For many years thousands of people have invested hopes for an easier life through the opportunities the Internet provides. The expectations the media has born gave also birth to dreams and goals. They built whole economic empires too. A Greek, named Manolis Tranos, went all the way from Thessaloniki to the Newcastle University. He turned out to be the first to map the European network and comparing the infrastructure and the functions of major cities and the periphery has proved that things are not as they seem.
This means that the investment in the network will not necessarily develop the economy of knowledge. On the other hand, infrastructure is in danger to get lost because this benefits only the peripheries around the large cities in the West!
“There was a myth before that we will start working only on the Internet, living in a house in the country. But cities continue to be an essential element in human civilization and telecommunications – part of the urbanization,” noted the Greek scholar whose research enjoys a very good criticism in international journals that published it. “It's like the belief that ever existed – it is enough to build a road in the village that will bring development. But other prerequisites are necessary for better or worse,” emphasized Mr. Tranos.
“The survey results show that most of the network infrastructure is in Europe. It is called the gold diamond or this is the square between London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt - areas of highly developed economic activity that produce the bulk of the national GDP. However, London is the most important because of its role as a communication node between Europe and America,” added the young scientist.
What, however, happens to the south? "Some cities like Lisbon and Palermo have a key role in the communication network between Europe and the rest of the world. Accordingly, such a role, but less important, plays Athens as it is associated with the cities of Southeast Europe and the Mediterranean - like Ankara, Istanbul and Tel Aviv," emphasized Mr. Tranos.
“The cities of Northern Europe can and use this infrastructure as a tool for development. Conversely, the study shows that the towns located in southern Europe find it difficult to do this. So, there are negative consequences for their economy. This happens because the economy of knowledge is much more highly developed in the north countries... So far, the studies on the network in terms of geography are not mainstream. But I think my future goal is to change this," said Mr. Tranos for Vima newspaper.
To carry out his research Manolis Tranos traveled to America as there is the only company in the world that could provide him the necessary data. The map shows the international connections of the Internet infrastructure and the key nodes. It is obvious that the largest number of connections is located in the square London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. When this infrastructure is correlated with economic scales and functions, but with the infrastructure as a whole, it follows that this region takes the best advantage of the network benefits for its development than Southern Europe. (Data are from 2006)
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