Abstract
This chapter addresses the nature of computing, proposing that it is best understood as a form of communication. It reviews the history of computing from a locational perspective, and the changes that have led to substantial Itinerant, distributed, and ubiquitous computing (IDU) capabilities. The chapter discusses the technologies of IDU computing, including hardware, software, and communications and examines IDU computing within an economic framework, to address questions of costs and benefits. It focuses on distributed computing from the perspectives of libraries and central facilities location theory, in an effort to cast IDU computing within the framework of traditional arrangements for the production and dissemination of information. The chapter also focuses on locational history has already hinted at how the location of computing might be placed within an economic framework. It argues that theme, and presents a basis for research on the costs, benefits, and economic value of distributed and mobile computing.