Information Technology Impacts Only Beginning
from How the Information Revolution is Shaping Our Communities, by Pamela Blais (Planning Commissioners Journal #24, Fall 1996)

In the last two decades edge cities have emerged, city centers struggled, and many mid-size metro areas boomed. Recently, work has begun moving back to the home (reversing a 200 year trend), while an increasing number of office buildings are being converted to residential use.

These are just some of the shifting patterns linked to the information revolution -- a term that refers not only to computer and telecommunications technology, but to the role of information itself, and the accompanying transformations in the public, corporate, and personal worlds that the information and the technology are bringing about.

The information revolution has far-reaching impacts that we are only beginning to understand, affecting local economies, central cities, suburbs and towns, travel patterns, and floorspace requirements. ...

IT has presented an unprecedented range of organizational options for companies and institutions by enhancing communications linkages through computer networks, phone, fax, modem, video conferencing, or e-mail. This allows different types of functions within a company to be optimally located in different settings: towns, cities, regions, or countries, depending upon the specific requirements of that activity.

The classic example of this is the relocation of back office functions out of high-cost urban centers to suburban locations-- or, more recently, to smaller towns or off-shore locations. In larger companies, routine administrative functions may be centralized in one location, manufacturing moved off-shore, R&D performed in campus-like suburbs, and sales offices provided in each market area.

A similar distribution of activities can also occur between autonomous companies linked together by outsourcing (i.e., the practice of acquiring goods and services from outside, specialist firms, rather than providing them internally) and strategic alliances -- trends enabled by reliable telecommunications linkages between companies and their supplier networks. ...

As multi-locational organizations expand and seek out the best locations for individual functions, communities may become less occupationally and socially diverse, attracting a narrower band of occupations. ...

A growing number of companies and agencies are setting up remote satellite offices or neighborhood telecenters, providing computing and telecommunications connections from a location close to where workers live. Telecenters enable employees to reduce their commute-to-work distance, while avoiding the isolation of home-based work. Some telecenters are set up to serve a number of different companies.

Another important change enabled by information technology is "just-in-time delivery," an inventory management technique. Just-in-time delivery requires reliable, on-time delivery of inputs on an as-needed basis. With reduced inventory, companies can reduce their storage space requirements. Just-in-time is spreading from manufacturing to distribution to retail, even to hospitals and other institutions, suggesting a reduced need for bricks and mortar in carrying out these activities."

Pamela Blais is principal of Metropole Consultants, a Toronto-based planning company. Her work is aimed at assisting public and private sector clients to identify and understand urban change, and to develop effective strategies and policies in response.

Telecommuting Grows
from Telecommuting: Possible Futures for Urban & Rural Communities, by Ray Quay (Planning Commissioners Journal #12, Fall 1993)

"Alvin Toffler, in his 1980 book The Third Wave, weaves a vision of a future where half empty office towers are replaced by a return to cottage industries. The increase in telecommuting in recent years is one phenomenon supporting Toffler's vision. "Telecommuters" are those employees who work from home on a part- or full-time basis. While the practice of occasionally working from home is not new, historically such activity has represented a very small portion of the work force. More importantly, it was not part of traditional business practice.

Telecommuting in just the past few years has emerged as an essential component of many a corporation's business strategy. Examples include companies like AT&T, Pacific Bell, U.S. West, and J.C. Penney. In addition many local, state, and federal agencies are implementing and promoting telecommuting as an important part of air pollution reduction strategies.

The growing interest in telecommuting has been fueled by the merging of four forces: (1) the rapid proliferation and acceptance of electronic communications; (2) personal desires to regain control over stress and time; (3) corporate desires to improve the productivity and economics of labor; and (4) community desires to reduce congestion and air pollution.

Some analysts estimate that over 5 million people currently telecommute -- and that this number is growing at a 20% annual rate. As many as 15 to 20 million jobs may ultimately be held by telecommuters (representing more than a doubling of the current number of telecommuters). That would represent about 20% of our nation's 100 million urban labor force.

Since the average telecommuter will likely work from home two or three days of the week, while commuting to their office the other days, telecommuting would reduce work trips by about 10%. A 10% reduction in work trips is significant in terms of air pollution and congestion. However, in itself, such a reduction will not radically alter locational and capacity decisions for most current and future transportation facilities. The exception will be in specific corridors, where the reductions resulting from telecommuting are combined with other strategies to gain more significant trip reductions. ...

With telecommuting, it matters little whether you live 30 or 300 miles away from the office. Once the locational decision of home is separated from the physical distance of work, the options for where home is become enormous.

Ray Quay is a Deputy Director of Planning for the City of Phoenix, an adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University, and a partner of McQuay Technologies, a microcomputer software consulting group. Ray is the former Assistant Director of Planning for Arlington, Texas. He is also the author (with Bruce McClendon) of Mastering Change: Winning Strategies for Effective City Planning. His most recent article for the Planning Commissioners Journal, Dealing With the Fear of Multi-Family Housing, appeared in Issue #23 (Summer 1996).

Questions Planners Face
from Planners on the Information Highway, by Charles C. Graves (Planning Commissioners Journal #21, Winter 1996)

"Over the next two decades, many experts believe this new information and technology revolution will cause more change, and more rapid change, than history has ever seen," reports Nation's Cities Weekly (Sept. 9, 1994). Consumers will have more information and services available more conveniently than ever before, thanks to the convergence of what used to be the separate technologies of cable, telephone, satellite and computers. ...

Planners must hasten to the forefront of this discussion or deal with the consequences afterwards. We need to be asking pertinent questions such as what impact will fewer commutes have on our roads; on our transit facilities; on our air quality and other environmental resources; and on our economy? What reuses can we generate for unused office space if more people begin working at home? How will delivery of government services change and how can we assure equal access by all people to new technology?

What are future cable placement needs, and how can we incorporate them into our current construction projects? What leisure services will be impacted by the time savings generated from reduced travel and commute needs, and how will this affect the kind of businesses we strive to attract to our localities? What economic development measures should we investigate in anticipation of related future business expansion and generation? How can we enhance opportunities for education and training to prepare today's youth for the technological jobs which some economists estimate could account for about one-sixth of all jobs in cities by the year 2000? And how well equipped are our geographic information systems to incorporate inventory of the newly-laid cable and serve as a repository for this information?

Our challenge as planners is to anticipate technology's effect on our communities and our citizens, and to incorporate the future into our current planning processes. We are hurtling down the information highway at break-neck speed. Planners must endeavor to see the future and be prepared before we get there."

Charles C. Graves III has been Director of the Baltimore City Planning Department since August 1993. Prior to coming to Baltimore, Graves served as Director of Planning & Development for Appleton, Wisconsin. Amy S. Hasson of his staff contributed to this article.