Chicago shouldnt be in the same level, but makes its own level or even a higher level. Who say that Chicago can't be its own level, instead of an inferrior one?

Chicago shouldnt be in the same level, but makes its own level or even a higher level. Who say that Chicago can't be its own level, instead of an inferrior one?


Chicago? On a higer level than NYC, London, Tokyo, and Paris?

:laugh: :hilarious :hilarious :hilarious :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: m)) :lol: :yes: :hahaha: :hahaha: :lol:

We've done all right in 150 years. Just wait.

Patience.

But Chicago has the 10 million population plus a higher GDP Per Capita than all the countries of the EU but tiny Luxembourg.
i don't think comparing a city to a country is fair. Towns always have higher gdp than farms for example.

I love Chicago it`s a beautiful, amazing city and when I had to choose where I want to live between NYC and Chicago, I think I would choose Chicago(Ok I think that`s because I visited NYC several times only for a few days, whereas I lived two month in Chicago some years ago). But back to topic: In comparison to the big four and to some other european cities big parts of the inner part of Chicago have especially in the evening a lack of the vivid urban flair, that imo decorate a real great city.

I swear, half the posts in this topic include "inferiority complex." Think of something a bit original if you're going to flame someone, ok? Or is that what they teach you over there? How to come up with little witty remarks and hold on to one or two little phrases and use them as insults?

On a side note, The Adler School of Professional Psychology is in Chicago. So thank you for the free publicity?

I love Chicago more than any other city, but I don't think it's on the same level as NYC, Paris, and London.

But, did you know that the Chicago Merchantile exchange handles 300 trillion dollars of trades a year?

I swear, half the posts in this topic include "inferiority complex." Think of something a bit original if you're going to flame someone, ok? Or is that what they teach you over there? How to come up with little witty remarks and hold on to one or two little phrases and use them as insults?

Calm down and tell us explicit whom you are reproaching inferiority. Perhaps us bad bad Europeans or how can I understand this parthian "...over there...".

I love Chicago more than any other city, but I don't think it's on the same level as NYC, Paris, and London.

But, did you know that the Chicago Merchantile exchange handles 300 trillion dollars of trades a year?

No it doesn't. That's a load of rubbish. Don't believe those things cause there is probably not that much money in the world.

No it doesn't. That's a load of rubbish. Don't believe those things cause there is probably not that much money in the world.

Neither is there that much money in the world as circulates yearly (or monthly) on the London currency markets. They're just turning over the same dollars, euros, yen etc.

It's not about total volume. What do you think the margins are on each currency trade? They're absolutely razor thin. Perhaps a better way to look at the financial impact of each city is the revenue of all the finance-related businesses in that city, or perhaps total employment, or some combination of the two.

Neither is there that much money in the world as circulates yearly (or monthly) on the London currency markets. They're just turning over the same dollars, euros, yen etc.

It's not about total volume. What do you think the margins are on each currency trade? They're absolutely razor thin. Perhaps a better way to look at the financial impact of each city is the revenue of all the finance-related businesses in that city, or perhaps total employment, or some combination of the two.

I would answer this if theEnglish was good enough for me to understand.

I would answer this if theEnglish was good enough for me to understand.

ouch

He's probably talking about this:

2003
Number of contracts traded (round turn trades)
640.2 million contracts (+15% from the same period of 2002) valued at $333.7 trillion

GLOBEX® volume
282.4 million contracts (+43%)

Period's high for open interest (number of contracts outstanding at the close of trading; a measure of liquidity)
Nearly 35.4 million positions on Dec. 11, 2003

I would answer this if theEnglish was good enough for me to understand.

Oh the English is fine for anyone who knows anything about how markets work.

OK let me brush up on my English as a first language book. The value of all currency trades that take place on London exchanges over the course of a year almost certainly exceeds the total amount of money supply in the world. Is that English? Or should I limit myself to words with less than 5 letters?

That must mean that the same money is "turned over" more than once. Let's say you pay Mr Johnson $1 for his chocolate bar. Then he takes that same $1 bill and buys some M&Ms from you. $2 of transactions with a single $1 bill.

Comparing turnover on the NYSE (stock exchange) to turnover on the London currency exchanges is like comparing apples to oranges. The [profit] margin on each $1 of currency transactions is much lower than the margin on each $1 of stock transactions.

A better way to compare the importance of finance in London vs NY vs Tokyo vs Chicago might be to look at the total revenue of all financial companies in each city. Or perhaps to look at the total number of people employed by the financial indurstry in each city. Or a combination of the two.

Oh the English is fine for anyone who knows anything about how markets work.

I know how the market works, and no that English was not fine. Also, I don't need a long explanation about it because I know about it already.

OK let me brush up on my English as a first language book. The value of all currency trades that take place on London exchanges over the course of a year almost certainly exceeds the total amount of money supply in the world. Is that English? Or should I limit myself to words with less than 5 letters?

That must mean that the same money is "turned over" more than once. Let's say you pay Mr Johnson $1 for his chocolate bar. Then he takes that same $1 bill and buys some M&Ms from you. $2 of transactions with a single $1 bill.

Comparing turnover on the NYSE (stock exchange) to turnover on the London currency exchanges is like comparing apples to oranges. The [profit] margin on each $1 of currency transactions is much lower than the margin on each $1 of stock transactions.

A better way to compare the importance of finance in London vs NY vs Tokyo vs Chicago might be to look at the total revenue of all financial companies in each city. Or perhaps to look at the total number of people employed by the financial indurstry in each city. Or a combination of the two.


Wow, I've never encountered such arrogant egotism from someone who can't even speak English properly(though I must say that this post was significantly better than the last.. Mrs. Johnson would be very proud of you.)

Plus, your example was trading which is different from turnover. What would the logic be in buyiung something from someone and then paying them for something with the same money that they just payed you. Wouldn't you just trade the two items??? Better go ask Mrs. Johnson about that one!!

I'm aware of how daily/annual turnover works. But to say that in Chicago there is $330 trillion dollars turned over annually is proposterous.

Also, to say that Chicago has 4 times the turnover that NYC (New York City) is just too hard for me to believe.

Wow, I've never encountered such arrogant egotism from someone who can't even speak English properly(though I must say that this post was significantly better than the last.. Mrs. Johnson would be very proud of you.) .

you're very witty, aren't you?

Didn't I post this already?

The Chicago futures and options exchanges collectively dominate exchange-based derivatives trading in the U.S.
2003 U.S. Exchange-Traded Futures & Options
Chicago63%
New York16%
Philadelphia5%
San Francisco4%
Kansas City<1%
Minneapolis<1%

Top 2003 Global Derivatives Centers (by volume of trades)
Chicago1.38 billion
New York.59 billion
Frankfurt.48 billion
London.44 billion
Zurich.43 billion
Sao Palo.30 billion
Paris.28 billion
Mexico City.17 billion
Tokyo.13 billion
Philadelphia.11 billion

When it comes to scale, the U.S. derivatives market is still the biggest single market in the world and of course Chicago is at its center.
2003 Notional Value of Contracts Traded at Top 5 Exchanges ($ trillion)
Chicago Mercantile Exchange$334
EuronextLiffe$252
Eurex$80
Chicago Board of Trade$77
Chicago Board Options Exchange$5

Chicago's financial services sector added more jobs during the preceding business cycle than the other top U.S. finance centers.
1990-2000
Chicago+28,600 jobs (+23.1%)
New York-20,000 jobs (-6.1%)
Los Angeles-27,300 jobs (-21.3%)

And turnover is important because it indicated the amount of people/companies that want to do business in a particular city. i guarentee that Chicago does not have an annual turnover of $330 trillion dollars. Just to comprehend how much money a trillion dollars is, think of this. If you spend 10 million dollars every minute, it would take you 100 years to spend 500 trillion dollars.

So, according to my calculations, 10 million dollars is "turned over" every second in Chicago. Sounds right!!!(sarcasm)

you're very witty, aren't you?

aparently you can't come up with a response, so my comment must have been pretty witty.

And turnover is important because it indicated the amount of people/companies that want to do business in a particular city.

So why not look at the total revenue of financial companies, and the number of people employed in the financial industry, in London, NY, Chicago, and Tokyo. That would solve the problem. And who knows, London might even win. But don't throw currency trading numbers at us and expect everyone to bow down before London.

aparently you can't come up with a response, so my comment must have been pretty witty.

Are you sure you're not in 5th grade?

No sorry, I forgot. However, if I was in the fifth grade, there would be a chance that I would be in your class. After all it is a small world.

I know how the market works, and no that English was not fine. Also, I don't need a long explanation about it because I know about it already.

You obviously don't know considering this statement:

Plus, your example was trading which is different from turnover. What would the logic be in buyiung something from someone and then paying them for something with the same money that they just payed you. Wouldn't you just trade the two items??? Better go ask Mrs. Johnson about that one!!

What you speak of is called bartering. Money came into existence for a reason... as a means of exchange. Such a transaction could not go through without a currency that all three people in the transaction given as an example put faith in. That's what currency trading is.


I'm aware of how daily/annual turnover works. But to say that in Chicago there is $330 trillion dollars turned over annually is proposterous.

Also, to say that Chicago has 4 times the turnover that NYC (New York City) is just too hard for me to believe.

Facts don't lie. Face it. Besides, turnover isn't that important anyway... you contradicted yourself.

So why not look at the total revenue of financial companies, and the number of people employed in the financial industry, in London, NY, Chicago, and Tokyo. That would solve the problem. And who knows, London might even win. But don't throw currency trading numbers at us and expect everyone to bow down before London.

Because daily turnover reflect the amount of business that takes place in a city in a period of time(which is very important for companies when choosiing their headquarters ect. ect.

You obviously don't know considering this statement:



What you speak of is called bartering. Money came into existence for a reason... as a means of exchange. Such a transaction could not go through without a currency that all three people in the transaction given as an example put faith in. That's what currency trading is.



Facts don't lie. Face it. Besides, turnover isn't that important anyway... you contradicted yourself.

What I was talking about is trading. You don't buy something from someone, and then let them by someting from you for the same price. You would just trade the two objects. An example of turnover would be if I bought something from you, and then you sold that thing to someone else. Two transactions take place with the same amount of money. I know that wasn't a good example.

Because daily turnover reflect the amount of business that takes place in a city in a period of time(which is very important for companies when choosiing their headquarters ect. ect.

Tell me again why we can't just look at the total revenue of financial companies in NY, London, Tokyo, Chicago etc? Why do we have to use various daily turnover numbers as proxies?

And once more, just in case you forgot, comparing currency market turnover to stock market turnover is like comparing apples to oranges.

Back to Chicago,

Another reason it is in the same league as any city on the planet(in addition to the hundred or so things mentioned in its favor so far)

is Rotary International. Rotary is like the Red Cross of Charity



About Rotary

Rotary History
A Brief History
Rotary History in Depth

• The Early Years
• Rotary Goes Global
• Evolution of The Rotary Foundation
• Programs for Young People
• Rotary Today and Tomorrow




The world's first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on 23 February 1905 by Paul P. Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The name "Rotary" derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United States in the decade that followed; clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents, and the organization adopted the name Rotary International a year later.

As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization's dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service Above Self. Rotary also later embraced a code of ethics, called The 4-Way Test, that has been translated into hundreds of languages.

During and after World War II, Rotarians became increasingly involved in promoting international understanding. In 1945, 49 Rotary members served in 29 delegations to the United Nations Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and promoting the United Nations in Rotary publications. Rotary International's relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) dates back to a 1943 London Rotary conference that promoted international cultural and educational exchanges. Attended by ministers of education and observers from around the world, and chaired by a past president of RI, the conference was an impetus to the establishment of UNESCO in 1946.


An endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in the world," became a not-for-profit corporation known as The Rotary Foundation in 1928. Upon the death of Paul Harris in 1947, an outpouring of Rotarian donations made in his honor, totaling US$2 million, launched the Foundation's first program — graduate fellowships, now called Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, contributions to The Rotary Foundation total more than US$80 million annually and support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world.

In 1985, Rotary made a historic commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and national governments thorough its PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio eradication campaign. Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. By the 2005 target date for certification of a polio-free world, Rotary will have contributed half a billion dollars to the cause.

As it approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service effort to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk. The organization admitted women for the first time (worldwide) in 1989 and claims more than 145,000 women in its ranks today. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to some 31,000 Rotary clubs in 166 countries.

Tell me again why we can't just look at the total revenue of financial companies in NY, London, Tokyo, Chicago etc? Why do we have to use various daily turnover numbers as proxies?

And once more, just in case you forgot, comparing currency market turnover to stock market turnover is like comparing apples to oranges.

brooklyn, do you think that you can add (the right) financial numbers to come up with why a city like New York is greater than a city like Chicago? Is this about crunching numbers, because, if it is, those numbers change constantly and neither you nor I are in a position where the numbers will be in twenty, ten, let alone five years from now.

I personally think Chicago does share a lot of New York's greatness, and my opinion relates to more than just number crunching. If,on some level, finanacial issues are related to what are the world's most important cities, they don't relate to what are the world's greatest cities in the same way. A city like Paris would always rank among the world's greatest, no matter what its future financial role is.

I, for one, am happy that Chgo has a lower profile than NYC; it allows us to be more of what we wish to be than to be shaped by the transient nature of those who are living in our city at the moment, but are not really a part of it.

That said, I realize those are my views and not others. My standard reply has been: Chicago works for me. And it does. IMHO, it is the greatest of cities because it offers the full range of urbanity in one of the most user-friendly and attractive urban environments anywhere. In that sense, my own sense of Chicago's greatness is more important to me than the thoughts of non-Chicagoans.

I've also said this before, but I'll include it here as I feel it is relevant: if you ask most people which city is greaters, NY or Chgo, far more would say New York. If you ask Chicagoans the same question, you'd find that the majority would answer Chicago. That's because Chicagoans really do believe our city is as good as it gets as an urban center, aren't in awe of NYC (Tokyo, London) or any city, and are basically unaffected that others see things differently than we do on that issue.

Ditto,

this explains why
http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/3dcafe/cha101.htm

and the following thread highlights edsg25 thoughts perfectly.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=199866

edsg25 - while I appreciate your love for our fair city (remember I've lived here, city and burbs, my whole life, but refuse to look at this place through rose colored glasses) I'm not entirely sure the most Chicagoans feel the same way you do (and I mean this in the nicest possible way).

I do.

Chicago is the planet's hometown.

brooklyn, do you think that you can add (the right) financial numbers to come up with why a city like New York is greater than a city like Chicago? Is this about crunching numbers, because, if it is, those numbers change constantly and neither you nor I are in a position where the numbers will be in twenty, ten, let alone five years from now.

I personally think Chicago does share a lot of New York's greatness, and my opinion relates to more than just number crunching. If,on some level, finanacial issues are related to what are the world's most important cities, they don't relate to what are the world's greatest cities in the same way. A city like Paris would always rank among the world's greatest, no matter what its future financial role is.

I, for one, am happy that Chgo has a lower profile than NYC; it allows us to be more of what we wish to be than to be shaped by the transient nature of those who are living in our city at the moment, but are not really a part of it.

That said, I realize those are my views and not others. My standard reply has been: Chicago works for me. And it does. IMHO, it is the greatest of cities because it offers the full range of urbanity in one of the most user-friendly and attractive urban environments anywhere. In that sense, my own sense of Chicago's greatness is more important to me than the thoughts of non-Chicagoans.

I've also said this before, but I'll include it here as I feel it is relevant: if you ask most people which city is greaters, NY or Chgo, far more would say New York. If you ask Chicagoans the same question, you'd find that the majority would answer Chicago. That's because Chicagoans really do believe our city is as good as it gets as an urban center, aren't in awe of NYC (Tokyo, London) or any city, and are basically unaffected that others see things differently than we do on that issue.

I personally think that most chicagoans would say that new york was greater actually. I think that we hold a strong belief that our city is COMPLETE, but not necessarily the best. You see, as i view it, you can find what you need in chicago, it is not necessaily the best one, but it sure satifies your taste. You could apply that to most catagories. Chicagoans may be confident, but they're not delusional :)

The thing is that the British can't accept that we have two cities that are more important than London.
Chicago has more population than London's, and the GDP per Capita is extremely higher than London, and that is a fact.
Chicago has everything to be consider one of the most important cities in the world.

Since when did Chicago have a higher population than London?

Chicago
city: 2,900,000
metro: 9,700,000

London
city: 7,600,000
metro: 18,400,000

There's no way in hell that Los Angeles comes ahead of Chicago in international business. Studies have already shown that Chicago is more globally connected than Los Angeles in that sense. All the movies in the world can't change that.

Los Angeles is an alpha media city and Chicago cannot compete in that sense.

Imports and exports in LA blow Chicago away. Business includes more than just dudes in suits you know.

edsg25 - while I appreciate your love for our fair city (remember I've lived here, city and burbs, my whole life, but refuse to look at this place through rose colored glasses) I'm not entirely sure the most Chicagoans feel the same way you do (and I mean this in the nicest possible way).

aion, i'm certainly not uncomfortable with your observation. that said, the vast majority of chicagoans i know do feel that way.

I think Chicago is the same level with Nagoya and Milan.

brooklyn, do you think that you can add (the right) financial numbers to come up with why a city like New York is greater than a city like Chicago? Is this about crunching numbers, because, if it is, those numbers change constantly and neither you nor I are in a position where the numbers will be in twenty, ten, let alone five years from now.

Nobody is saying that Chicago can't possibly increase its profile. What people are saying is that in the here and now Chicago is very obviously not at the absolute top tier of cities. Maybe it will be someday... there's no real way to know.

That said, I realize those are my views and not others. My standard reply has been: Chicago works for me. And it does.

Definitely. Chicago is a badass city, easily as interesting and fun as any other place. The fact that it's on a level slightly below NYC or London doesn't hurt its livability at all; if anything, one of the things that makes Chicago great is that it has a remarkably relaxed feel. People will actually talk to you on the street, and the city has a relatively small ego. If anything I think that Chicago is a much better place because of NYC's spotlight-hogging personality.

^that's the usual ignorance of this whole board. A lot of cities are highly over inflated on this board because they are most important in given country. That doesn't make them more important than or even on the level of Chicago.

Most interesting is that in this very post, Chicago is accused of certain things it is not, while said criteria can be used against those cities too. Those cities that are called the big 4 on this board are simply that. Instead of people just posting that Chicago isn't on the level, I'd like to see some actual evidence or criteria to compare Chicago to these other cities with. That's my challenge for this board. Prove that Chicago isn't on par.

Post of the thread, and he is still waiting for his proof. The problem is this site is Anti-American and Chicago is about as American as you can get.

Recently, the City of Chicago undertook a year-long “branding study” of Chicago’s role in the world marketplace. Study participants, more than eighty corporate and media executives, were asked who Chicago would be if it were a person. The two most popular answers were Tom Hanks and Joe Montana, which, when crunched through a sophistic equation, correlated to a “famous” person who was “mainstream but slightly bland… broad shouldered, but would need some time in the gym.”

The study didn’t tell Chicagoans anything they didn’t already know. Chicago belongs to the pantheon of hardcore capitalist business and transit centers that drive the world economy: Hong Kong, Singapore, Frankfurt, Osaka, Milan. Each of these cities rose to prominence on equal parts geographic location and direct relationship to larger cosmopolitan centers such as New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, and Rome. While the second-tier global cities labor in the shadows of their larger siblings, they provide the infrastructure and raw materials that make the larger cities work.

For Chicago, its advantages were initially natural, as the main water and, later, rail hub for goods coming to and from the western frontier—though, as historian William Cronon points out in his epic Nature’s Metropolis, Toledo or St. Louis could have filled that bill just as well if not for the city’s farsighted move to raise the capital to open the Illinois-Michigan Canal in 1848. When highways replaced railroads as the primary mode of ground travel, the U.S. interstates all converged just west of the city. As commercial aviation grew into a global enterprise, Chicago laid claim to the world’s busiest airport. When the information age came to the fore, Chicago’s leaders took deliberate steps to make sure that Chicago would retain its hub function. In an industry in which location, supposedly, does not matter, Chicago’s leaders found ways to make geography work for them—and began, long before the boom of the late ‘90s, to stake its claim for a particular niche in the tech industry.

“The Internet means nothing without the communications networks to support it,” says Dan Lyne, Director of Tech Development for World Business Chicago. “Pound for pound, Chicago boasts the most advanced wired or unwired digital infrastructure of any single metro in the United States ... if not the world.” Nobody talks about Chicago as a tech city. But the advanced networking systems being developed there—though less sexy than the new hardware, software, and web applications being developed in Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley—are helping drive a revolution in Chicago’s economy. With a rate of change from manufacturing to service jobs that outpaces even New York, Chicago is playing a critical, if unheralded, role in the new economy—a role paying dividends like a 38 percent annual growth rate in downtown living and a projected increase of 1.6 million square feet of office space within the downtown Loop for each of the next twenty years.


The Work of Chicago’s Innovators

Joe Mambretti sits in the ground floor conference room of a recently constructed, low-rise office building in downtown Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. He is staring out the window at building cranes creaking and swinging across the partially poured concrete apartment towers that have begun to litter the west side of this once teetotaling college town. Mambretti is the Director of the International Center for Advanced Internet Research, based at Northwestern University, and he looks like he doesn’t often leave his office. His salt and cinnamon hair is mussed, and he twirls a pen in his hand, smiling in an uninterrupted manner that says, my boy, you have no idea what is waiting for you right around the corner.

“Dan Lyne sent you here to talk about why Chicago is the center of the advanced networking universe, and why no one but the three of us knows about it,” he says—begrudgingly accepting the current state of affairs but delighted that I have shown interest. “What do you know about large-scale network infrastructures?”

“Absolutely nothing,” I reply.

He nods, with no discernible decrease in delight. Apparently, this is not an uncommon answer. “It helps to know, so take a look at this.”

On the conference table sits a roughly 4'x2' super-HDTV set channeling the future of the Internet. It’s only a prototype, but it’s jaw-dropping. The screen has substantially higher resolution and overall quality than those available today. The frame within the screen resembles a webpage but with multiple video streams and data fields. In one corner CNN is rebroadcasting footage of the Howard Dean meltdown in Iowa. To the bottom, a smaller video window shows an Indian cricket match. Uttering the word “search” reveals a small window, which, when “fish” is entered, displays a page of thumbnail images. Each represents a video clip from somewhere in the world that mentions the word “fish.”

As Mambretti surfs the world’s cable networks in a manner that today can be done only by satellite, he explains to me that worldwide Internet traffic is doubling every year. Massive global applications like 3-D design imaging and Computer Assisted Design networks consume a much larger chunk of bandwidth than DSL, digital cable, or even business and government networks. These applications, employed by auto manufacturers and architects, engineers and geneticists, and bio and nanotechnologists, require a medium that can transport terabytes of data. Mambretti and his colleagues’ solution is to use light.

Distilling astrophysics and broadcast engineering into one workable concept, Mambretti and his partners are developing “lightpaths,” known as photonic networks, which will travel across optical fiber lines bundled in thousands of strands. To that end, Mambretti and a select coalition of Illinois’ technical and research communities, including the International Center for Advanced Internet Research, Northwestern, the University of Illinois-Chicago, Fermi Labs, Argonne National Laboratory, the National Center for Superconducting Applications, and the University of Chicago, have already begun to construct the world’s largest, fastest, and most advanced information networks—and hardly anyone knows about it. For the next half-hour I am led on a mind-bending multimedia presentation of the various National Science Foundation-funded global super-networks Mambretti has helped build, starting with the Startap network hub (http://www.startap.net), created in 1997, and continuing with StarLight, the next generation network developed in 2002.

Most recently, the Global Ring Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD) provides a cutting-edge tool for researchers around the world to address vital scientific issues like joint responses to natural and manmade disasters, safeguards for nuclear materials, better understanding of the human genome, joint exploration of space, monitoring of seismic events, and environmental studies and simulations. GLORIAD begins in Chicago at the StarLight facility, managed by the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University. The network’s lines cross the Atlantic Ocean to the NetherLight facility in Amsterdam, continue to Moscow, then to the Russian science city of Novosibirsk, and across Siberia to the Chinese border at Zabajkal’sk. After crossing the border to Manzhouli, the network continues to Beijing, then Hong Kong, then crosses the Pacific Ocean to complete the ring in Chicago. From the StarLight hub, other networks in Chicago soon will be able to connect to GLORIAD.

On a daily basis, Mambretti and his colleagues deal with concepts that are, pardon the pun, light years ahead of public comprehension. Yet he predicts that the capacity for data transfer embodied in GLORIAD, the video search capacities on a HDTV screen, and other technologies will be commonplace in the home in the near future. Five years from now, Googling will mean accessing every piece of media in the world, digitized and cross-referenced to be available through one portal with a single command. Say you are working intently on dinner in your kitchen, thinking about having fish, sea bass in particular, and you want a unique recipe. You ask your screen to search for “sea bass,” “dinner recipes,” and “2009,” and it retrieves a list of cooking programs aired anywhere in the world during 2009 that featured sea bass. You can then narrow your search to English-speaking programs or even find the exact second at which a specific word is uttered, say, “cilantro.” And you can bet that, somewhere in the mix, the information you receive will come through Chicago.


The Planetary Hub of the Future

“I love the Hub metaphor for Chicago, but most of our historical hub distinctions were designated by geography,” Mambretti says. “This is the one that was not. These types of people and institutions do not happen passively. Our research community had to work very hard to create them. We have put in the investment and built the infrastructure while other cities are still asking themselves how they can attract the tech community. What we have done here in Chicago, the infrastructure we have built, will be the basis of the digital economy of the future. It was, of many examples, one of the primary reasons Boeing chose to relocate here.”

Still, geography had quite a bit to do with it, as did Chicago’s historical role as Hub City. As Dan Lyne mentioned, Chicago is one of the most wired cities in the world, offering broadband access to almost every sector of the city and the bulk of the metropolitan area. This innovation was possible largely because the nation’s network of fiber optic cable developed primarily along rail rights-of-way, which converge on downtown Chicago. Local data lines use existing freight tunnels to extend throughout downtown. The overall network of the region has been heavily developed by the private sector, most notably the original Bell company and then Ameritech, and lately by RCN, AT&T, and Comcast, which laid out the networks that analog cable and DSL use today. These same companies are converting their old hub-and-spoke copper networks to fiber optic cable networks in order to carry all-digital signals.

Already, Chicago has leveraged these unique advantages to seize commercial opportunities. For example, Mambretti helped design and build the most advanced convention/hotel/exhibition network in the world for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the agency that welcomes twelve million visitors a year to Chicago’s behemoth McCormick Place convention center and Navy Pier. Known as “Internet2,” this high-speed, high-capacity network allows for instantaneous transfer of multiple files consisting of hundreds of megabytes of data each. By comparison, today’s “broadband” can only handle somewhere from 1.5 to 3 megabytes per second.

Ellen Barry, Chief Information Officer of the MPEA, says she became aware of Chicago’s place in the tech world when the city began losing convention business to cities like Atlanta, Orlando, and San Diego. Barry and her colleagues realized that they needed to act fast to stem the outflow of conventions, or else one of Chicago’s core industries might collapse.

Barry learned that McCormick Place had “second–class” Internet service and desperately needed an upgrade. She committed herself to developing a “plug-and-play system where we can get a high-speed connection to anyone in any area of our complexes within ten minutes.” That may seem like a standard requirement today, but only four years ago it was a logistical nightmare. In early 2001, Barry struck a deal with Cisco Systems to rewire the complex. Cisco installed the backbone equipment, and the MPEA laid all 500 miles of fiber optic wiring. With that step completed, Barry worked to connect MPEA with the Metropolitan Research and Education Network so that it can connect to the Abilene national networks and the international networks at StarLight, and so that it would be compatible not only with Internet2 but also the forthcoming “National Lambda Rail” technology, which some call “Internet3.”

As a result, SUPERCOMM 2004, the world’s largest annual gathering for communication service providers and private network managers, returns to Chicago this year after more than a decade away. Launched in 1988, the event has rotated among several cities, including Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, and Anaheim. SUPERCOMM will make its home at McCormick Place for the next three years, a major coup for the City That Works.


Building Networks for All

Chicago is using its leadership position in Internet infrastructure not only to attract business, but also to tackle the “digital divide” by providing universal access throughout the city to high-speed Internet. CivicNet, a ten-year, $320 million, private sector incentive program to accelerate the development of high-speed communications in Chicago neighborhoods, would create a giant network to provide data and voice services to the city’s agencies and facilities. The network would aggregate the business of city agencies by connecting all public buildings—schools, park district field houses, Chicago Housing Authority buildings, transit stations, police and fire stations, and public libraries—to a single network, creating some 1,600 node sites from which fiber optic lines can be laid out to provide Internet access for every building on every block of the city.

CivicNet is an ambitious plan that, unfortunately, rings of much of the optimism of the late ‘90s tech boom. Local telecom group RCN, which was to have already built all the fiber optic lines, has been in major financial straits since the recent economic downturn and has defaulted on all its local funding and development agreements with the city. Still, city officials and Mambretti assure naysayers that the project is on track, just being adapted to another timetable.

Regardless of what becomes of CivicNet, this project is significant if only because it has diagrammed what future city networks will look like and how “network” access could eventually be made available to all, just as TV and radio were. When the first CivicNet is in place, the infrastructure will exist to introduce next generation optical networking, and eventually photonic tera-networks like Lambda Rail, StarLight, and TransLight, to the general population.

Chicago has perfected the distribution of essential commodities, taking everything imaginable and spinning it once through the hub before flinging it out to the far corners of the globe. Because of the persistent effort of local visionaries in academia, business, and government, Chicago is rising to the upper tier of the tech world. Through new high-speed networks radiating out from this Big City on the Lake, in the future everyone and everything, whether physically or virtually, will pass through Chicago.

I think it can be at the same level

and the following thread highlights edsg25 thoughts perfectly.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=199866

He doesn't have any posts in that thread. All I saw was you propping up your pointless ego.

My ego is fine.....yours on the other hand......

You are the one who spends so much time defending London. I haven't seen one person from Chicago putting down any other city. Most Chicagoans believe Chicago to be on the same level as any other city.

If you say London is greater than Chicago so be it. I challenge you to find a Chicagoan on the board who wouldn't respect your feelings.

However, if someone says the opposite, you go ape shit. You feel the need to attack others strongly held opinions.

It's you who has the problem.

My ego is fine.....yours on the other hand......

You are the one who spends so much time defending London. I haven't seen one person from Chicago putting down any other city. Most Chicagoans believe Chicago to be on the same level as any other city.

If you say London is greater than Chicago so be it. I challenge you to find a Chicagoan on the board who wouldn't respect your feelings.

However, if someone says the opposite, you go ape shit. You feel the need to attack others strongly held opinions.

It's you who has the problem.

First of all, I can back up my ego with facts. The only things I criticize are people's comments, not their opinions. I don't care if people think that Chicago is better than London, but when they provide eroneous proof for their argument, that makes me mad. I ould also challenge you to find a londoner on the board who would not respect your opinion (besides, I am not a Londoner).

Can you please define what "go ape shit" means because I am having trouble understanding it.

Then you tell me that I attack other people, but you are the one saying that I have a problem. I never said you had a problem. All I said was that you had an overly large ego, and there is no problem with that.

And to answer this quetion, no Chicago is not on the same level as NYC, Paris, London, or Tokyo.If you looks at the poll, you'll find that most people agree with that statement.

I DON'T THINK SO, CHICAGO IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT WORLDWIDE

NOT AS PLACES LIKE TOKYO, LONDON, PARIS OR NEW YORK CITY.

Is Chicago at the same level as New York-London-Paris-Tokyo????
YEEES

This is insane. Chicago is not, under any circumstances whatsoever, at the same level of those cities. No one (but people from Mid-America) thinks so.

Chicago is nice, but so is Madrid. No one claims that Madrid is in the same league as Paris, for example.

This is insane.
I agree. This thread is ridiculous.

I agree. This thread is ridiculous.

Technically you are wrong. Yours was the 301st post on the thread. according to the skyscraper city's Thread Classification Manual, threads are classified as follows:

1: Introductory post

2-40: Move discussion 180 degrees from introductory post

41-100: Explaining why 2-40 has little to do with topic

101-150: Rapid rise of insults and references to people's mothers

150-225: words used must have more than 3 letters and less than 5

226-310: bordering on questionable judgement

311-350: ridiculous (see, you were only off by 10 posts)

350-395: Idiotic

395-410: No sign of brain waves

411-: Even National Enquirer won't handle it

:lol:

But the question is: If Chicago would be in England and London in Illinois, wouldn't Chicago be considered one of the big 4 and London overshadowed by New York??
Saying that the only reason that why Chicago isn't there is because of it's geographical position sounds silly.

And to my English friends, I love London, I think it's one of the best cities in the world, it was just an example.


:bash: :bash: :bash: :bash:

If London was in the U.S.? your forgetting that London is the seat of the entire national government of england, Is its largest city by far, and its sourounding region is disproportionally richer and more important than the U.K.s other regions, the equivilant in the U.S. would not be Chicago, but MORE LIKE New York combined with Washington D.C.

this certainly is a love fest for the Official Unquestionably Greatest Cities of the World (OUGCW). I stand in awe. They clearly are two or three cuts above the mere mortal cities that make up the rest, they're blessed by God, and rulers of the universe. Kings of the hills, tops of the peaks.

I'm convinced.

But tell me, if the powerhouses that are New York, London, and Tokyo each had a penis, how long would it be?

Chicago is the defacto capitol of the midwest, a region larger and more populous than the UK, for what it's worth.

And...? It's not its own country. There are other regions with more population than both the Midwest and the UK (which are only separated by a couple million). How about wealth and density?

The Midwest has a higher income per Capita than the UK.

Is anyone getting tired of this thread?

:lock:

noooooo, Chicago is not at the same level.

Is anyone getting tired of this thread?

:lock:

no, i'm still trying to find out if witchita is really on the same level as mobile, shreveport, spokane, and rochester. have we discussed it yet; i may have dozed off between posts 278-294.

It's pointless trying to argue with Rockford anyway.

He won't budge an inch on his views. As far as he's concerned, Chicago is quite clearly, well-and-truly, head-and-shoulders above every other city in the world, and there's simply no question about it.