The Electronic Village:
Impact of Electronic Communication Trends on the Form and Function of Local Communities

Ray Quay
Copyright 1997,1998 Quay
This paper was originally presented at the San Diego Conference, but is continually being updated. Check back for future updates, new material will be marked with a
Last Updated February 1st, 1998

Introduction

When you mention the word community, most people think about the places where they live, work and play and the people with whom they interact. Traditionally, this sense of community has been rooted in a physical location. Most of these locations are not static places to just be viewed or experienced, but are places of human activity. Much of this activity is dependent on communication. During the last 50 years communications has undergone rapid changes, resulting in the an enhanced ability for people to communicate effectively independent of place. Such changes have recently caused some people to question what community means today as electronic information systems have created global communities, where physical boundaries are almost eliminated. However, electronic communication has not, and will not, replace the need for many physical community activities. People will still need to live, work, and recreate in a physical places where they will interact physically with others. Since these places of interaction are what define our sense of local community, electronic communications that are independent of physical place or contact will not replace our sense of local community. However, electronic communication has the potential to strengthen and enhance the quality and sense of local community. Electronic communications can facilitate the ability for people to interact within the physical parts of their community. Electronic communications can also provide people faster access to a richer set of information they need to control the quality of the physical portions of their community.

In many "physical communities" people are now organizing to create "electronic villages"; an electronic local "place" where people can meet and communicate in addition to the community's "physical" places. The goal is to create a sense of community that is greater than either the "electronic" or "physical" community by themselves.

Of interest to planners is what impact such electronic villages will have on the form and function of their communities. This paper briefly examines the trends driving the formation of electronic villages and the potential impacts these trends and the electronic village may have on form and function of communities.

Trends

Advances in communications through out human history have played critical roles in evolution of human civilization. In the last 40 years new electronic technologies have brought about changes in how we communicate that rival the change that occurred with the written word and the printing press. Just in the last 10 years, such changes have occurred so rapidly that the seem more revolutionary than evolutionary. As these new electronic communication technologies have brought about radical changes in communication, they have also begun to impact other human activities such as how and where we live and work.

The Technologies

In terms of modern history, electronic communications have been around a long time. The telegraph is the oldest, but even analog radio, television, voice phones, telex, and low speed modems have been around for more than 30 years. Such communications are well ingrained into the home and work place and taken for granted. Over the last 10 years, these technologies have been joined by technologies such as Fax, Paging, High Speed Analog Modems, Analog Cellular, ISDN, Central Optical Fiber. In the last few years, new technologies have begun to emerge which include Digital Cellular, Digital Radio, Low Cost One Way Satellite, and Cable Modems. Now on the near horizon new technologies such as Low Cost Two Way Satellite, Optical Fiber to Curb are being considered. The general trend of these technologies is two fold, a move from analog based technologies to digital technologies and an increase in the speed and bandwidth of data transmission.

Though these changes in electronic communication technology are occurring an a phenomenal pace, they are not radical changes in the basic forms of communication. They are simply enhancements to traditional communication techniques. These technologies have made three basic enhancements in how we can communicate. First, they have greatly expanded the places from which we can communicate and the distance over which we communicate. Second, they have enhanced the time frame in which we communicate. Lastly, they have increased the quality and richness of the information that can be conveyed when we communicate. Electronic communications has expanded the number places in which we can communicate and the distances over which we can communicate. The ultimate example would be that today, using simple low cost technology you bought at K-Mart, you can communicate from your car while driving to work with some one riding the train home from work in Paris France. Communications is rapidly approach an on demand from anywhere to anyone capability. Electronic communications, particularly digital communications, has also changed the time frame in which we can communicate. The conversion from analog to digital communications now allows the storage of massive amounts of information at relatively low cost with fast and accurate retrieval. This means that people do not need to be available at the same time, in order to communicate effectively. Nor do they need to wait long periods of time to receive information. Information can be sent quickly in a time frame convenient to the information provider, and it can be retrieved quickly in a time frame convenient to the end consumer. The richness and amount of information has been greatly increased. Rapid distribution of printed, sound, graphic, and video information is now common place.

All of these enhancements to communications altered how, where, and when we can communicate and exchange information. Such changes in communication have resulted in changes in the activities of work and play.

Work Place

Changes in communication are resulting in what many believe are radical changes in the economy and how we conduct business. Within our local communities, three trends are having some impact on the form and function of the work place: Telecommuting, the Virtual Office, and Teleports.

Telecommuting

Historically, the practice of working at home is not new. However, within today's modern urban communities, such activity has represented a very small portion of the work force. More importantly, it was not part of the standard business institution. During the last 5 years, telecommuting has become an essential component of many corporations business strategies. This interest and activity has been fueled by the merging of four major forces. 1) community desire to reduce trips to reduce air pollution, 2) corporate desire to improve productivity and economics of labor by reducing stress and economics of commuting, 3) personal desire to regain control over stress and time, and 4) rapid proliferating and acceptance of electronic communications in the business community.

Estimates of the number of people telecommuting vary. In 1993 Link Resources estimated that 7.6 million people telecommute one or more days a week.. This represents about 5% of the United States labor force. Link Resources also estimates that growth in telecommuting is about 20% per year. This is 4 to 5 times larger than growth in jobs. They have estimated that by the year 2000, 25 million people will be telecommuting. This could be as much as 15% of the work force. However, closer examination the actual magnitude and benefits of this trend is less clear.

Not every job is one which can be conducted remotely. Clearly manufacturing and personal services are limited, but there may be less obvious limitations for occupations such as clerical and management. Recent surveys of those telecommuting indicate that likely less than 50% of the work force today would be able to telecommute based on the nature of the work they do. Also, telecommuting is not an all or nothing behavior. In fact, surveys have found that the most common successful telecommute is one in which a worker telecommutes 2 to 3 days a week, and commutes to the office the remainder of the week. These factors combined will limit the impact telecommuting will have on urban form and function.

Virtual Office

Another growing trend, particularly among information based businesses, is the virtual desktop. With the move to digital communications, the computer software has become the tool of information workers. The computer software now can manage the workers communications including voice, fax, and document. Using Groupware (software used by groups of people connected electronically) communications, schedules, and work flow among team members or coworkers can now be managed from the computer. Reference materials are available on-line, forms become electronic, and Email becomes the backbone of personal communications. In this environment, a worker's desktop becomes the computer screen, keyboard and mouse. This environment is virtual. It can be saved to disk, carried with the worker, and reloaded at another location or another point in time. This means that physical space becomes less critical as virtual space.

This concept of a virtual desktop as resulted in a variety of changes in work force activities and management. Some business now use "Hoteling" or Shared Office Space to provide facilities for their workers. Essentially this means more than one person works at the same desk but at different times. Within industry this is nothing new. Having 3 shifts a day on an assembly line is common. But until recently, it has not been widely applied to information workers. Now it is becoming common to have part time, shared jabs, telecommuting, and mobile employees share the same virtual desktop. This has become very common among information service industries, such as credit card companies, who are creating information factories with multiple shifts per day.

Telecommuting Centers

Telecommuting centers are becoming common in suburban locations. Such centers provide to telecommuters and mobile service which are not practical to have in the home or on the road. Such services include meeting rooms, copying, printing, general office services, and centralized filing. Such centers are located close to where people live, so they can quickly utilize them while telecommuting from home.

Mobile Offices

The mobile office is also becoming more common. Though this has not been uncommon for many sales professionals, who work out of a car utilizing a central office, what has changed is an expansion in the amount of business activity that can be conducted remotely from a vehicle. Digital dispatching, remote messaging, electronic billing, portable printers, portable computers, remote access to information, electronic ordering have all expanded the amount of business activity which can be conducted remotely from vehicle. Unlike the above discussions, mobile offices are more likely to be used by those employed in service industries rather than information industries.

Teleports and Fiber Corridors

As telecommunications becomes a bigger component of businesses operations, access to high speed communication facilities becomes critical for some companies. Whether it is the need to communicate large amounts of information quickly to other corporate offices or customers, or the ability to have instant access to world market information and business transactions, such companies will base their location decisions in part on access to high speed communications networks.

The technologies needed to provide the highest speeds and band width are not cheap, nor are the widely available. Two trends of arisen as a result of this, the Fiber Corridor and the Teleport. In both cases, businesses with high end communications needs cooperatively locate in a single location to create the critical mass needed to pay for such facilities.

Fiber Corridors are typically located along a fiber optic cable that is directly connected to the high speed network that makes up the internet, or some private high speed regional network. They provide both high speed access to other businesses in the corridor, but also to the internet or private regional network. Such corridors either occur along existing fiber optic infrastructure or are created as part of a master planned business community.

Teleports are located around an array of high speed satellite facilities. Such communications facilities provide higher speeds and faster connection to global networks than can be obtained from fiber cables. Teleports more frequently occur as a result of a partnership between one or more larger companies needing such facilities.

Cellular Towers - Look Out, Here the Come

There is likely no community in the United States that has not begun to see a proliferation of Cellular Towers. This is likely to be the new NIMBY use of this decade. Unfortunately it is only going to get worse. Three trends are significant and bear watching in your community. First, in some communities telecommunication companies are finding that it is more cost effective for them to provide phone service to new areas using cellular technology than using cable. They would prefer taller towers over numerous smaller towers. Second, the higher band widths the Federal Government is now auctioning for private use are cable of providing high speed digital communications. In areas where retrofit costs are high, this may become the preferred method for high speed telecommunications access. Third, service companies and homeowners are becoming more interested in remote monitoring of residential activities, such as security and power management. Such monitoring does not require a full time link. Digital radio will likely be a viable alternative to traditional access as bandwidth begins to get used for other functions, such as video on demand and internet access.

Community Servers

A growing trend among large planned developments is to provide the community with its own information system. Such systems are designed to provide residents enhanced communication access to local schools, churches, businesses, other residents, and community events. Residents are provided dedicated high speed access lines to the community information system. In some cases, the community information system acts as an internet provider. This is then markets as one of the service benefits provided by the community. Such systems are also used during development as a marketing tool to show case the community. More information on the benefits of such systems is included in the section of this paper entitled Electronic Village.

The Electronic Village

Much has been talked about in the press about how we are rapidly moving to s global economy and how electronic information systems have created global communities, where physical boundaries are almost eliminated. The promotion and excitement over the "information Superhighway" has certainly fueled this trend. However, electronic communication has not replaced the need for physical community activities. We will still need to live in a physical place and electronic communications that are independent of physical place or contact will not replace our sense of local community. However, electronic communication has the potential to strengthen and enhance the quality and sense of local community. Electronic communications can be used to facilitate interaction in physical places. Though little attention has been paid to this by the media, it has not been ignored by local communities themselves. In many "physical communities" people are now organizing to create "electronic villages"; an electronic local "place" where people can meet and communicate in addition to the community's "physical" places. The goal is to create a sense of community that is greater than either the "electronic" or "physical" community by themselves.

Unlike the "world wide web", these electronic villages are rooted in a sense of physical place. Information and services of the Electronic Village are given a sense of physical place, one that relates to a sense of physical local community. Information provided is focused on local needs, such as cultural, government, education, or business activities and events. Communications are between people who may often meet in a physical locations for business, social, or community activities. Information and services frequently enhance "physical" services being provided, such as the delivery of groceries, home work assignments, utility payments, banking services, etc. Ideally, the "electronic village" becomes a local "virtual" place where people can meet and interact about local issues and activities the same way they would interact in a local "physical" place.

In the electronic village, the focus is that physical places, activities, and interactions are enhanced by electronic access to information, services, and communications. The information, services, and communications available is the same available through traditional means. The only difference is that access to such is enhanced because electronic access helps to overcome traditional barriers of time, place, and membership. Government services are enhanced by providing electronic access to common information and basic services. Governments will continue to provide trash pick up, provide water and sewer, police and fire protection, building inspections, and health and welfare services. But access to information about or acquisition of such services could be electronic available on demand by the consumer, rather than business hours of the government, or behind long lines or busy phones. Local business activities have already been enhanced by electronic access and opportunities for further enhancement are growing exponentially. Local businesses with multiple locations can now link themselves together electronically together exchange data in real time. The ability, desire and use of telecommuting has grown rapidly over the last 2 years. This will be greatly enhanced by access to the electronic village. Information about business services and hours will be available on line. Some services will even be delivered to the home via electronic request. Retail and entertainment services will be enhanced via on-line services and information. People can make reservations on-line and see menus or movie times on line. Purchase goods or browse "sales" catalogs on-line. Community functions will be enhanced. Information will be easily accessible on-line about community activities and functions. People will be able to participate in community dialog and debates in their own time.

Without much "hype" or national funding sources, local Electronic Villages are springing up all over the country. Eventually most communities will have such an Electronic Village in some form. However, this concept of Electronic Village provides an opportunity today for a community to both enhance its sense of local community and create a competitive advantage for itself in terms of function and image as a high tech community. Creation of an Electronic Village could be greatly accelerated with a focused community effort on creating the environment for an Electronic Village to prosper.

Though there are a variety of different types of Electronic Villages being created, most have some common characteristics. They all have an important private EMAIL component. This is essential to establishing the Electronic Village. People must have an easy way to communicate with each other in private. Systems lacking Email become merely ways to deliver information and not enhance communications. Most have public forums. These are places where open debate or sharing can occur. These often initiate as much if not more communication than private Email. It is in these forums where the spirit of the Village will be established. Most provide on-line a information about the local community. This can vary from simple information about population, where is City Hall, and events to daily movie listings, stock information, public meeting agendas, community organizations and news. Some provide some level of access to local services, particularly access that results in some action or personalized information exchange. This can range from Email contact with government officials to on-line banking and shopping. All of these systems transcend political boundaries. Even though a particular city may be sponsoring the system, people in adjacent communities will use the system and participate.

There are essential six types Community Information Networks that have emerged. These are Government / Institutional Sponsored Systems, Volunteer Systems, Private Commercial Services, Internet Based Systems, Suburban Planned Development Systems, Mixed or Mullet Platform Systems.

Government or institutional

Government or institutional sponsored systems are among the oldest, but are not as common. Typically these were dedicate networks that were created in conjunction with a technology partner who provided assistance and hardware free or at cost. Access is free and in most case public terminals are provided at key locations as well as dial in or internet access. Examples of such system include:

Santa Monica PEN Public Electronic Network - http://pen.ci.santa-monica.ca.us/

PEN was one of the first community information systems. Originally it was not web based, and utilized public terminals and simple local dial in access to a text based system. It provide community information and public forums for public dialog on issues. PENs public forums were among the first and much of what we know today about this public dialog experience derives in part from these forums.

Today, PEN is a combination of an internet web based system and a local dialin or telenet system. PEN's email and community conferences are restricted to the text based telenet dial in systems, and only those who " lives, works, or goes to school" in Santa Monica can get a user id for the local system. The web based portion provides a wide range of community information and services. The system is oriented towards the "governmental services" of the City of Santa Monica (they do not appear to be hosting no "City" information) though they do provide links to other Santa Monica related sites.

BEV Blacksburg Electronic Village - www.bev.net

A local community network which was developed through a partnership between Virginia Tech, Bell Atlantic, and the Town of Blacksburg it is now the internet service provider for the Town of Blacksburgh. This CIN provides a comprehensive set of information, links, public forums, and services for the community. Though co-sponsored by the Town of Blacksburgh, this site is not a "city government site" it is a true community information network.

Free Nets and Other Volunteer

Volunteer systems or Free Nets are among the oldest and most common systems and though they started in the United States they can now be found world wide. There are over 100 fully functioning and established FreeNets in the United States and Canada with several dozen in varying degrees of implementation and success. FreeNets are voluntary organizations, relying on donations, grants and volunteer work for equipment and management. Most do not charge a fee for people to utilize the system though some do charge minimal one time sign up charges. Some Free Nets are associated with local Public Broadcasting Stations (radio or TV). The FreeNet software is modeled after a town. There is a post office (email) a library (information files), City Hall (administration) etc. Cleveland was the first and the system was developed by the University of Cleveland. They began to give the software away and help other Cities implement a system. Most FreeNets use some variation of the original Cleveland software. Today, most provide both dialin/telenet and a web based access to the freenet, though frequently messaging and public forums are restricted to members via the dialin/telenet interface.

There is a national association of Freenets (US and Canada) that provides assistance to members and promotes concept. There is also a national repository (ofcn.org )of information on Freenets.

Freenets provide a critical role in the development of Electronic Villages. Initially such systems likely hosted the vast majority of people using electronic communications for local communications and information access. Though they have now been dwarfed by the rapid exapnsion of interent users and internet service providers, they still represent the major host for many local information sources and dialog. There low cost (free) and low technology (Text mode dial in) means all economic types can gain access to a system. They host a sites for a large number of local non profits, including there web presence on the large WEB based internet. This is not going to change, and may become an increasingly critical component of the local Electronic Village.

A good compreensive link to US freenets is Peter Scotts Freenets and community Networks Site - www.lights.com/freenet/.

Commercial information systems

Commercial information systems are also among the oldest systems. There are a variety of national commercial information systems, with America On-line and Compuserve being the two largest, but there are not a lot of local or regional systems. Some where developed around an existing source of information, like a local newspaper which others new commercial ventures trying to provide a site for local information and electronic services. These are fee based systems. Examples of such systems include:

StarText - www.startext.com
This system is operated by the Fort Worth Star Telegram (A Fort Worth Newspaper) and serves the Fortworth, Arlington, Dallas area. It is also one of the oldest community information systems. Orignally it was a for fee based system, utilizing dialin access to a text mode system. It provided a rich set of information including AP wire stories, documents (such as tax forms), an encyclopedia, user written columns, Email and member discussion forums. During the last couple of years, Startext moved to a web based platform (turning off the old system just last year) and has become one of the local internet service providers. The still host most of the same features, providing a local newsgroups (not sure how this works since these are not part of the UNET system?).

Startext hosts a variety of local community oganizations, and sponsor an unussual format of virtual local villages, were members can claim "lots" and put up an electronic place. They also provide free internet accounts for local non-profit groups.

WEB Based

Most more recent Community Information Networks are internet based. That is they do not provide a dedicated connection or direct dial in access. Access is done through a basic internet connection which the user must obtain. These are among the most numerous, but the quality and content varies widely from one system to the next. Such systems are typically loosely organized and frequently do not provide comprehensive access to community resources. Some systems are sponsored by local governments others are sponsored by local commercial internet providers. The number of cities now providing web pages on the internet are to numerous to list. Most focus just on services or information provided by the local government. One of the more comprehensive systems is Palo Alto CA.

Planned Communities

A new recent trend has been Community Information networks provided by large planned communities as part of their development. Such systems are either internet based or in some cases act as an internet provider and provide dedicated high speed access. These systems focus on the activities within the planned community, and frequently included communication with schools, churches, and commercial businesses. Space is provided for community groups and Email services are frequently provided. These system usually play a dual role as a promotional tool for the development as well. One example is in the Weston community in Fort Lauderdale Florida.

Comprehensive Access

Lastly, there are some systems that provide multiple levels of access, dedicated dial in, public terminal access, general internet access. Such systems may be integrated with other information systems such as kiosks, touch tone message systems, fax back systems, and cable access programming. A example of such a system is Phoenix At Your Fingertips (www.ci.phoenix.az.us). Phoenix has developed an Electronic Community Access Model which they use to design all forms of electronic information. The purpose is to provide a common interface for all means of access to make it easier for users to become familiar with information available and how to access it.

Example Systems

City/Place URL Nice/Unique Feautures
Seattle WA http://www.scn.org/ Web based public discussion forums and Neighborhood home pages
Phoenix AZ http://www.ci.phoenix.az.us/ Community Calender
Pittsburgh PA http://trfn.pgh.pa.us/ An incredible list of local non-profit groups, most of which they host
Charlotte NC http://www.charweb.org/ Users can post their resumes
Davis CA http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/ Very interesting "Cherished Places" page where people can create pages about their favorite places in Davis.

Implications For Planners

Telecommuting and Rural Communities

One trend only lightly covered by the popular press is the long view of telecommuting. The decisions of telecommuting discussed so far are the decisions of moving the existing place of work to the existing home. However, once the policy and mechanics of moving work to the home becomes broadly institutionalized, then the next decision will be where to live.

There are many factors influencing the decision of where to live. Past studies of these decisions have shown that one of the major factors is commute time. This concept has been very graphically demonstrated in the growth of Southern and South West cities such as Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston. Unlike places like Los Angeles, people in these cities during the 60s,70s and 80s had viable choices as to where to live in relation to where they worked. The growth of these cities reflected the dynamics of commute times, with a 30 minute commute marking the fringe of rapid suburbanization. This concept is discussed by Joel Garreau in his book Edge Cities. As the suburban development reached this 30 minute ring, a second tier of employment centers, edge cities, began to develop extending the limits of 30 minute suburbia.

Telecommuting has the potential to alter this equation. With telecommuting, it matters little whether you are 30 miles or 300 miles away from the office. Once the location decision of home is separated from the physical distance of work, the options for where home is become enormous.

One possible future this could lead to is the re-ruralization of America. With the decisions about location of work and home now separate, people unsatisfied with the urban experience but still desirous of current urban employment opportunities could retain employment and relocate to rural areas. Between 1980 and 1990, there was a 1.5% shift (3.7 million) in US population from rural areas to urban areas. Even if only 20% of potential telecommuters (which would only be 4% of the urban work force) chose to move to rural America, this could represent a potential 4 million people. Essentially this would completely reverse the trend over the last 10 years! Though this loss from urban communities would be relatively minor, such an influx, particularly if focused at highly desirable rural areas, could be dramatic.

Not all rural communities will experience such a migration. Rural telecommuters will be seeking high quality of life locations, so those with a greater number of perceived quality of life amenities will be come the focus of such a migration. In addition to the typical issues associated with growth, there are some unique issues that will be associated with such a migration. First, the socioeconomic characteristics of those moving to the community are likely to be different than existing residents. This may be pronounced enough to cause a shift in the communities demographics. Second though people would be moving to escape the "evils" of the city, they will likely want to have the "benefits" of the city. This may result in increased demand for higher quality services such as parks, libraries, and cultural facilities. There will also be an increase in demand for office related services, such as supply, printing, and delivery services.

The experience to date with telecommuting indicates that 100% telecommuting is not the ideal. Some direct contact with clients or the home office is required. Telecommuters living in rural areas will likely bundle this time. Two weeks at home and then three to five days in the office. This type of travel will require enhanced "backwater" regional transportation services. Rural areas now abandoned by most regional transportation services will need to be reconnected. Expanded airport needs will likely be a part of this, and rural areas providing such service will be more attractive than those who do not.

Telecommuting will require enhanced communications infrastructure in rural areas. This may include tying into regional net works as well as developing satellite access centers. The demand for data quality phone service will also increase. Those communities that can provide such services will be more desirable than those that can not. Also, these new residents will be focused on electronic communications, and are going to want access to local information and services electronically. Community having an Electronic Village already in place will be more desirable than those that do not.

Evidence of this trend towards re-ruralization is already visible in key rural areas such as Sante Fe NM and Sedona AZ which have become havens for stock brokers and security analysts who telecommute to Wallstreet. A town in California, Isleton, near Sacramento is trying to promote a 1,500 to 3,500 development designed for telecommuters. Under the direction of neotraditionalists Duany/Plater-Zyberk, this new development would be a pedestrian oriented community.

Sites of Interest

City/Place URL Nice/Unique Feautures
West Cliff CO www.sni.net/~arthurvb/westcliff/ Their Strategic Plan includes trying to attract technical professionals as residents
New Mexico Connect New Mexico - http://www.lanl.gov/cnm Effort to expand telecommunications infrastructure and technology based economic development to rural parts of New Mexico

Telecommuting and Urban Communities

Telecommuting in urban communities has the potential to significantly impact trip reduction but will likely have only minor impacts on urban form and function.

Benefits from trip reduction will be limited by the number of people that can telecommute the number of days they can telecommute. However, even with these limitations, trip reductions of 5% may be achievable. If 40% of the work force could telecommute, and they did so 2 days a week, that would be a 16% reduction in commute trips. Though such trip reductions would likely not alter the need for freeways or their role in defining urban form, it could delay the need for capacity improvements or when combined with other mass transit and trip reduction efforts eliminate the need for capacity improvements. However, and undesired secondary impact could be an increase in trips on local arterials. People working at home, will still need access to services such as supplies and restaurants. Since demand for these services would occur in traditionally residential areas, secondary trips on arterials may increase in these areas and demand for more commercial locations to provide services may increase.

The impact on businesses activities and location decisions is likely to be minor. Because the ideal telecommuting environment is to telecommute 2 to 3 days a week, such employees will still have to commute to an office. Thus business that make location decisions based on where there employees live will still have to consider all there employees. Thus telecommuting will have only a minor impact on employers decisions as to where to locate.

Telecommuting may have change the distance people are willing to commute. If they do not have to make a long commute ever day, on those days they do commute, they may be willing to travel. This would increase slightly the commute shed for information related businesses and likely not affect location decisions However, it may encourage some people to move out farther from the city, contributing to urban sprawl.

Telecommunting may have some impacts with residential areas. With more people working at home, there would be more eyes on the street during working hours. This may improve the security of residential areas. Communities with zoning ordinances that do not address home occupation, or worse prohibited it, will likely find themselves dealing with more issues of home occupation conflicts such a customer traffic and parked vehicles. The need for home office will also have an impact on residential design.

Residential Design and Construction

Changes in need for electronic access in the home, fueled by telecommuting, advance entertainment services, and increased use of computers in the home is having an impact on residential design and construction.

Communication wiring within new home is now getting more attention and more expensive. demand for coaxial, multi-phone line, fiber optic, and twisted pair cable is now not uncommon as a custom feature and being added as a standard feature in some homes. In some cases even conduit is being installed to provide maximum future flexibility. This wiring is frequently provided in as dedicated lines rather than using a looping technique to provide higher quality connections and more control over the connection. This wiring is now often routed from a central information box which would eventually could include TV cable, phone, radio, fiber optic and satellite connections. Such wiring is more expensive and can run from $500 to $5,000 more than traditional TV cable and phone line. This wiring is also going more places in the home. Bedrooms, kitchens, home offices, family rooms, utility closets and major appliance locations are now destinations for such wiring. Also the quality of power to information devices has become more critical and dedicate lines are often provided to locations where computers and entertainment systems may be located.

House design is also including predesigned office space or flexible designs that allow easy conversion to office space. Such spaces are provided the wiring described above with a greater number of outlets provided. These rooms are often slightly smaller than a bedroom, and will have more direct access to the houses living spaces. The capacity of cooling provided to such spaces is also a little greater than a would be provided to typical room of similar size. A new feature is also being added to kitchens, the family information center. Dedicated space is provided for multiple phone lines and an information terminal.

Subdivision Construction

New communications technology has resulted in some changes in how communications infrastructure is provided to residential subdivisions. The change is that rather than each utility trenching and providing their own lines, developers, either on their own or in partnership with utilities, are constructing conduit banks. Communication utilities then run their cable using the conduit. This is being done for several reasons. First, utilities learning their lesson from past develops, now realize that technology is changing so fast that cable they put in the ground today may be obsolete in just a few years. So to avoid high future retrofit costs, they would rather pay more now to place in the ground and infrastructure that has lower retrofit costs. Second, it is unclear today who will win the information access wars. Will access be by phone wire, fiber optic cable, coaxial cable? Who will provide it, the local phone company, the local cable company, a regional telecommunications company? Developers realize that such choices may be limited by want infrastructure is put in place during initial construction. They see it as both a market advantage to future flexibility and as a way to avoid the hassle of digging up streets and ROWs to retrofit older infrastructure. Third, and investment in conduit also means all services do not have to be provided at the time of initial infrastructure construction. For example, fiber optic phone lines may be overkill as a development is initially started. With conduit in place, these lines can be upgraded as demand grows.

The result is that conduit is being constructed from the provider to the residential curb using conduit, that can be retrofitted with newer technology hardware. The missing link is now from the curb to the house, which is the builder or property owner's responsibility. Some developers are now trying to convince their builders to place conduit in the ground from the street to the house.

Office Location and Space Needs

Electronic communications is generating a variety of changes in business practices and how people work. However the impact such changes will have on the form and function of communities is unclear. However there are several key concepts.

Access To Infrastructure

Though most issues related to infrastructure needed to support electronic communications focus in regional and local access, there is one issue emerging that is related to residential service and subdivision design. As communications technologies have changed, the hardware to support such technologies have changed. This includes the wire or cable needed to connect users to regional networks. In many areas, existing cable or wire technology is a barrier to increasing the speed and band width of communications. Older cable and telephone wire is limited in the amount of information that can be transmitted. Retrofitting such locations with new cable (likely fiber) is expensive, and may quickly become out of date.

In commercial areas, the cost of such retrofit can be recovered from revenues, but this is frequently not the case in residential areas. In some communities telecommunications providers are reluctant to retrofit older phone lines. This may result in older portions of a community becoming information disadvantaged.

Another issue in newer developments relates to conduit. Questions such as who should construct it, who owns it, and who controls access to it, are just now beginning to be addressed by local communities, local information providers, and developers. Currently no clear model is available for communities or developers to follow and each project generates a unique solution.

Cellular Towers

Cellular Towers for many communities. It seems clear that the use of digital radio for electronic communications is in its infancy. The technology has the potential to meet a huge demand for high speed / high band width digital communications. Such demand will require more towers and there is the rub, where do we put these poles. Many communities are already experiencing a revolt over the proliferation of monopoles. As the demand for digital radio increases, such community responses will become more common. Such NIMBY response may result in a federal preemption of local control, but it is hard to balance enhanced communications with a decline in community visual quality, particularly by legislators several thousand miles away from the backyard being affected. Community planners will have to try and maintain a delicate balance between community outrage and protecting air wave access. This will not happen with out planners becoming educated on the technology involved, its requirements, limitations, and capabilities.

Community Communication

An important aspect of the Electronic Village and electronic communications is going to be public access to electronic information and services and the impact such access will have on how planners will be asked to provide their services. Planners will likely face several issues related to access and services.

Professional Communications

Whether it is communication among ones professional peers, with professional organizations, or simply research, electronic communications, electronic communications has also radically altered professional communications. Unfortunately, planners are typically not on the leading edge (perhaps not even the trailing edge) of these changes. Planners will need to learn new skills and understand new information sources if they are to remain competitive in their profession.

The amount of electronic information available to planners has increase enormously just in the last few years. Those with the understanding of the locations of this information, and the skills and tools needed to access can today access information previously unavailable. Eventually, those without such skills will find themselves at a disadvantage.

Such technologies have the potential to deliver information and services faster and cheaper. State and National organizations will have to come to grips with this. What services and information can be quickly brought online, where and how can it be placed on the internet, who will maintain it, and will it be for a fee or free are all issues state and national organizations are currently discussing.

Conclusion

The evolution of communications brought on by recent electronic technologies is resulting in changes not only in the form and function of communities, but also in the way planners provide services and interact with their client's and peers. Some changes may result in radical changes to urban form and function, but most will simply effect moderate change. However, if planners want their communities to remain competitive and protect or improve their communities quality of life, they need to place themselves on the leading edge of these technologies. Such changes are occurring rapidly, and in most case are not following historical growth or redevelopment trends. As of yet, the impacts of such changes are not clear. Planners caught unaware by such changes could easily find themselves with problems the neither understand or know how to resolve.

In many respects the Alvin Tofler's Third Wave is now upon us. You can either sink or surf, the choice is yours.

Ray Quay, AICP Ray is the Assistant Director of Planning for the City of Phoenix. He is also an Associate Faculty member of the School of Planning and Landscape Architecture, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Arizona State University and a partner in McQuay Technologies, a software and internet application development partnership. He is currently working on the Electronic Village 1997/98 Pilot Project, a joint project between the City of Phoenix and Arizona State University to analyze existing and develop new components for Phoenix's "Electronic Village." For more info jump to http://www.asu.edu/caed/ev97pp.