John Jung: April 2009 Archives

Issy's Mayor, Andre Santini, is being recognized by ICF as its Visionary of the Year for 2009. He was among the first to seek and implement many of the technological improvements that many of us today take for granted in our communities. Over the past two decades he has evolved his vision by implementing a community response version of our 311 systems; he developed transparent e-government in Issy; and placed high-speed broadband throughout his community, enabling his community to attract many European headquarters and multinationals to Issy. Today he is pushing fiber to the home (FTTH), wireless systems and incubators. Mayor Santini's foresight and determination appear to be the key reasons this community in the shadow of big neighbor Paris is able to compete and win.

Mayor Santini recalled a meeting with Cisco's John Chambers to me. He said that the reason for Cisco's choice of Issy over others was the Internet City that Santini built. Others have told me that the reason why Microsoft built its massive European HQ in Issy over South Paris was the influence of the Mayor. And the reasons why the incubators and its digital media facilities exist at all are because the Mayor determined they were necessary. "Sometimes you need studies to guide you," he says, "but sometimes you need to act." That is the sign of leadership that the Mayor has practiced these 29 years. Another innovation promoted by the Mayor is quality of life. Excellence in high-density living is a top priority. Rent geared to income allows less fortunate families to grow up in living conditions that are equal to others who can afford it. The Mayor also demanded availability of high-speed and robust broadband for all its citizens to benefit from this revolution. Broadband access to all schools with lots of computers and Le Cube, a highly innovative digital media center, are opportunities that set Issy apart.
 
The robust 100 megabyte architecture of Issy's broadband, coupled with the other hard and soft infrastructure available in Issy are highly attractive to companies looking to invest in the area and to attract and retain talent. There is no need for tax incentives, I am told, when you get the policies right and build an environment that is attractive for successful businesses to locate and flourish. If tax incentives are what attracts a company, perhaps these are not the kind of companies that should be located here or even desired.

When more highly trained skilled workers travel everyday into your community than are able to live there, you have it made. Ever hear of beating a path to your door? This is an avalanche that comes down upon Issy everyday and provides incredible benefits to the city. The one problem that Issy has is that it does not have its own institution of higher learning within its borders. These institutions are within the Metro Paris area and are readily accessible. Issy is a near-suburb of Paris and has access to all the highly trained and skilled workers that participate in the communities' R&D and high-tech businesses on a daily basis. Issy is looking to convert its population base into a higher percentage of this workforce. Its strategy includes improving the opportunities of its citizens from birth. Initiatives to expose and educate its children in broadband-based education are critical. With 40% of its IT budget dedicated to its primary schools, Issy is banking on its future citizens to continue to be a highly educated and successful intelligent community.

Issy has several areas where it encourages opportunities to develop public - private partnerships. The Orange Labs are a hotbed of innovation of which some projects directly involve Issy as their beta site community. The incubator has several companies whose new products are used locally. The planning tool created in the local incubator is used extensively by the local planning office in Issy. The creativity generated at Le Cube not only entertains and educates its citizens but also tests and profiles local innovation. The city extensively uses and promotes these new ideas, often in partnership with its local innovators.

Issy is a relatively small community with more people working than living in the city. Consequently its daytime population is more than 2x its nighttime population. It is full of many smart people in the broadcasting, media and publishing businesses. It could easily attract many of its citizens to work there. In order for its citizens to be able to become available for these crème-de-le-crème jobs, Issy is starting from its very young with 40% of its IT budget directed to its primary schools. In time, with the development of its spirit and enthusiastic take up by its citizens, many of these jobs will be available to its local entrepreneurs and highly-educated citizens who are learning from the high-tech examples available to them within their community. This aspires the city to do more with its broadband capabilities and does so for its seniors and youth ages 15-25, in addition to its children.
 
If the broadband economy is part of Issy's everyday life and it has been thus for the past decade or more, it is clearly a top model for recognition of culture of use. Everywhere you look, people are able to use their mobile applications for parking their cars, for checking on weather forecasts and looking at news and bulletins about city life and business applications. It is still very much a part of Paris and people enjoy their afternoon espressos and beers, but scratch beneath the surface and we find a teething child of the future, bent on growing up successfully. 

Coming to the front of City Hall to greet me is the Mayor of Issy-les Moulineaux, Andre Santini, as big in life as he is in French mythology. I was told by the Canadian Embassy in Paris that Mayor Santini is an important and powerful politician in France since he is also an important Minister for the country. Despite all this importance, he rushed to meet me in the lobby, having just won a debate in the French Congress. He seemed pleased but rushed. So much to do, he explains, as he shepherds me into his second floor office. His office is a mastery of feng shui with light, water, wind and wood. He is a student of Asian Studies, especially the Japanese language. He proudly speaks of his many projects in Issy but just as quickly focuses on his vision to develop a sister city relationship with a similar-minded Japanese city. Ichikawa is in his sights. Ichikawa is one of the communities that attained a Top 7 Intelligent Community status in 2006. Issy has been a Top 7 Intelligent Community in 2005, 2007 and 2009. These are clearly like-minded communities and building relationships among ICF Alumni cities makes sense. But that is for another report.

Here I am in Issy-les Moulineaux, "Issy" for short, I am told, because it is too difficult to say, especially by foreigners. This is a community on the edge of Paris within sight of the Eiffel Tower, but it is a different place altogether. In a word: tech-city par-excellence.

I am here to undertake a site visit of one of the Top 7 Intelligent Communities. Reading the ICF Intelligent Community Application is never like seeing an Intelligent Community it in its flesh. It could look like any-town, anywhere, but scratch beneath the surface and you can see what it means to be an intelligent community. Issy is a medium-sized community of 60,000 residents, but it attracts another 70,000 workers during each and every working day. Yes that is right, you didn't read it incorrectly. More people work there than live there. Of course it adds to the local taxes, but it does so much more for the community. The community looks very well off. It effuses a very high quality of life. Intermixed with shops, residential, educational institutions and parks are high tech companies, research labs and brand new edifices boasting European headquarters for Cisco, Microsoft and France Telecom's Orange.

At the Orange Labs in Issy I am hosted to a telepresence discussion with their labs in Poland. I also am offered the opportunity to experience a brand new 3D video-conferencing experience. I have never seen anything like it. "You are the first member of the public to try this. What do you think?" I am asked. I am sure that they say that to all their guests. But no monsieur, I am assured that this is not yet public. Eight cameras focus on you and as long as you do not move around too much the depth of the image is clearly there. When a box is shown to me I feel that I can reach out and grab it. Highly inventive, I can see applications to 3D planning applications in city planning approvals. I am assured that they have already thought of that and Issy already has a 3D building profile system on the web. Now I know that I am already living in the future. One company after another are profiled on my tour. I am welcomed at an incubator where new ideas are being developed by young entrepreneurs such as a new way to undertake planning approvals; another focuses on design; another develops products to improve efficiencies; and of course, there are always those building new and highly mobile applications. 

Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is a vibrant high tech community masked by the Middle Ages. Beneath the surface of heritage buildings lays a community that is both entrepreneurial and persistent, an interesting combination that breeds success. I had the opportunity to visit Tallinn as part of ICF's site visit to the Top Seven Intelligent Communities. It is without a doubt one the finest intelligent communities on the planet. The buzz is everywhere despite that it may look like it is a set out of the movies. It is certainly among one of the prettiest cities and attracts a large tourist following, especially from the cruise ships that ply the Baltic Sea.

The City of Tallinn has a population of 400,000, which is a third of the national population, but represents 70% of its economy. Vibrant, with a tech savvy that has the international press calling it the Silicon Valley on the Baltic Sea, Estonia endured over 50 years of totalitarian rule and central planning by the Soviet Union. While this clearly had an economic impact on Tallinn and upon the nation, it didn't crush its spirit. A country that has been used to domination over its many centuries, it waited out the Soviet oppression with patience and adaptability. Having little and making the most of it, was a common theme and a key ingredient for its most recent success. Estonia finally gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and more recently, in 2005, was admitted to the European Union and is looking toward a brilliant future.

Being a port city, it is open to accepting new ideas and being exposed to new ways of doing things. This is reflected in the many new and innovative ideas that are adopted by the city and its citizens at every turn. Estonia's legislation opened up its banking and telecom sectors to investment from foreign companies within a decade of its independence. Electronic commerce, privacy and public access to information soon followed. With a long history of domination by the Swedes and Finns, Estonia's communications and finance sector was quickly absorbed by these neighboring countries. The population, who seemed pleased to be moving on to the next phase of their future, easily accepted this. Instead of worrying about who was making the investment, they focused instead on digital mobility and the opportunities that this could achieve for them.

Visiting the factories in Tallinn where the Russian military once built warheads and supplies for Mother Russia, these have been converted into high-tech offices similar to the ones you would easily find in San Jose. The feeling is quite similar. In fact nearly 70% of the Tallinn population works in the service center, many of them in mobile technology-related services. Pay your parking by cell-phone. Use your Digital ID card for everything from participating in e-voting; issuing digital signatures; working in the Internet banking systems - all of these are businesses that have started and matured in Tallinn. This is the home of Kazaa, Skype and Hotmail. Companies that have evolved from these early roots, like Hemsel, are now developing dozens of new companies and spinning them off around the world. Other companies that depend on broadband from design firms, accounting and financial services to advertising consultancies are prospering in this environment.

Broadband penetration may only be 48% for households, but a whopping 98% for businesses and 100% for government.  Government, in particular, is a model for the community. Everything that you see and can do has an online equivalent. Council and the Tallinn administration have an e-meeting mindset. Similarly, the education system is enthusiastic about its e-school platform. This is a long way from the early days when teachers were paid $100 per month and people had to be convinced to use ICT throughout the country. Innovation sprouted everywhere. Known as the "Tiger Leap", a program funded by the banks in Tallinn introduced e-banking. Newspapers published online editions. The National Library in Tallinn introduced the first public access Internet services, which today has spread to all public libraries. The Soros Foundation spread public access Internet.  Today free WiFi is everywhere.

Government invested in computers to execute an education program that delivered computer literacy training to 100,000 adults and built a backbone network linking Tallinn to other municipalities, which now supports a WiMax network covering 90% of Estonia. The government also developed an electronic ID card, e-government platform and data security system to support safe e-commerce. Today, nearly everyone is able to do their personal income taxes online and many other e-commerce and e-government services are able to be performed over mobile telephones ranging from monitoring lessons in school to administering medical insurance to e-voting.  In fact, there are so many services provided by so many organizations and government departments that managing them all became a logistical problem.

A unique "middleware" platform called X-Road has become the backbone of all the e-government services in Estonia, bridging dozens of databases and systems allowing hundreds of different systems and institutions and companies to talk to each other in a secure environment. The X-Road middleware platform dramatically reduces the time and cost of building e-government applications. So impressive is this system that ICF recognized the government in 2008 with one of its Founder's Awards. This experience has developed trust in these systems to the extent that the average Estonian fully works and lives in the virtual world without fear and hesitation to use wireless mobility as an extension of their daily activity, clearly creating one of the most e-culturally adopting societies of its kind. Despite the fact that the city center looks like it is still part of the middle ages, this community clearly lives very comfortably in the future!