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The latest issue of Ericsson Business Review magazine, in a Theme entitled “Creative Cities”, examines some of the processes needed for a Networked Society to become more intelligent than a traditional one.
Theme in short
- Cities will have a significant impact on a growing share of the world’ s population
- Examples of how ICT can promote a city’ s growth, from an economic, environmental and social perspective
- Connectivity plays a central role in the new creativity
Contents
- Redefining urban life. Cities have become the engine for humanity and are, now more than ever, shaping our lives as human beings. Cities will drive development in all industries, and ICT will play a key role in the ability of cities to grow economically, socially and sustainably.
- Networks for urban life. Providing both control and agility simultaneously is the greatest challenge that faces those attempting to design future networks that meet the demands of urban life.
- Networked urban life ‘“ commonality, creativity & concerns. A rather homogenous global middle class is fast developing, with many people seeking similar solutions to their day-to-day challenges. In order for the Networked Society to become a reality and address these challenges, people’ s concerns for security, integrity and simplicity need to be taken seriously.
- Delivering smarter cities. The smart city could be a dystopia as much as a utopia, so planners must be mindful and ensure that policies to preserve individual freedoms are in place. The public will only accept new technologies if the majority deems them to be ethically acceptable.
- Stockholm Royal Seaport ‘“ A matter of attraction. When it comes to sustainability, Stockholm is an example of a city that has not waited for its national government to act ‘“ instead, the city has taken the lead itself. Stockholm’ s administration has secured great support in its aim to create an attractive sustainable city.
- Genoa’ s transformation into a smart city. Genoa in northern Italy is bidding to become one of Europe’ s first smart cities.
- Prescription for a city with growing pains. The Beijing municipal government is promoting the “Smart Beijing Action Plan’ which consists of more than 60 projects. Such projects are seen as vehicles to promote China’ s ICT industry, and rank highly in government planning goals on all levels.
- Smart-city projects key to China’ s bid for ICT leadership. As the advantage of low labor costs diminish, China is looking for new ways to boost its ICT industry. “Smart living projects can definitely become new sources of revenue and this is needed because we see lower growth in a lot of the traditional areas,’ says Chen Chang, analyst at CCID Consulting, Beijing.
- Networked Society City Index ‘“ learning from the best. What’ s the point of benchmarking cities? The answer: they are more universally comparable than nation-based frameworks. A city focus provides opportunities for faster learning and global best-practice sharing.
Conclutions
- As the number of megacities rises, decision-makers must ensure that this urban growth is sustainable
- People’ s concerns about their security and integrity, and their need for simplicity, need to be taken seriously. We can learn from the successes of top-performing cities
- Network architecture will have to be reconsidered
About Ericsson Business Review
Business Review is Ericsson’ s b2b customer magazine, focusing on thought leadership and providing a long-term perspective on telecom business strategies. It will help shape and build opinions and offer concrete expert advice in matters that lie close to the heart of service providers, network operators and other telecommunication businesses.