Information Flow Derivative Role Of Theory And Empirical Research

The construction of"Commission on the Geography of Information Society"and the research themes it put forward incorporating internet, geo-cyberspace, information and communication technologies, e-commerce and virtual communities, have been focused on by many geographic scholars. Especially, they spend a lot of time and energy in exploring the four effects of information and communication technologies to geographic space, that is, replacement effect, coordination effect, enforcement effect and derivation effect. However, the discussion to this issue is mainly conducted from qualitative analysis. This situation more or less obstructs the further development of this issue. Taking the information flow of website as a starting point, this thesis calculated the derivation effect of group of study-abroad and immigration to the group of VFR (visiting friends or relatives) by quantitative method. Meanwhile, the author tries to incorporate the several themes together put forward by"Commission on the Geography of Information Society".This thesis has five parts, as is shown in the following:The first part is the introduction. On the base of introducing research background, methods and thoughts, we summarize the significance and innovation of this thesis.The second part is the review of relative research. By reviewing the research of geo-cyberspace, virtual space and internet, virtual communities and new methods for geography, we draw a conclusion that first, previous research mainly developed from material and external layer and lacked further study from internal layer; second, quantitative analysis is less while qualitative one is more.The third part is a main body of the whole thesis. Six elements of derivation effect of information flow are introduced including people, medium, perception, embodiment, place and"bridge". The thesis elaborates the relationship of six elements. Then, the characteristics of Sino-Australia study-abroad and immigration exchange are summarized under the derivation effect.The fourth part is another core. By improving the model of gravity and virtual distance, we put forward the new concept"derivation intensity", calculated the derivation intensity. In order to test the feasibility of the model, we forecast the human flows in 2007-2009 and draw an analogy with official forecast of Australian Government. The results show that they are accordable to a large extent.The fifth part is the conclusion.