ABOUT
ABSTRACT
QUOTATIONS
OTHER MEDIA
STUDENS WORKS / ARCHIVE WS99 I SS99 I WS98
NANJING PROJECT
ABOUT:
The new infrastructure layer called internet is a new window to see people and things around us and to interact with them.
The Digital City is the result of integrating this new media into our daily urban life.
As in real life people there also handle with goods and information. You can find markets, plazas, forums, places of interest, news-stands, educational institutions, cultural offers, governmental and administrating authorities and single persons or families.
The more the computer is seen by the people as a window of information the more they use it for a visit of the internet and it is predicted that 80% of the data exchange in the internet will be within the surrounding areas of the users. This means they look for their everyday purposes in their everyday surroundings, in their villages, their streets, their neigborhoods, their cities.
This also means that every city or area, that wants to be interesting in the future, must try to place a "copy" of itself in the internet to become visited.
In this "copy" the citizens more and more meet the meaningful life of their city. For some part it replaces something that will get lost in the real life and for some other part it additiones the real.
In this way people stay involved in the developement of their cities. This finally results in a new dimension of urbanism.
Many people think that this already is happening and one day will be completed automatically, but it isnt.
If it were like this we have not been forced to study urban planning and to install planning authorities. But we have. because it is nessessary to think and organize in advance.
The solutions that you find today are founded on the interests of single persons or small groups who first worked with the net. They never cover the big variety of a cities life and activities.
This lack of complexity and also the lack of content are the main reasons for people beeing not interested in many websites.
Today you can find the following focuses in the cities websites:
1- the mayors informations
2- shopping or tourism
3- social groups and groups of interest
4- interactivity and realtime communication
5- research in connecting with highspeed and hightech
6- research with the interface, 2D/3D-spaces
The single fact to find a solution for as many internet-adresses as there are families and businesses in a big city will afford solutions that are comparabel to a cities organisation.
And therefore it is like urban planning with a familiar complexitiy and with the same structural compounds to shape a functional, good looking and interesting website for a whole city. What you work for in the whole entity is called the "Digital City".
In this case to get a good solution you have to think about the following issues
1- central or peripheral functions
2- public and private places
3- navigation and transport of interest
4- orientation and satisfaction
5- entries, exits, places of homes
The vision is that like the streets and quarters in a real city the Digital City offers public areas und a transportation infrastructure to reach the spaces of settlement for businesses and people to place their websites.
It is nessessary to discuss what must be in the centre/downtown and how all parts of the city can be reached in a simple way. In the same way it is nessessary to think about whom it is allowed to place a link, how big it can be, where it is practical to use advertising, and how much someone has to pay.
There should be a exactly defined line between the structure of the city, what means the master plan, and the areas which are thought to be sold or rented to providers, firms or private persons, who then are allowed to place there their links or virtual spaces.
From the first days the Digital City must be thought to grow for the future. You cannot let disappear it one day only because it doesnt function anymore. Its citizens and users would be as much angry as they can.
What we realize today, is the beginning of a fundamental discussion:
The technology and the use of the internet evokes a tremendous influence to the societies all over the world. What we need is to think about of how this will change our lives, our surroundings and our environment.
And it is nessessary to envision this and to develop and test variations of possible living in the future instead of waiting and leaving the things run alone.
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