Some universities have already started to more actively engage their communities in meaningful ways-- serving on various local boards and commissions, and significantly, creating new research parks and centers involving the business community. Now, however, in the wake of a basic shift in the structure of the world economy, cities across America are looking to their universities to be principal allies and agents of change.
As author and New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman has said, "The world is flat" -- we are suddenly competing with every community around the world for basic manufacturing requirements and provision of high-tech and biotech services. With this flattening taking place everywhere, we must accelerate change taking place within our communities, and reinvent our centers of learning -- our schools at every level -- at a pace and speed unparalleled in the history of the country.
We can do this best by helping our communities renew and reinvent themselves for this new global age where the Internet, knowledge creation and innovation are key and where collaboration and connectivity are the hallmarks of those most successful communities. And importantly, by accelerating change within the university itself.
The agenda to renew our cities is huge. Many cities are already developing plans to provide the wired and wireless infrastructure of this new age; either in partnership with the existing cable or Telco providers or through some alternative strategy they are aggressively looking for ways to provide so-called wireless "hot spots" often found in downtowns, coffee shops and other public gathering places; and planning a comprehensive wired, 24/7 broadband infrastructure plan.
Broadband today -- or as some call it, broadband Internet -- is as important as the waterways, railroads and interstate highways of an earlier era. Other cities are also exploring how to provide universal broadband access. Like New York, which recently held hearings to find a way provide affordable broadband to all its citizens, it believes that having broadband is as necessary as water, electricity and a telephone in an earlier era, and indeed, such broadband Internet service maybe the missing link to reinventing and renewing our cities for the global knowledge economy.
This is now a matter of some urgency. In the last few years, for example, we witnessed the "outsourcing" of several million high-tech jobs. Forrester Research predicted we would lose 3.3 million such jobs over the next 10-15 years. The University of California at Berkeley, however, said we would more likely see the loss of 10 percent of all white-collar jobs over a similar period, not to outsourcing per se but rather, as a "fact of life" in a global economy.
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.
The question of who has responsibility for a region's infrastructure however -- not just the cities -- is complex. As columnist and author Kenichii Ohmae and others have observed: "There are no national economies anymore; only a global economy and regional economies with strong cities at the core." Thus what happens within the cities must permeate the entire region the city is a part of.
The city of San Diego, for example, is really part of the greater San Diego region involving 17 other municipalities and -- one might argue -- Tijuana and the greater Baja California part of Mexico. A regional strategy therefore, includes all public agencies and governments in a region.
Having broadband infrastructures in place is only a first step. The effort to create a 21st century city is not so much about technology as it is about jobs, dollars, and quality of life. In short, it is about organizing one's community to reinvent itself for the new, knowledge-based economy and society. Cities must prepare their citizens to take ownership of their communities and educate the next generation of leaders and workers to meet the new global challenges of what has now been termed the Creative Economy.
How best to use our technology in communities across America is how to reinvent itself for the new economy? How best to make the transition to the new economy and because
Technology -- computers and telecommunications, like the cotton gin of an earlier era -- is transformative. The question then becomes how best to transform every sector of society?
This is a role uniquely suited to the university. It has the expertise, but perhaps more importantly is the most trusted agent of change within a community. The university interests are clearly learning and linkages, not power or financial gain. Equally important, the university operates on a principle of "shared governance." The idea of sharing power -- giving all the stakeholders a voice in the new smart community -- is long overdue. If there was ever a time for this concept to have community-wide applicability it is now.
John M. Eger, the Van Deerlin Endowed Chair of Communications and Public Policy and Director of the International Center for Communications at San Diego State University, is an internationally known author and lecturer on the subjects of creativity and innovation, telecommunications and economic development. Recently he authored the seminal "Guidebook for Smart Communities," a "How To" for communities struggling to compete in the age of the Internet; and "The Creative Community: Linking Art, Culture, Commerce and Community," a call to action to reinvent our communities for the Creative Age.
