During the week of 16 March I completed my site visits to two of this year's Top Seven Intelligent Communities, Stockholm and Eindhoven (The Netherlands). Both communities arranged intensive schedules which allowed me an insider's look at the wheels and gears which move an intelligent community. I was able to verify claims and view examples based on our five criteria within these two first-time Top Seven communities.
The importance of the site visits are their ability to offer us a physical impression of the claims that are detailed in the nomination forms. One gets a better understanding of the organic links within the community and the depth to which a broadband "culture of use" has taken root. Site visits are an immersion lab at the most significant level. I wish I could bring the entire voting committee along.
As the old salesmen used to say, "You cannot fax a handshake." We are still physical beings, living in relationships that require the use of our five senses and our ability to observe. While the senses may be unreliable at times, if we establish the right set of goals and develop proper communication among parties, we see what is most decent and often profound in human communities. You cannot absorb that in a document or even inside a Cisco Telepresence room.
In both Stockholm and Eindhoven I was escorted by dedicated hosts. Since I am writing about Stockholm first, I wish to thank first Ms. Hanna Brogren, Head of Communication for the City of Stockholm who was my guide. Hanna, who once lived in New York where she studied acting with some of the great teachers in the American theater, provided me with two days of non-stop activity. The trip was based on an aggressive schedule which began with a visit to the Kista Science City and concluded with meetings with the Deputy CEO of Stockholm.
Throughout the theme was the city's determination to demonstrate how a culture of use had seamlessly formed within the context of Stockholm's various policy commitments, especially those to the environment, business and care for its citizens. Stockholm is an ambitious community, and one on the move. It is using its new theme, "the Capital of Scandanavia" as a way to demonstrate its vision for the future. This will be done by a continuous improvement process, generally called Vision 2030, which leads to Stockholm meeting a set of criteria which will enable them to become (in their words): "world class."
The community has most of the technological elements in place, including an open fiber network (Stokab), owned by the City of Stockholm that is "operator neutral" and designed to stimulate growth. By 2012, 90% of all households (400,000) will be connected. The City also decided that Stokab will build an FTTH network to an additional 300,000 households.
There is much to like about Stockholm. Despite its enormous use of broadband and its commitment to the future, it remains elegant and there is a relaxed and confident sturdiness to its approach.
My colleague Robert Bell offered a good summary of Stockholm's profile in his recent blog and there is a profile on the site.
Among the other highlights in Stockholm:
* 3.5% unemployment as of March 2009
* A need to grow the population by 20% (indeed, the days of the "blonde Swede" are numbered, I was told.)
* An intensive recycling program, produced by Emvac, which is the envy of the world and in part a reason why Stockholm was named the first European Green Capitol. 70% of the heat for the city's residents and workers now comes from waste that is reprocessed.
* A significant reconfiguration of the city's web platforms, led by the CIO, which will pull the 14 districts' web sites together in a new design and platform. It has already won an award for its editorial content.
* A plan to use the 42,000 city workers (reduced from the reported 45,000), as "knowledge transfer" agents to serve citizens of all ages.
The notion that Swedish citizens are wards of the state seems misleading. Government is a major player. No doubt. But its citizens seem far from wards or helpless dependents. It was reinforced again and again that Swedes do not like to be told what to do. Their online tools and the decentralized structure of their information networks reinforce this. The entrepreneurial activity in its science parks, its level of innovation in the area of the environment, coupled with venture groups like STING, is a clear indicator of this. Stockholm is not the old East Germany with nicer cars. There people were dominated and maneuvered by the government. In fact, Stockholm is a collaborative community which has agreed to pay significant tax revenues, but in exchange want not only services, but a quality of service that in many respects is a community version of a private sector QOS agreement. Stockholm may be an interesting laboratory for communities in nations where government, increasingly, is taking a more prominent role during the current economic downturn.
I thank Hanna especially for bringing me to the "Blue Room" in City Hall. The "Blue Room," (which is not blue at all!) is the area where Nobel Prize laureates gather each year to celebrate the best that humanity has to offer. I spent a few quiet moments there between visits to the intelligent community sites. I reflected upon how the human community, living in relationship, with full ambition and focused on the common good can achieve great things. It is humbling to be in a room where people such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, the 14th Dali Lama and Polytechnic University's Gertrude Elion (1988 Recipient for Medicine and physiology research related to a medicine to treat AIDS disease, AZT) were acknowledged for their contributions.
I am hoping that I can relate some of this feeling from Stockholm and the "Blue Room" during my Top Seven Conversation on 14 May with the Deputy Mayor, Ulf Kristersson in New York during the Summit. www.icfsummit.com
The importance of the site visits are their ability to offer us a physical impression of the claims that are detailed in the nomination forms. One gets a better understanding of the organic links within the community and the depth to which a broadband "culture of use" has taken root. Site visits are an immersion lab at the most significant level. I wish I could bring the entire voting committee along.
As the old salesmen used to say, "You cannot fax a handshake." We are still physical beings, living in relationships that require the use of our five senses and our ability to observe. While the senses may be unreliable at times, if we establish the right set of goals and develop proper communication among parties, we see what is most decent and often profound in human communities. You cannot absorb that in a document or even inside a Cisco Telepresence room.
In both Stockholm and Eindhoven I was escorted by dedicated hosts. Since I am writing about Stockholm first, I wish to thank first Ms. Hanna Brogren, Head of Communication for the City of Stockholm who was my guide. Hanna, who once lived in New York where she studied acting with some of the great teachers in the American theater, provided me with two days of non-stop activity. The trip was based on an aggressive schedule which began with a visit to the Kista Science City and concluded with meetings with the Deputy CEO of Stockholm.
Throughout the theme was the city's determination to demonstrate how a culture of use had seamlessly formed within the context of Stockholm's various policy commitments, especially those to the environment, business and care for its citizens. Stockholm is an ambitious community, and one on the move. It is using its new theme, "the Capital of Scandanavia" as a way to demonstrate its vision for the future. This will be done by a continuous improvement process, generally called Vision 2030, which leads to Stockholm meeting a set of criteria which will enable them to become (in their words): "world class."
The community has most of the technological elements in place, including an open fiber network (Stokab), owned by the City of Stockholm that is "operator neutral" and designed to stimulate growth. By 2012, 90% of all households (400,000) will be connected. The City also decided that Stokab will build an FTTH network to an additional 300,000 households.
There is much to like about Stockholm. Despite its enormous use of broadband and its commitment to the future, it remains elegant and there is a relaxed and confident sturdiness to its approach.
My colleague Robert Bell offered a good summary of Stockholm's profile in his recent blog and there is a profile on the site.
Among the other highlights in Stockholm:
* 3.5% unemployment as of March 2009
* A need to grow the population by 20% (indeed, the days of the "blonde Swede" are numbered, I was told.)
* An intensive recycling program, produced by Emvac, which is the envy of the world and in part a reason why Stockholm was named the first European Green Capitol. 70% of the heat for the city's residents and workers now comes from waste that is reprocessed.
* A significant reconfiguration of the city's web platforms, led by the CIO, which will pull the 14 districts' web sites together in a new design and platform. It has already won an award for its editorial content.
* A plan to use the 42,000 city workers (reduced from the reported 45,000), as "knowledge transfer" agents to serve citizens of all ages.
The notion that Swedish citizens are wards of the state seems misleading. Government is a major player. No doubt. But its citizens seem far from wards or helpless dependents. It was reinforced again and again that Swedes do not like to be told what to do. Their online tools and the decentralized structure of their information networks reinforce this. The entrepreneurial activity in its science parks, its level of innovation in the area of the environment, coupled with venture groups like STING, is a clear indicator of this. Stockholm is not the old East Germany with nicer cars. There people were dominated and maneuvered by the government. In fact, Stockholm is a collaborative community which has agreed to pay significant tax revenues, but in exchange want not only services, but a quality of service that in many respects is a community version of a private sector QOS agreement. Stockholm may be an interesting laboratory for communities in nations where government, increasingly, is taking a more prominent role during the current economic downturn.
I thank Hanna especially for bringing me to the "Blue Room" in City Hall. The "Blue Room," (which is not blue at all!) is the area where Nobel Prize laureates gather each year to celebrate the best that humanity has to offer. I spent a few quiet moments there between visits to the intelligent community sites. I reflected upon how the human community, living in relationship, with full ambition and focused on the common good can achieve great things. It is humbling to be in a room where people such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, the 14th Dali Lama and Polytechnic University's Gertrude Elion (1988 Recipient for Medicine and physiology research related to a medicine to treat AIDS disease, AZT) were acknowledged for their contributions.
I am hoping that I can relate some of this feeling from Stockholm and the "Blue Room" during my Top Seven Conversation on 14 May with the Deputy Mayor, Ulf Kristersson in New York during the Summit. www.icfsummit.com
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