Evolution and Dynamics of Information Cities: Models, Taxonomy and Architecture

Similar to physical cities, which emerged over many years in the physical world, we envision many kinds of large-scale “information cities” (iCities) to emerge over the Internet in the coming years. Some of these iCities will mimic small and large “physical” cities. They will provide local and global information and various valueadded services to inhabitants. Just like physical cities, these information cities will house “infohabitants”, who will participate in activities such as searching, transacting, socializing, and collaborating. In this paper, we present an overview of the information cities project, and then we present a taxonomy of information cities and some dynamic models. We also describe design requirements and an open architecture for building an information city based on Webservices.