GEOGRAPHY OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY: A NEW CULTURE OF HYBRID SPACES?

The technology of mobile telephony, wireless networks, and the use of computerized geographical systems are reshaping the relations between human populations and the places they live in, which has always been the unifying factor in the science of human geography. Places reflect human communities ’ cultural practices in a completely different way from the idea of space conveyed by technological products in terms, for example, of an environment made up of the physical features of the reception areas that are required by some communication technologies. In other words, places have characteristics and they can evolve in a different way from what many of the current technological contents and approaches imply. There thus emerges a gap between the aims and the imagination of technology on the one hand, and human needs and structures on the other. At the same time, the new technologies offer great opportunities: they make it possible to contribute to the creation of new interactive maps for use in local planning, to combine technology and artistic expression in new ways, to develop and strengthen new forms of active citizenship through digital communities and networks for the transmission of information. These opportunities should not be lost, but enhanced and pursued. There is still no definitive analysis of the impact of the pervasive growth of technology on planning urban space and on creating hybrid places where technological and social networks connect with inhabited spaces. How current trends in the impact of information and communication technology can be analysed and how information and communication can be designed to enrich the quality of life in places where people live are issues underlying the geography of Information Society