On Feb 21, 2008, at 7:26 AM, Dan Saffer wrote: > Location still matters. >
Just to follow up on my own comment (hee), here's an excerpt from Richard "Creative Class" Florida's new book, "Who's Your City? How the Creative Economy Is Making Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life." <http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/123/in-praise-of-spikes.html> It's a mantra of the age of globalization that place doesn't matter. Technology has leveled the global playing field--the world is flat. "When the world is flat," says New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, "you can innovate without having to emigrate." It's a compelling notion--but it's wrong. Today's global economy is spiky. What's more, the tallest spikes, the cities and regions that drive the world economy, are growing ever higher while the valleys, with little economic activity, recede still further. ... Geographic concentration encourages innovation because ideas flow more freely, are honed more sharply, and can be put into practice more quickly when innovators, implementers, and financial backers are in constant contact. Creative people cluster not simply because they like to be around one another or prefer cosmopolitan centers with lots of amenities (though both things tend to be true). They cluster because density brings such powerful productivity advantages, economies of scale, and knowledge spillovers. ... The main difference between now and a couple of decades ago is that the economic and social distance between the peaks has gotten smaller. People in spiky places are often more connected to one another, even from half a world away, than they are to people in their own backyards. This peak-to-peak connectivity is accelerated by the highly mobile, global creative class, about 150 million people, who migrate freely among the world's leading cities--places such as London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Meanwhile, second-tier cities from Detroit to Nagoya to Bangalore are locked in potentially devastating competition for jobs, people, and investment. And in the so-called developing world, millions upon millions of people whose culture and traditions are being ripped apart by globalization lack the education, skills, or mobility to connect to the world economy. They are stuck in places that are falling further and further behind. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
