganlegislature.org (last visited April 23, 2001).

Mitchell WJ 1996 City of Bits : Space, Place, and the Infobahn. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Morley, D., and K. Robins. 1995. Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural Boundaries. London and New York: Routledge.

National Research Council. 1998. Fostering Research on the Economic and Social Impacts of Information Technology: Report of a Workshop. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Nijkamp, P., and J. Poot. 1998. "Spatial Perspectives on New Theories of Economic Growth." The Annals of Regional Science, 32: 7-37.

Piller, C. February 24, 2000. "Truly a Worldwide Web." Nandotimes. Online. Available HTTP" Http://www.nandotimes.com/technolo…2565-500222865-501063856-0,00.html.

Pool, R. 1997. Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Poot, J. October 31, 2000. "Impact of Globalization on Regional Labour Markets in the Pacific Rim," pp. 49-77 in The 21^st Century: An Era of Globalization and Creative Diversity, an International Symposium in commemoration of the 30^th anniversary of the University of Ulsan. Ulsan, Korea: The University of Ulsan.

Porter, D. 1998. Clusters and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments, and

Institutions. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Rheingold H 1993 The Virtual Communities: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley.

Rosecrance, R. 1999. The Rise of the Virtual State: Wealth and Power in the Coming Century. New York: Basic Books.

Storper, M. 1997. The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global Economy. New York and London: The Guilford Press.

Tan, L., and R. Subramaniam. April 28, 2000. "Wiring Up the Island State." Science. 288: 621-623.

Thant, M., and M. Tang. 1996. Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle: Theory to Practice. Manila: Asian Development Bank.

Thant, M., M. Tang, and H. Kakazu. 1998. Growth Triangles in Asia: A New Approach to Regional Economic Cooperation. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

The Chronicle of Higher Education. May 2, 2000. "Why Disciplines Split on Globalization." The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online. Available E-mail: daily@chronicle.com.

Townsend, A.M. 2000. "Life in the Real-Time City: Mobile Telephones and Urban Metabolism." Journal of Urban Technology, 7, (2): 85-104.

Wilson, M.I., and K.E. Corey. (Ed.) 2000. Information Tectonics: Space, Place and Technology in an Electronic Age. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Yeoh, B.S.A., and L. Kong. (Ed.) 1995. Portraits of Places: History, Community and Identity in Singapore. Singapore: Times Editions.