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'Wired Cities' -- where information highways would provide all kinds of information and communication services to businesses and households -- were envisioned in the late 1960s. During the following decades, experiments with cable, satellites, interactive television, videophones, and fiber to the home have met with varying success and acceptance in a variety of settings. How these experiments were launched, how they worked, why some have failed, who controls them, and what their future prospects may be are all examined in this definitive overview of a major period in the history of information and communication technologies.
The outgrowth of a 1984 forum, this book brings together the best work and thought of an extraordinary group of international experts. Part I defines the concept of the wired city and describes the early promises, technologies, and policies upon which it is based. The central portion of the book describes national policy and specific projects in the US, Japan, France, Germany, and Britain. Included are studies of landmark experiments like Japan's Hi-OVIS project, the Biarritz project in France, and the NSF trials of interactive cable as well as the QUBE system in the US. The last section of the book widens the focus to ask some probing questions about the lessons learned from wired city experiments. What, indeed, is the future of these technologies, and what sort of social and political implications they have for the people who live with them?