Book details of 'City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn'

Title	City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn
Author(s)	William J. Mitchell
ISBN	0262133091
Language	English
Published	August 1995
Publisher	MIT Press

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
Cliche alert: just as railroads influenced settlement patterns and economics of the 19th century, and automobiles influenced settlement, commerce, and recreation in the 20th century, computer networks will influence how we live, work, and move (and how and even whether we move) in the 21st century. William Mitchell, from MIT, is one of the first scholars to rigorously examine this modern cliche, and draws heavily on the history of architecture, and urbanism. If you suspect there is truth in these truisms, and want to get beyond facile sloganeering prophesying an infintely ductile future, I highly recommend this book. Mitchell does a very job of explaining not just how things are likely to change, but also of examining historical precendents such as telephony, and to what degree previous prognostications came true. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
In chapter four, Mitchell's background in architecture is used to advantage as he presents examples of the forms which have followed various functions. Famous buildings are designed with particular uses in mind. This provides interesting material as the author demonstrates how technology is eliminating the need for these architectures--but it doesn't give much information on what the new architectures are likely to be. Of the plethora of Information Superhighway books, this is the most erudite to date, and contains overall the greatest "insight per page" ratio. The benefits of its historical perspective, however, could be improved by less playing with language and more analysis. The basics are here, but just when it starts to get really interesting we "need to consider" or "have to figure out," rather than taking that one step further to see if the "what if" matches up against known fact. Mitchell does tend, at early points in the book, to use impressive academic language to cloak "gee whiz" outlooks. In spit of that, I would still recommend this as the primer for general discussion on the information society. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995
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