Capsule Bio

Dr. Anthony Townsend is Research Director at the Institute for the Future, an independent research organization based in California's Silicon Valley. His writing, public speaking and consulting focus on urbanization, ubiquitous computing and technology-led innovation and economic development. He lives and works in the New York City area. Anthony was named one of Planetizen's "Leading Thinkers in Urban Planning & Technology" and "Top 100 Thinkers" tracking the Internet of things by Postscapes.


My h-index - a measure of scholarly impact that measures citations of my research by others - as of November 2011 is 15. You can see the data behind this calculation here, or find more information about the h-index here.





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Writing

The Real Social Life of Wireless Public Spaces

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

This essay originally appeared on Urban Omnibus… here’s an excerpt: I feel compelled to respond to a recent article and photo essay (PDF) published by a group of communications scholars led by Keith Hampton. Hampton is best known for his doctoral research under Barry Wellman, in which he studied the impacts of broadband on a wired suburb of Toronto. [...]

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Contributed to Report on Nanotechnology in the Valencia, Spain Region

Monday, June 20th, 2011

For Spanish readers, I contributed the final two chapters to this report. It was a major regional exercise led by Juan Bertolin, Innovation Manager at the science park ESPAITEC which is located in Castellon de la Plana about 30 km northeast of Valenica. I first visited the region in 2009 and was amazed by the [...]

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The Future of Cities, Information and Inclusion

Friday, January 7th, 2011

I was the lead author on a new forecast looking at the next ten years of developments at the intersection of cities, information and inclusion. This study was funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The full PDF is a free download or you can browse an interactive Prezi version.

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My Dissertation Online at MIT D-Space

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Wow, my dissertation will live on the Internet as long as MIT does http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/30041

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Regional Knowledge Ecosystems: Laying the Groundwork for Future Technology-Based Economic Development

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

This article appeared recently in ED Now, the newsletter of the International Economic Development Council. Download PDF: Regional Knowledge Ecosystems: Laying the Groundwork for Future Technology-Based Economic Development

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Foreword to “Handbook of Urban Informatics”

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

This was published recently, and blogged about over on Richard Florida’s Creative Cities blog.  PDF (1.8 Mb)

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Augmenting Public Space and Authoring Public Art: The Role of Locative Media

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

A new article I wrote for a Spanish art journal published by the open University of Catalonia. Augmenting Public Space and Authoring Public Art: The Role of Locative Media Abstract: Locative media remain a useful frame for understanding how collaborative sensing will broadly empower groups to author alternative narratives of urban public space. The case of [...]

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New Manuscript: Thinking in Telepathic Cities

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

This one is bound to be an Anthony Townsend classic. If you understand it, please email me and tell me what it’s about, because I’m still not sure I quite get it myself. It will be published later this year in a volume of works arising out of the conference on Towards A Philosophy of [...]

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“New York: City of the Telephone”

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

This is a chapter I co-authored with Mitchell Moss for the catalog book accompanying Carlo Ratti’s New York Talk Exchange exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: City of the Telephone

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Forthcoming Essay in Sherry Turkle’s “Falling for Science: Objects in Mind”

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

I wrote this as a student in Sherry Turkle and Mitchell Resnick’s “Systems and Self” seminar at the MIT Media Lab during my doctoral coursework. It’s going to appear in Sherry’s forthcoming edited volume, “Falling for Science: Objects in Mind”. It should be available for purchase at MIT Press soon (http://mitpress.mit.edu/ catalog/author/default.asp?aid=3954) ——– The Modem [...]

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