February 2009 Archives

Like it or not, governments are taking a more active role in economies than at any time since the 1930s and 1940s.  Free market idealists, for whom less government is always more, are outraged by huge stimulus spending.  But there is not much they can do about it except be angry.  A financial sector that outstripped regulation, and the always-reliable sin of greed, have conspired to make a truly enormous mess.  Only governments have the resources to clean it up.

If there's something to pray for, it is that governments do a good job.  And in that connection, policymakers could do worse than to look at Stockholm, Sweden, one of ICF's 2009 Top Seven Intelligent Communities.  Swedes are not what I would call free market idealists.  They like their government big, with lots of cradle-to-grave services.  The City of Stockholm is one of Sweden's biggest employers, with 45,000 employees (one for every 18 citizens) and a budget of 37.4 billion kronor (3.9bn Euros or US$4.6bn).  Its efficiency and effectiveness have a significant impact not only on the city's economic competitive, but on that of the country as well.

And Sweden is very competitive.  In the 2008-09 World Economic Forum rankings, it ranks #4 behind the US, Switzerland and Denmark and ahead of every other industrial economy.  It seems that Swedes in general, and the people of Stockholm in particular, have a talent for making big work better.   

Stockholm uses a Web-based tool to manage its operations at all levels from the Municipal Assembly to schools and housing for the elderly.  The system aims to automate routine administrative tasks, such as accounts payable and applying for vacation time, and encourage collaboration across agencies.  Citizens can follow City Council meetings through Internet video, Internet radio and broadcast radio, as well as having online access to the minutes and documents of each meeting.  The city is investing about 650 million kronor (5.7m Euros or US$7.4m) in IT development to reduce operating costs and improve citizen services.

The city took a similar big-is-better approach to providing citizens and businesses with broadband.  The city chartered a company called Stokab in 1994 to build a fiber-optic network throughout the municipality as a level playing field for operators.  Stokab dug up the streets once to install conduit and run fiber, closed them up, and began offering dark fiber capacity to carriers for less than it would cost them to install it themselves.  Today, the 1.2 million kilometer (720,000-mile) network has more than 90 operators and 450 enterprises as primary customers and is now in the final year of a three-year project to bring fiber to 100% of public housing.   

As an information utility, the Stokab network has become an engine for driving efficiency in every aspect of government.  The City's Web site hosts a huge range of applications through which citizens can request and receive service online, from finding and applying for social housing for the elderly to a schools portal that facilitates communication and collaboration among students, teachers, school administrators and parents or guardians.   Over 95% of renters use the housing department's portal to find apartments, and the library portal provides online access to the content of 44 individual libraries.

Whatever your political persuasion, you have to like that kind of efficiency and productivity.  Personally, I'm agnostic on the whole business-vs-government debate.  I have seen too many badly-run businesses to think there is something inherently superior about the private sector.  I have also experienced too much government bureaucracy to think that the public sector has all the answers.  My own devotion is to what works.  And I fervently hope that the people we have elected to clean up our mess feel the same way.


More information on the Intelligent Community Forum can be found at www.intelligentcommunity.org.

Part 2

We are living in a very different world than our forefathers, one that is truly founded on new infrastructure, processes and attitudes. Even one hundred years ago most of the world would still have communicated by horse, train or ship, likely getting communication from one source to another, even relatively closely, by at least a day away, and mostly longer. Today, large data and video files such as YouTube, video movies on demand and Facebook content are sent instantaneously around the globe. Games and digital entertainment over the Internet are creating new forms of entertainment and entirely new activities and business structures are forming around these. Partnerships and joint ventures are continents apart; jobs and information are processed in 7 hour segments in a 24 hour working day; global sourcing creates a new form of competition and knowledge work; social benchmarking and international innovation is forcing new forms of governance to take shape; our universities now are in campuses that span the globe and mindshare is potentially ubiquitous.

We are looking at ways to get ahead of the curve, by future proofing our communities in a broadband economy. No longer are we simply trying to get out of a crisis in our economy when our workforce can no longer work in 19th and 20th Century work environments. Rather we are looking at educating our populations and creating environments that foster creativity and innovation.

We are trying to ensure that our broadband infrastructure is viewed as an essential utility, not as a commodity; as essential as roads and water and sewers and electricity. We are looking at fostering communities that see knowledge workers as invaluable to the future of their communities and will do everything to create them, attract them and retain them in their communities; treat R&D as essential investments; and leverage our knowledge creation centers as part of our social, economic and cultural strategies. We need to ensure that everyone in our society is part of our plan and have equal access and opportunities to be part of our digital world. We need to ensure that we invest heavily in training of all kinds, not just in our higher institutions but also to create a culture of continuous training in the primary schools, on the shop floor and in the home. And we need to be able to provide access to the disenfranchised, handicapped, elderly, and the very young in all of these opportunities. Finally, we need to advocate for our intelligent systems, people and places and to figure out how to market their success around the world. This is not just to win an award but to sustain Intelligent Communities well beyond into every fabric of the local society and culture.

More information on the Intelligent Community Forum can be found at www.intelligentcommunity.org.

Part 1 of 3

I am often asked to demonstrate the essential technical architecture and infrastructure that underpins an Intelligent Community. Yes, we have shown these from time to time in our powerpoint presentations and if needed, we can approach several communities around the globe, their utilities and the private sector service providers to show examples of technology and infrastructure that they use. But I prefer to set our focus on a slightly different trajectory.

ICF's message has been clear: that broadband and high technology can help in building better societies around the world, but our focus is not on the technology and has never been solely on the technology, nor on other aspects of the broadband infrastructure. Rather ICF has tended to look at many other ways to build a better and more intelligent community - through building, attracting and sustaining a knowledge workforce; ensuring that the governance and environment is right to nurture and promote creativity and innovation; ensuring that all members of our society have access to and benefit from the broadband economy and that we should advocate for and market our communities to the world in order to attract and sustain investment and talent in our communities. These are the key criteria around which ICF has focused its attention on a global basis and especially in selecting its Smart 21, Top 7 and Intelligent Communities of the Year.

But we also need to be aware of how sustainability fits into this as well as leadership, collaboration, culture of use, etc. Personally, with my interest as an urban planner and urban designer, I also like to talk about how intelligent infrastructure, buildings and good urban design are important as part of the intelligent community process. So as planners, we need to better understand both the physical as well as environmental and other issues that surround the opportunity to develop our communities better.

More information on the Intelligent Community Forum can be found at www.intelligentcommunity.org.