American Cities in The Global Knowledge Economy: the Role of Broadband

What happened to the urgent call for" broadband" -- the new information infrastructure that is vital to success and survival in the global knowledge economy -- President Bush promised he would push in his second term?

According to the O.E.C.D., a Paris-based governmental research organization, the U.S. now ranks 11th in the world in broadband communications behind Korea, Singapore, Japan, Canada, and Norway to name but a few. Yet broadband -- or as some call it, broadband Internet -- today is as important as waterways, railroads and interstate highways of an earlier era.

In less than a decade, the great global network of computer networks called the Internet has blossomed from an arcane tool used by academics and government researchers into a worldwide mass communications medium, now poised to become the leading carrier of all communications and financial transactions affecting life and work in the 21st Century

Cisco Systems, a leader in the telecom field has said: "Broadband infrastructure is critical" to survival in the wake of a basic shift taking pace in the structure of the world's economy. "Its deployment is a key measure of success in the information economy and is crucial to the future growth of productivity."

In fact, every city, The World Foundation for Smart Communities argues, must eagerly embrace a broadband infrastructure strategy or get cut off like a "ghost town" in an earlier era, from the mainstream of all economic development.

Not surprisingly cities the world over are struggling to reinvent themselves for the new, global, knowledge economy and thereby attract the most sought-after creative and innovative work force.

Those most successful at positioning themselves as "cities of the future" will decidedly have 24/7, broadband telecommunications in place; wired and wireless infrastructures connecting every home. school and office -- and through the world wide Web -- to every organization or institution worldwide.

They will also have put in place a strategy to build those new governance systems for our age that empower their citizens to get involved once again in the affairs of the city. Call them "collaboratories" if you will, these are the mechanisms to provide the citizen leadership the digital age requires; and above all else, cities of the future must begin promoting the process of enhancing, encouraging and fostering creativity and innovation in all its forms -- in the schools, in the workplace and throughout the community.

There is no doubt that we are in the early stages of a new era in which creativity and innovation will be the hallmarks of the most successful communities and vibrant economies. Many, like the Nomura Research Institute, argue that the stage is set for the advance of the "Creative Age," a period in which America should once again thrive and prosper because of our tolerance for dissent, respect for individual enterprise, freedom of expression and recognition that innovation is the driving force for the U.S. economy, not mass production of low-value goods and services.

Today, the demand for creativity has outpaced our nation's ability to create enough workers simply to meet our needs. Eight years ago, for example, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers asked the governor of California to "declare a state of emergency" to help Hollywood find digital artists. There were people aplenty who were computer literate, they claimed, but could not draw. In the New Economy, they argued, such talents are vital to all industries dependent on the marriage of computers and telecommunications.

At the heart of this effort to provide broadband infrastructures to every community, and to foster a renewed sense of collaboration, is the effort to keep jobs in America. This is now a matter of