Columbia University professor Saskia Sassen notes in the NYTE project catalog that "the striking piece of evidence coming out of this project is that global talk happens both at the top of the economy and at its lower end. The vast middle layers of our society are far less global; the middle talks mostly nationally and locally."

In addition, with the help of British Telecom data, the team was able to compare the relative connectedness of business rivals London and New York City. So far, the data has shown that New York has more global reach into Asian and South American business hubs, such as Beijing, China; Bogota, Colombia; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. London, conversely, has more reach into Europe and the United States. The data surprised Ratti, he says.

"The AT&T and BT data comparison hints at an interesting parallel: In an age of globalization, perhaps London's relationship to Europe is analogous to what is conventionally believed to be New York's relationship to the whole of the United States," Ratti notes in the project's overview. "The 'continent' may be closer to London than the British believe."

During the coming months (the MoMA exhibit runs until May 12, 2008) the team will, using the telecommunications data, explore how the structures of global cities are evolving, the dynamics of globalization, and whether more data transfers across the globe have any effect on the need for travel.

"In the end," Ratti notes in the overview, "the NYTE project reveals as much about the city of New York as it does about its worldwide counterparts, in areas such as business, culture and immigration. In other words, our visualizations demonstrate that in the information age, urban life is as global as it is local."