ABSTRACT
For thousands of years, people lived in compact, autonomous communities where almost everything needed for daily life was available in close proximity to home. Cities evolved into a network of neighborhoods, as can be seen in the 20 arrondissements of Paris, or Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, East Village, etc. The spectacular view from the 118th floor of Shanghai Tower shows the various phases in the development of the city’s complex urban fabric. The world’s first university research park, near Stanford University, played a key role in the evolution of Silicon Valley. Since then, many “research parks” have been created to increase the concentration of high-tech companies in strategically planned, spatially isolated work environments to promote innovation and develop commercial products. Cities around the world are embracing a policy of “open data” and making anonymized government datasets accessible online for use by researchers, urban planners, entrepreneurs, and citizens.
