Neil Fraser
June 7, 2004
LAST WEEK'S Citichat highlighted the issue of addressing crime as one of the two key priorities identified by the Joburg 2030 strategy as necessary to create a conducive environment for growth. We made various comments on the new City Safety Strategy.
The second priority was bridging the skills gap. This is merely another part of a far broader strategy that Joburg 2030 proposes and which can be brought together by drawing in a whole lot of strands within the 2030 vision. Strands such as:
- "By 2030 the City will fully exploit economics of urbanisation as measured by increases in total factor productivity and will be seen as a world-class business location"
- "Our telecommunication infrastructure will provide increased bandwidth at lower cost and on a par with international experience"
- "World class info and data systems will exist throughout the city"
- "The 2030 labour force will be dominated by white-and blue-collar workers with a culture of numeracy, technology and high service standards"
- "All citizens will be literate and numerate; libraries, museums and education, events, and exhibits will be world-class and accessible to all"
- "A skills development project is proposed to develop a culture of learning, from churches to community centres to libraries; we will develop a culture of learning and technology"
- "Dynamic, robust and reliable information systems will be developed for both public and private sectors"
- "In the telecommunications field, it is suggested that the city embark upon a strategy to create a space for itself so that it is in a political and operational position to concretely influence the standard and cost of telecommunication systems in the city".
Tie these 2030 strands together, and many others not quoted, and what have you got? What is fast becoming known as the "Intelligent City".
An "Intelligent City" is also sometimes called a Wired City, an Intelligent or Smart Community, or an e-City. Whatever you call the phenomena, they are those cities that view communications bandwidth as the new essential utility, as vital to economic growth and public welfare as clean water and dependable electricity. Intelligent Cities view broadband communications and information technology as the new keys to prosperity.
The term "broadband" identifies communications circuits that offer greater capacity than the conventional "narrowband" telephone circuit. As the internet becomes the common platform for the internal and external operations of companies and institutions - which are themselves increasingly communications- and data-dependent - broadband is fast becoming a determiner of competitiveness. An Intelligent Community is not content to leave its broadband destiny in the hands of the market. Instead, Intelligent Communities:
- Express a clear vision of their broadband future
- Craft public policies that encourage the development of broadband services
- Promote equitable access to them by organisations and individuals at all rungs of the economic ladder
The webpage of the Intelligent Community Forum expands on this approach: "Being an Intelligent Community, however, is not a matter of technology - it is a matter of creating a culture of use for that technology. Intelligent Communities work to position their citizens, businesses and public sector to prosper in the Digital Age. Rather than trying to prop up dying industries, they eagerly embrace the growth industries of tomorrow. They train their citizens to take advantage of those jobs, provide means for low-income citizens to benefit from broadband, and work to deliver government services in electronic form more cost-effectively and efficiently than ever before. Without these non-technology efforts, the broad-band revolution risks worsening social inequality, reducing economic opportunity and constricting political participation - creating a 'gilded age' in which the benefits go to the privileged few, rather than a 'golden age' of greater prosperity, knowledge and freedom."
There are at present evidently five indicators or critical success factors that determine how competitive a community will be in the Digital Age:
- Significant deployment of broadband communications to businesses, government facilities and residences, with government providing a catalyst through regulation, e-government initiatives and even network construction when necessary;
- Effective education, training and workforce development that builds a labour force able to perform "knowledge work";
- Government and private-sector programs to overcome the Digital Divide and ensure that all sectors of society benefit from the broadband and information revolution;
- Local or regional access to risk capital that can fund the development of new businesses, which are the engine of economic growth;
- Effective economic development marketing that leverages the community's broadband, labour and other assets to attract new employers.
In the next few weeks, based on the above criteria, seven cities or communities will be announced as the Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year - it will be interesting to know who and why in each case. They are evidently chosen, not because they excel in all of the five indicators above, but because each demonstrates excellence in at least one. Note the diversity in size and type of
2003's top seven communities, what is being put in place, and some of the benefits they are already accumulating:
- Glasgow, Scotland. Following a massive decline in its traditional smokestack industries - mining, shipbuilding and heavy engineering - Glasgow (600 000 inhabitants) became the focal point for two strategies: Digital Scotland and the Knowledge Economy Taskforce. These have resulted in the city now enjoying 100% digital communication at the lowest cost in Europe, being the first city to go on-line with a 3G wireless service, attracting a R4 billion programme to develop two million square feet of new office space in its financial district to accommodate 20 000 new jobs. There is heavy investment in e-commerce support industries and e-commerce in Scotland's education, plus massive training. Unemployment has dropped from 16.8% in 1996 to 6.9%.
- Spokane, Washington. By 1980 the city of 196 000 inhabitants was in deep trouble economically - its traditional economy based on silver, timber and trading was faltering and could only get worse. The private sector recognised major possibilities in the area and started to invest in broadband connectivity from fibre to XDSL and cable modem services. The public sector came to the party with Spokane's Educational Metro Area Network, a gigabit Ethernet connection to all classrooms in more than 53 schools and an Inland Northwest Community Access Network offering internet access, training and social services resources to the economically disadvantaged. Taken together it all resulted in the area becoming known as the "Terabyte Triangle", a hi-tech infrastructure around the city's downtown core that has resulted in one of the densest concentrations of high-speed connectivity in the US. It has attracted investment exceeding $1 billion, with 450 new projects in both public and private sectors.
- Sunderland, UK. Another depressed former mining and shipbuilding city in the north of England where unemployment reached 30% in the mid 1980s. By 1991 it was rated in the bottom 10% of depressed areas in the UK. The city adopted a Telematic Strategy committing itself to a knowledge- and broadband-based economy to ensure that all citizens would benefit. The Strategy included training programmes in Digital Age skills for the unemployed, public access internet terminals and a government-funded high-speed network and business incubator programme. 8 500 new jobs have been created.
- Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. A 1988 mayoral vision to create a CyberCity offered equal access to internet services for all. It views internet services as public utilities and has created a ubiquitous network. The Strategy focuses on creating e-government, e-schools and e-communities. Thus PCs are on the desks of all first-tier government employees, a city-wide e-document system saves $7.5 million a year in handling charges, a PC with broadband connectivity has been made available to every classroom, computer labs are provided to some 250 schools, a couple of hundred thousand free e-mail accounts have been made available to the poor, hundreds of thousands of citizens are being trained, 800 public internet kiosks have been provided, etc etc. Taipei is a major producer in both hardware and software - now it is going from hi-tech to hi-touch!
- Victoria, Australia. In 1999 the State government published a white paper "Connecting Victoria" that recognised the fundamental social and economic changes being created by new technology and established a vision for harnessing them. The strategy established six themes - building a learning society; growing industries of the future; boosting e-commerce; connecting communities; improving infrastructure; and access and promoting a new style of government. The strategy has already attracted $A 663 million in information and telecom technology and created 5 000 new jobs at a time of global downturn in ICT.
10 000 public internet access terminals have been provided across the state and more than 82 000 citizens have received free internet and PC training.
- Western Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada. A rural area suffering from a declining population, job losses in primary industry, high unemployment (13%) and low average educational achievement (49% without a high school diploma in 1996). In 2001 it obtained a Federal Government Smart Community grant. With this, it installed a fibre-optic infrastructure throughout its area, thus establishing a web providing rapid public information service. It established two IT incubator centres which in turn attracted the establishment of eight IT businesses, thus bringing in new jobs and new investment.
- Yokosuka, Japan. A port city on Tokyo Bay (430 000 inhabitants), centre for shipbuilding, cars and heavy industries and a major naval base. Faced with declining heavy industry in 1998, the city established a huge research park which houses 6 000 research workers and offers a variety of incentives. The city has invested hugely in e-government projects one of which, e-procurement, saves the city $30 million a year.
Next week we'll look at some of the exciting pilot projects that are being promoted by the Council here in Johannesburg and some of the possible restraints. See you on the broadband!
